Getting Started in New Zealand

Text by Sabrina Comments by Chad

SUNDAY

We dropped Drifter off with Jon and Alicia and crossed our fingers hoping that she will be a good dog while we're away. We stopped at BurgerMaster for grilled cheese sandwiches (we wanted a good last meal in case our plane dropped into the Pacific never to be seen again) before heading home and finishing up the packing. Jim and Sue dropped us off at the airport and we were on our way!

The flight to New Zealand took forever! We flew from Seattle to LA, and then LA to Sydney. At the airport in Sydney we had already traveled for 24 hours and still had to get to Auckland. Needless to say sleeping on the flight over was not easy. The lady sitting next to me did not seem to have a problem though - she was a walking pharmacy and spent the majority of the flight popping various pills she seemed to pull out from all sorts of pockets in her purse. When she wasn't passed out next to me, she was talking my ears off about her round the world trips she takes to buy horses. Chad luckily had a woman sitting next to him who appeared to be about 99 years old. I didn't sleep a wink and Qantas' in flight entertainment was on the blink, so I couldn't watch any of the 100's of movies in the guide. They showed a couple movies but it was hard to catch them at the start. The guy in front of me also laid back so far, I couldn't even drink a cup of water without getting his hair wet, so I couldn't open my laptop or read a book.

MONDAY

Who knows where Monday went!

TUESDAY

We landed in Sydney in the early morning and waited at the airport for our flight to Auckland. All of this went smoothly and our luggage arrived without any problems. We hopped into our rental car and headed to the city centre to find our hotel. They drive on the left hand side here in NZ. I have never done this in all my travels to England, so I was kind of looking forward to trying it. It is a lot harder than I thought. When you learn to drive on the right, and then drive on the left, you have to think about everything you do. They moved the turn indicator to the other side of the steering column, you have to look in the opposite way for traffic when you turn. And as Sabrina has reminded me a couple hundred times, I let the car drift to the left. It made the drive around Auckland a little scary and very tense. Our original plan was to stay at the Crowne Plaza the entire time in New Zealand and to spend our time site seeing around the city and surrounding area. This plan did not last 24 hours since I had a complete melt-down and Chad had to check us out of the hotel. The first hotel room had two double beds and was the most depressing place I have ever seen. I told Chad it looked like the kind of hotel room you would want to have when you were planning on offing yourself. We weren't two thrilled with the two small beds seeing that it is our honeymoon, so Chad went down to the front desk and requested another room. The new room had a better bed, but was gross and dirty. The carpets were filthy, the cover on the bed was stained with blood and other random, unknown stuff, and the sheets and pillow had strange peoples hair on them. GROSS!!! I don't need fancy (I will camp any day of the week) but I do need clean. The next morning Chad thought we should pack our stuff and head out of Auckland. I had to go down to the front desk 4 times to try and find a decent room. The last time, I decided I might have to kill someone in the hotel to get a clean room. No one makes my wife cry on our honeymoon.

WEDNESDAY

We got up, had breakfast, and decided to drive to the town of Rotorua. Leanne (our wedding photographer) is a native Kiwi and suggested this as a good place to visit. Boy was she right. The drive from Auckland took about 3 hours and was beautiful. New Zealand is beautiful. We got to Rotorua, which is a nice sized city located on a very picturesque lake, and checked into our hotel. Clean and nice - Thank God! It was time for lunch, so we went to Fat Dog Cafe in downtown Rotorua. The place was great. Very eclectic and the food was really good. Fresh breads, veg, and meat. They made a chicken sandwich that was a work of art. We walked around town, checked out the visitors center, and the headed back to our hotel for a dinner and show of the native Mauri people. The meal is called Hangi and is cooked with steam that comes up from the ground. Rotorua is a geothermal area with natural hot springs and geysers. Steam can be seen coming up through the ground all over the place. The dinner was fun and the show afterwards was great. They asked Chad to play the visiting Chief, so he got to get on stage and be part of the show. He made quite an impressive Chief and even got to rub noses with the Mauri women at the end of the show. I got to get on stage to learn a native dance womens' dance and Chad got to learn something called Haka - which is the presentation of the warriors before going into battle. There is a lot of eye rolling, knee slapping, and sticking out of the tongue with the Haka. If you know me, you know I can't dance, so guess how this went. I am lucky I didn't fall over and take out the whole stage.

THURSDAY

This morning we had breakfast in bed and then headed to the Rotorua Art and History Museum. Check it out here: www.rotoruamuseum.co.nz

After the museum we stopped at McDonald's and grabbed a quick lunch. I know some of you may wonder why McDonald's when we rarely even eat there in the states, but there is a good reason. McDonald's in New Zealand has something called a Kiwi burger and I really wanted to try something I couldn't have at home. Don't worry, it's not actually made out of kiwi the fruit, or kiwi the bird. It is a regular hamburger, the only difference is that it comes with beets on it. New Zealanders (and I've heard Australians too) love to put beets on their food. It's fine with me since I like beets, I can't say Chad has the same enthusiasm. I don't eat beats on my salad, why would I sully my burger with them? I had a Big Mac, which was just like home.

After lunch we went to Whakarewarewa - a thermal village. Check it out here: www.whakarewarewa.com
This is one of the coolest places I've ever seen. It stinks! The Mauri people who live here work hard to preserve their culture and it is fascinating to see how they live on top of these thermal geysers. Cause it stinks like matches and farts all the time. There is steam every where that you walk and the smell is not the best. That is being nice. It is really the worst smell that didn't come from a sewage plant. I did get to try corn on the cob that is cooked in the geyser water - it was very tasty. We had a terrific tour guide who's family has lived in the village for several generations. It seemed like everybody who passed by our tour group was either a cousin or an auntie - talk about close family ties! The guide was a great guy and funny too. It is interesting to have someone show you around an area that they actually live in. Especially when the whole village smells like matches and farts and he acts like it smells like roses.

Our next stop was the Skyline Skyrides - a gondola that takes you to the top of the mountain with beautiful views of Rotorua and the lake. Check it out at: www.skylineskyrides.co.nz
They have luge rides at the top. At first I was hesitant to go, but once I got started I had a blast. Once you luge down to the bottom you hop on a chair lift and head back to the top to do it all over again. I could have gone all day! By the time we were finished the sun had set and we got back on the gondola for the ride down with moonlit view of the area.

After a great dinner and a quick stop at the store we headed back to the hotel room to write this post. We ate at a place called Lone Star, which we decided was the NZ take on America, like Outback is the US take on Australia. The food was good, but some of the menu items would never be found in a Texas restaurant. They also had something that I have never found in a Texas restaurant, good service!

Tomorrow we're headed to the town of Napier which is on the coast and in the New Zealand wine area. Three of my favorite things - the ocean, wine, and my Chad all together. It doesn't get much better than that! So far NZ is great. We have really enjoyed the people, the food, and the scenery. The hotel in Auckland is the lone set back, but I think that actually made the trip better. Getting out of Auckland has been a great turn of events. I do hope to have a day there so we can see the big sites.

Soon I will be posting some pictures, if I can figure out how to get Blogger to work.