New Zealand Holiday, Post 1

Kia Ora! Everyone!

Ok first of all, I wanted to say sorry for some spelling errors in my last post(that's for you Marsha Azorsky :) ). I normally triple check my blog posts before I publish them. Perhaps the draft didn't save properly. For all my old english and grammar teachers out there reading this, I am truly sorry. spelling and capitalization was never my strong point. Haha.

Well, I am back from one of the most amazing experiences of my life, my trip around this beautiful country of New Zealand. And oh my God was it eye opening! I saw and did so many awesome things that I can't possibly sum it up in one post. So this will be the first in a series of several posts about my trip. Alright! Here we go!

Waitomo Caves/Hamilton

The first place we stayed in was Hamilton, which is and hour and a half south of Auckland. Nothing against the people that live there, but it is not all that exciting. Plus, the hostel we stayed at had some pretty strange backpackers walking around. And when I say strange, I mean creepy. We had to walk to the bathroom in pairs because we were so uncomfortable.  I would say we were much more cautious of the people we met while traveling after encountering those creeps in Hamilton.
But enough about the only negative thing on our trip. Our first big activity was probably the one most unique. Tubing down a river, in a cave, full of glow worms! And the beauty of it was, we hadn't even planned to do it! While checking into our hostel, we picked up a brochure that gave us information about the caves. Low and behold, the next day we were suiting up in wet suits ready to plunge into 50 degree water. Naturally we couldn't bring our cameras with us, but there were some shots taken by the guides with a special waterproof camera. Those should be coming up on Facebook shortly. 

Emily, Steph, me and Robby; ready for some caving!

It didn't really occur to me until we started descending into the cave that we were sinking down into complete darkness. With only our two guides and our head lamps to guide the way, we began the trek underground. The air was musty, cold, and thick. You could constantly  hear the eerie sound of rushing water, although you couldn't always see it. At one point, the guides had us turn off all of our lamps. There we were, in a cave, floating on a river of black abyss.  Only it wasn't. Above us stretched a long luminescent snake made of  thousands of glittering glow worms. I would say it was like looking at glow-in-the-dark stars that you put on your ceiling as a kid, because that is the only way I can begin to describe it to you. The sight was utterly breathtaking! Weaving between stalactites and stalagmites, jumping off cave waterfalls into pools of black nothingness, meeting glow worms and cave wetas (massive scary looking bugs), this was an experience unlike any other.

Hobbiton!

Bag End. This is one of two hobbit holes actually built to scale. The rest, are smaller.

Samwise Gamgee's house

Ok I am a self confessed Lord of the Rings nerd. And this part of the trip was clearly one of my favorites. It is also the part that I will most likely brag about when I get back, so to everyone back home, be ready. On our third day, we packed up the rental Subaru (we named him Jed) and with the help of the navigation system (we called her Penelope, because of her sexy female voice) we set off for Matamata, the location of the filming of Hobbiton. It was a little ways of a drive, but I remember looking out the window at the passing landscape and thinking to myself, wow! this looks exactly like the Shire! Rolling hills, sporadically spotted with big trees, sheep everywhere. I was even listening to the Lord of the Rings soundtrack on my iPod as we drove into Matamata (yes I have the soundtracks on my iPod).

Hobbiton was amazing. We had literally fallen into a LOTR movie! Hobbit holes were everywhere, each having their own unique look. There was the vegetable garden, the Party Tree, the Green Dragon Pub were we drank some homemade amber ale, and of course Bag End (Bilbo and Frodo's house).
Let me tell you right now, New Line Cinema sure was smart to make this a tourist attraction. I took so many pictures and it was so hard to narrow them down. But honestly, if you are a Lord of the Rings fan like I am, make this place one of your destinations in life.

“It's a dangerous business, Frodo, going out your door. You step onto the road, and if you don't keep your feet, there's no knowing where you might be swept off to.” ~J.R. Tolkien

Look at us! Chillin' in a hobbit hole.

Rotorua
With Penelope leading the way, we said goodbye to The Shire and drove down to the famous Rotorua (Roto-Vegas) where we met up with Melia and our two housemates Nic and Kristian. Nic and his family live in Rotorua so we stayed with them for Easter Weekend. I have to say, what a wonderful family. We were so blessed to be in their company for a few days and we are so thankful for their hospitality. 

View from the Mount

The waterfall we slid down

Anyways, our activities in Rotorua included, lugeing, sliding down waterfalls, Zorbing, and driving to Tauranga and climbing the Mount. The highlight I think was the Zorbing! Picture this, rolling down a hill stuck in a giant plastic hamster ball with water in it. Well, that is essentially what Zorbing is. Limbs fly everywhere, water is splashed in your face, but is its so much fun! Cross that off of my bucket list!

I tried to upload the video of us Zorbing, but the file was too big. Melia and I are in the Zorb on the left and Steph, Robby and Emily are in the Zorb on the right.

Well that's all for now. Next time I will tell you about my own path through Mordor and my first encounter with a giant squid!

Until next time!