Coromandel Trip
So this past weekend, Becca and I continued our mission to explore the North Island rather than preparing for exams and final papers. (That has really come back to bite me this week, but more on the trip before you learn of its repurcussions). We ended up using bus passes that my mom and Ann had left from way back in July when they did a great deal of traveling. This got us to the town of Whitianga (fi-tee-ang-uh) and almost all the way back. Total bus costs= $14 per person. Thanks, Mom! We switched buses at the town of Thames at the base of the Coromandel, which is a peninsula that gets out into the Pacific Ocean on the Northern Side of the North Island. The van we took from Thames to Whitianga was driven by New Zealand's very own Mario Andretti. He was speeding around the windiest coastal road with such confidence. Luckily, he's stop at picturesque views to have a smoke, tell us some geography, and save me from my growing car sickness. He was very knowledgeable on the flora and fauna and pointed out all sorts of volcanos and mountains that appeared to be people. This actually occurred on multiple occasions.

Anyway, we reached our hostel "On The Beach Backpackers" which was, in fact, on the beach. Given that we had little time to enjoy our new locations, we got straight to the sightseeing. We rented a car with the German girl that had been riding on the buses with us because we wanted to go to the same places and it made it less expensive. We rented a little car and drove straight to the hot water beaches. Based upon the recommendation of trusty roommate Becca, I neglected to wear a bathing suit because it was a bit chilly. Well as it turns out, it was full on beach weather, so we ended up stipping to our underwear to go swimming. This was only after having a divine picnic of assorted goods from our favorite supermarket, New World. After spending a number of hours watching people dig holes for themselves to read the underground hot water pools and then get obliterated by the incoming tides, we decided it was time to push on. Don't worry we didn't leave promptly, because I managed to lost the car key on the beach. It evidently fell out of my jeans pocket when I was getting dressed again. I had figured that's where I lost it, but if we'd waited another hour, the tide might have taken the key along with it out to the ocean. Acck!

After the beach, we headed to Cathedral Cove, the sight of some really unusual rock formations. It was a bit of hike to get to the actual cove, but once there it was not only gorgeous, but there was a whole group of kids playing cricket and just generally goofing around. Becca and I spent some time climbing the rocks and playing on the super shady looking swing. Luckily, it held on while we were on it!

Once it was starting to get late, we decided to return to town, get some food and tasty beers at a local pub. We talked with our German friend, Carmen, about her travels and life. She wasn't overly revealing about either, but she was an interesting companion for the afternoon. When we got home, we were all so tired that we fell asleep by 9:30p.

This ended up working out quite well because we got up bright and early to rent Kayaks. Carmen caught a bus on to Rotorua as she continued to explore New Zealand. The water was calm (after getting the kayaks beyond the surf where we got positively soaked). We took some pictures, enjoyed the morning light, and then rode the waves back into shore...so fun!

Afterwards, we packed up, checked out of the hostel and walked into town to look around at the shops. What we found was that few if any were open on Sunday. This left of course, our favorite option, food. We had a nice breakfast at an outdoor cafe and then proceded to shop afterwards. The best place we found was some kind of souvenir shop meets crap store that was going out of business. Everything was at least half off and we found all kinds of treasures in there including Halloween decorations, postcards, stuffed animals, and other essential items. Our bus left at 1p and we had the same driver for the return. He spent the trip pointing out everything he knew about the landscape as I desperately tried to not get sick on him from the winding road. All in all, another successful adventure. For now, I am stuck back in Auckland focusing on essays, projects, and finals. Ugh.

Mt. Ruapehu
So this past weekend was my first opportunity to take advantage of the University Ski Lodge at Mt. Ruapehu. Becca and I drove down early Saturday morning. The drive was gorgeous and thanks to a shortcut from the ski club website, less than four hours long. The strange part about the drive was that it seemed that we didn't find the mountain until we were driving up the access road. As you can see, it is quite a large mountain to not see! That having been said, it's actually a volcano which makes the landscape all around very strange from the skier's perspective. There are dark volcanic rocks everywhere and more tropical greenery in the surrounding valleys than you would typically see at a ski hill!

Becca and I arrived with enough time for me to ski the afternoon. It took the combination of 2 chairlifts and a rope tow to reach the top of the mountain. The skiing was alright. The sun was shining and there was actually snow (unlike the south island!) so I couldn't complain. The only downfall was that we managed to go during school vacation week. I should've known that I was breaking my own cardinal rule of skiing--never ski during crowded weeks! Just the excitement of playing human slalom combined with my gorgeous surroundings contended me with the experience. While I skied (Becca's a non-skier), she went off and hiked around the volcanic rocks and found a nice place to sit and do some pleasure reading.

When I finished that afternoon (went 'til the lifts closed, as per usual) Becca and I returned to the University Lodge and met a whole group of people spending the weekend (about 20 of us). We met a lot of interesting Kiwi folks and an alarming number of Americans (some of which we knew already). We spent the night playing cards, reading, playing board games, and watching TV in front of the fire. When it was dark, we walked the 300 feet or so to the base of the mountain where there was a fireworks display. It reminded me of being at Loon for independence weekend with the fireworks, torch parade, and cat rides. I think it's pretty awesome that the lifestyle and culture of skiers is the same worldwide. It really is a fun-loving, wonderful community of people! Becca had a blast just hanging out and I think I will turn her into a ski-groupie yet!

The next day, I got up bright and early to get first runs. Unfortunately the day was really foggy and rainy so the visibility was poor. The one upside to this was that all the vacationers chose to sleep in which left the mountain open to me and a few other insane people. The snow was really soft and slushy and it felt like typical Spring snow. After become sufficiently wet from the constant drizzle, I turned in my ticket to save some money and met Becca for coffee in the lodge. The skiing was altogether enjoyable and the volcano itself was spectacular. I love this picture of the waterfall cascading down the mountain with all the skiers going by paying little attention to it.

We then went back to the Uni-Lodge and showered and relaxed a bit before packing up and heading out. On the way out, we stopped in a number of little ski shops. We found a number of REAL treasures here. I can't refer to them, unfortunately, as they may appear as Christmas presents for some of you later this year! All you need to know is: flourescent! Then the last super cool thing before we hit the road was a single chair hanging outside of the ski shop. For those of you unaware, the single chair is something of a skier's anomaly. From what I know, they don't really exist in the States anymore, but are still being used in parts of Eastern Europe. Single Chair is also a fantastic microbrew made by Magic Hat which can typically be found in the winter time at your local packy. (It's also on tap at the BU PUB! That's only one of 3 bars in Boston who have it!)

Well, there won't be too many posts in the coming weeks because it's getting to be the end of the semester and exams are looming. The last day of class is Oct 21. My internship ends the 28th, and exams are done Nov. 2! I will return back to Boston on November 16. I know the time is going to fly by so I am trying to make the most of the time I have left with what little time I have!

Ro-tor-u-a and Wai-to-mo
Well, after realizing that we needed to see more of the North Island, the ladies and I headed to two popular destinations: Rotorua and Waitomo. We rented a car and left first thing Saturday morning for Rotorua. The drive was pleasant and it felt GREAT to get out of the city. Rotorua is the site of a lot of volcanic activity, and we went straight to the natural mud baths. First we stopped at the "foot pool" where we rolled up our jeans and plopped our feet into amazingly warm water with gushy grey mud at the bottom. Anya is showing off a big glob of it in the picture on the left.

Once we put our shoes back on, we walked around the park and saw all kinds of bubbling sulphuric pools and gurgling, splattering mud. One of the coolest things we saw was a hot waterfall. The water in it is nearly boiling and it used to be used for the cleansing of wounds for Maori warriors after battle. You can see the steam rising up from the rocks in the picture.

After all of the walking, we finally got ready to take our mud bath and spa treatment. We got the "family size" mud bath so we could all play in it together. The mud bath itself was not thick (as I guess I expected it to be). The mud sits on the bottom, and the rest is just hot water on top. Arguably a bit disappointing, but it still felt great. All that mud of course led to some shenanigans which made up for our high expectations.

After the mud bath, we sat in a natural, outdoor spa pool. Unfortunately there is so much sulphur in it, that even after washing my clothes and my body, I swear I can still smell it! It was an odd experience, but we managed to have a great time.

Also, in the parking lot of the place, there was a herd(?) of peacocks. They were so beautiful and new that Anya wanted to feed them. So we played with them for a little bit until they got a bit hostile and then we ran away.

After our walking and spa-ing, we went into the town of Rotorua where we had an amazing lunch at this little cafe. I had a great Panini sandwich with grilled Chicken and Camenbert cheese...yummmy. We then did a little bit of shopping in the town at cute boutiques before we had to get in the car and head to our next destination.

After two hours of driving (and a gorgeous sunset!), we arrived in Waitomo. This is the site of famous caves that are known for their glown worms. We stayed at the local hostel and enjoyed a packed dinner consisting of peanut butter and jelly and a bottle of red wine.

We then went out to the only place open in the little town. It was a log cabin style bar playing a rugby game on TV with a number of people drinking beers and relaxing. We spotted the jukebox and decided to make the place come alive. We dropped in a bunch of money, and using our combined DJing skills, got people dancing and singing. After a couple of hours there, we decided we needed to go to bed to prepare for our big day.

The next morning we got up and went to the adventure center we had booked a 4 hour caving trip called: Tumu Tumu Toobing. Unfortunatelty, we were not allowed to bring our cameras so you will have to rely upon my description. After meeting our guides Duane and Sheldon, we set out in a pink asian kindergarten bus (no joke, the thing had hello kitty and rainbows painted all over it). We took this smashing vehicle up a windy dirt road through pastures, hills, and many many sheep. We arrived at a large storage unit where we changed into full body wet suits, booties and rubber golashes. They then outfitted us with red helmets with headlamps on them. Once our group of about 10 people were dressed we looked like a bizarre version of Divo: "Whip it, whip it good!"

We then walked through the pastures with great difficulty (this was some seriously thick, heavy neoprene!) while passing sheep that kept running away from us! Then we came to a whole in the ground where we were told to climb down the ladder into the caves. Once inside we switched on our headlamps and looked at all kinds of stalagtites and stalagmites. The guides were really informative and a lot of fun. They kept steering us in the wrong direction and trying to scare us (fun in retrospect, of course). We trudged through the caves, crawled through narrow passages, swam through freezing cold water, and ultimately had a great time. The tubing part occured in two sections along the trip where we linked together in tubes (I think I've neglected to mention that there's an underground river in the caves) and sang songs while we floated along looking up at the glow worms. The scariest part was a section of the cave that they have named "the rebirthing canal." The name is quite fitting given that you crawl on your hands and knees through a narrow opening (barely big enough to move through) head first for about 25 feet. Did I mention we weren't allowed to have our head lamps on for this part? Despite a bit of claustrophobia at that moment, it worked out alright and we ended by floating through some rapids in our floating, rubber suits. When we finally saw the light of day, we were ready for some hot showers, food, and the drive back to Auckland.