Day 13 - July 12th -- Bay of Islands
got up and got on the road to make our way way up north to the Bay of Islands. it was a neat little drive not too bad length wise and we made a pit stop in a cute little town that i can't remember the name of now but we found our way to a small alley with an italian restaurant where we were able to relax in the sun and eat some yummy and filling food, i also got some chocolate ice cream which always always makes me so happy.

we arrived in bay of islands and i was immediately in love. i mean i was back at the beach! our hostel was cute too it looked more like a little beachside motel it was fun. we made our way down to the beach walked around, and i dipped my toes in the water. it felt so good to be walking barefoot on the beach, and not miserable from the cold sand. hung out on the pier for a little bit and met two nice older couples who we chatted with about traveling etc and made our way into town. lots of small little souvenir type shops, but fun to look around in. we also stopped by the farmers market which was awesome and smelled wonderful with all the fresh fruits and veggies. wish i'd been home and been able to buy some. also tasted the best avocado smoothie i have ever had, amazing. klug i'll have to share the recipe with you, you would have died. slowly walked back to the hostel enjoying every second of the scenery along the way. ate some kabobs for dinner, drank some wine, went to the bar for a quick drink and headed to bed after a wonderful day!

Day 14 - July 13th -- Bay of Islands
and today starts one of my top favorite days of the trip. in fact i may venture to say that it was my favorite and will be my favorite. woke up and walked over to the pier to catch "She's a Lady" to head out sailing for the day! blah i was so excited. there wasn't much wind the first part of the morning so we motored out to a little island all the way out at the end of the islands that make up the bay of islands. we had warm cups of tea and were sitting on the bow just breathing in the sunshine and sea. it was wonderful. and beautiful. the water was so calm and everything was so peaceful. we got out at the island and took a walk (aka vertical climb) up to the top where we could see the entire bay. fun part about this was there were two fantails flying around us, and coming so close. it was awesome, jokingly we felt like cinderella or snow white or some disney princess with the birds as our friends. the view from the top was insane and as we made our way back down we could see the clear blue water and i was all ready to go swimming.... but i settled for kayaking instead. although i did get to wear just my bathing suit and was perfectly comfortable. it was just a little one person kayak, with a clear circle in the bottom so i could love below me. it was another experience like being in our sea kayaks where i felt so small, but so at peace with this feeling. i had so much control over this little kayak and felt safe within these waters with these gorgeous islands popping up around me. made it back in for yummy sandwiches on the beach and some hang out time then back onto the boat, hoping to be able to catch some wind!

we made our way out through some more of the islands. just relaxing, still in my suit for as long as i possibly could be. we ended up catching some wind which was awesome and i got to sail which was again awesome. hung out with the captain and first mate for a little bit trying to brush up on my sailing skills haha sunfish master here you know. i soon spotted some dolphins in the distance they didn't believe me at first but we motored over towards where i saw them and all of a sudden there were like ten of them, and they kept seeming to multiply. they were so fun! they came up and were swimming right under our bow and jumping up and spraying water on us. it was amazing. they were so friendly and we were all cheering for them, and so excited. you would've thought we had never seen a dolphin before.

all in all just a peaceful beautiful day. couldn't have asked for better weather and great company. was beyond content just sitting and taking in the absolute beauty of this place.

Day 15 - July 14th -- Back to Auckland, down the east coast
woke up very early so we could make our way through a few stops, and then back down the east coast and get back in time to return our rental car. our first stop along the way was oponini which is a tiny little beach town where we were able to go dune surfing. aka boggy boarding down a sand dune. it was cool though, pretty fun, ended up covered in sand but had some good laughs along the way, and a great tomato and cheese toasty (toasted sandwich). also we went with a cute little family with two young boys, they were so active and fun, quite kiwi. we left there and hit up the 2,000 year old tree which was neat. it was huge but shorter than i expected for how wide it was. so much history and legend behind these trees though which was awesome.

Day 11 - July 10th -- Rotorua to Taupo
woke up ready to head out to Taupo. we walked across the street from our hostel to see some of the thermal pools i was talking about earlier. it smelled horrible, but was pretty cool. its just a park covered in marked off spots with thermal heat/water coming through the ground.

road tripping to Taupo was fun. we stopped at huka falls which was a really cool and we got to get out and stretch our legs/get out our energy. wanted to walk more but the only options were an hour or two hour walk so i got voted down haha.

got there and made our way around the little town and found a cute cafe to eat lunch at. i really liked Taupo it was full of shops and cafes and the lake, well what we saw of it the first day was beautiful! such a cute little waterfront. after we settled into our hostel we headed to a hot water spa that was a funny little thing down by the river. it was natural so it was pretty little but it was basically these two waterfall type things with rocks everywhere but little pools had been created so you could sit in the water and it felt great! we were here for awhile because it was so nice to just relax and hang out.

Day 12 - July 11th -- Taupo back to Auckland
we woke up in hopes to see the beautiful lake that we had seen from the day before, to take a nice stroll down next to the clear water, but sadly it was a chilly day and it was super foggy. i was quite upset to say the least so just grabbed some subway for breakfast and hit the road back to Auckland. made it back and had some great family time, and Macie was here for some yummy lamb and wii gaming.

now starts our tour of the north island....
Day 9 - July 8th -- Auckland to Rotorua
woke up, lounged around the house, did all my laundry and headed out late afternoon to pick up our rental car. haha what a car, our radio didn't work and the gps was quite ancient but it was great! pretty much took our time getting to Rotorua and found our way to our base hostel of course. here's the thing about Rotorua, it is on top of a volcano so there is hot sulfur steam coming out of the ground everyone, and even creating some thermal pools in places. this makes everything smell pretty awful, all the time. its a cool thing but ew the smell was gross. we settled in, met our roomies who were from germany and china. we loved our roommate from China - Didi. haha he was great, couldn't understand him much but he came out with us (to the hostel bar) and had the time of his life. we all had a great night making our own fun!

Day 10 - July 9th -- Rotorua
today was a great day. slept in a little bit and had an easy lazy start. then danielle, macie and I had the boys drop us off at Paradise Valley, which is a wildlife park. best part about this park 1) you get to pet a lion cub! 2) you get to feed the animals 3) you get to watch lions being fed 4) its a beautiful walk with a river running through and a jungle like feel. we immediately found the lion cubs as this is what had attracted us here in the first place. loved loved loved it. there were twin girls and they were precious and so sweet! i just wanted to cuddle with them. then we made our way through the rest of the park, saw lots of birds and there were ducks everywhere. then we got to feed deer, pigs, goats, alpaca's (which are like lamas and some other animals). we also drank water fresh from a stream! then we went to hang out with the lions, the big lions. it was fun just sitting there watching them. there was one male and five females. they were being so lazy, just laying around soaking up the sun. although at one point (close to feeding time i guess) the male started roaring at us. how cool? i will say i fell in love with lions this day, and i felt like a little kid in awe at the zoo. they really are beautiful animals. i was sad to leave, had the best time hanging out with all the little creatures and walking through the beautiful forest.

how precious?!?!

 wallabies chillen.

alpaca haha what a funny guy.

 my favorite little duckling.

 roarrrrring.

 how beautiful are they?

was excited though to get back and have a brief rest before heading to the Maori village for our "Maori Experience." we got picked up on the bus by Sonny, our awesome bus driver and were told kind of the traditions and things we may see when we arrived. we were greeted in the traditional way that visitors were greeted when entering a village. basically men with lots of tattoos and weird outfits screaming a different language and doing things with their weapons. it was cool. we walked around the village and heard things about how they used to live, and certain traditions they had. best one -- when women are in labor their husband goes and gets a tattoo at the same time, but the thing about their tattoos is they used a bone thing and would tap all the way down into the bone so that your bone would forever be marked as well, ouch painful! but it was neat because women are so respected in their communities. we then saw a performance with lots of different songs and dance, i can't remember all of them but they were beautiful. and then we ate! we had tons and tons of food we were all dying at the end but it was all pretty tasty. it was a great night and i felt like i was able to get a glimpse into the Maori culture which is especially helpful with Maori language week coming up in school.

Day 6 - July 5th -- to Christchurch
well day 6 of our trip we were supposed to be leaving Queenstown to finish our stray bus tour and head to Mt. Cook followed by Rangitata and then end up in Christchurch. to make a long story short we were not able to get on the bus, confusion and bad communication from the company which i don't really want to get into. we had to then book a flight in order to get to Christchurch in time to catch our flights back to Auckland... anyway.

we settled in in Christchurch grabbed some Subway and headed to bed early. we were all a little frustrated with the situation and tired from all our traveling.

Day 7 - July 6th -- Christchurch
Danielle and I wanted to find something exciting to do during the day in Christchurch so we got booked in to do the "Adrenaline Forest." i'm so glad we did this! we rode out to this area that had some camping grounds and different parks around. it was so weird driving out there and seeing all the destruction still around, even in areas that weren't in the center of the city and still needed lots of work.

if you've ever done a high ropes course then you know what this was like. basically we had a harness with two clips and a pulley on it. we climbed up each course to start and had to move our clips along as we went. the challenges got harder and higher as we went along. there were definitely some very difficult ones. the hardest though were courses 5 and 6. these were the more advanced ones and it was crazy that i'm so scared of heights and could still do this. i mean i was attached at all times but still, at one point i was walking along one wire, that was at a steep incline moving up to 20m above ground. it was a wonderful experience though and a good workout! i had a blast!

Day 8 -- July 7th -- Christchurch back to Auckland
woke up, left our luggage at the hostel and Caitlin and i started our walk towards the center of Christchurch. it was pretty close to our hostel and a very interesting walk. its just so weird that Christchurch seems so deserted. i'll post some photos but we walked all through the town which is still mostly blocked off with red zones that are still too dangerous to enter. they were still tearing down buildings but a lot were still standing just with rubble all around.

apparently its becoming so hard to rebuild because insurance companies don't really know how to handle the whole situation and there are still earthquakes occurring (there was even one while we were doing the high ropes course) so who knows when another one could hit and take everything out again. it was so sad seeing the town like this. we did find some streets that have been rebuilt and a cute little market running along the street next to the University (which is still blocked off). that was refreshing and the people here seem to have a lot of hope, and everyone wants to work together to make Christchurch what it once was. we got to go through the Cambridge museum which had a lot of new zealand history but then a huge display about the earth quakes. there were videos of what had happened from security cameras and such, which was crazy to see. and there were ruins from different important things around town. it was a great experience getting to see all of this. again, putting a lot into perspective.

we got our shuttle back to the airport, thus ending our adventure in the south islands. it was sad to leave, but i was glad to be heading "home" where i had family, home cooked food and my own bed waiting for. oh and a birthday party for the neighbor, which was also lots of fun!

so that wraps up one of the best trips of my entire life!

Day 4 - July 3rd -- Invercargill back to Queenstown
the next morning we had time to sleep in and relax, eat a good meal at the cafe and walk around town a little bit before heading back to Queenstown. but before we went back up north, we were headed further south. our first stop along the way was the Catlins. the "rugged" coast of new zealand. here there is a cute little light house placed on a hill with large rocks everywhere below. we could walk down onto the rocks and get pretty close to the ocean, et said that it was one of the calmest days he had seen. i guess usually there is a lot of wave action hitting the coast line. here we also saw two sea lions! they were huge, and kinda gross looking but cool to see all the same. especially in the wild.

from the Catlins we headed down to Bluff, which is where the southern most point of new zealand is located. et drove us up to the top of the mountain where we were able to get out and see a cool lookout of stewart island (the island right off the southern coast of new zealand) then we set off on an hour 15 min walk down to sterlings point. this was great because we really didn't have to walk up hill. and the view was guess it, breath taking. it was cool to get closer and closer to the water as we went, and to have the sun setting along our walk. it was a very refreshing walk, felt good to be out moving and working my legs a little bit. we got all the photo opps with the sign that tells the distance to certain countries from this point.

we came across a rock right next to the "chain" that connects sterlings point to stewart island (you'll see a photo its a sculpture there for symbolic reasons), that had a plaque with Psalm 93:4 written on it: "mightier than the thunders of many waters, mightier than the waves of the sea. the Lord on high is might!" followed by "God is always greater than our troubles" it was standing there with the rocks and the ocean with some rough waves behind it and it was a much needed reminder to step back and look around and take in this beautiful earth that God has created. and on another note that verse was extremely moving, i think you had to be in that moment to really feel it but it sent a sense of humility through me another reminder of how small i am and how powerful He is, and no matter what He has an amazing plan for me. i was thankful for that moment i think it was definitely something i needed.

we had a long drive back. turned on my playlist with ray lamontagne, patty griffin and norah jones and watched the sun set, while the moon rose. actually as we were driving the flat sound with sailboats scattered along the way was to our right and the mountains were to our left, and at one moment the sun and the moon were directly across from one another. it was one of the coolest things i have ever seen.

made it into queenstown around dinner time. split a huge pizza between the five of us in "team america" headed home to rest and then headed out. our room at the base was much nicer this time because we were staying with stray so we were all really excited, and Tom stayed with us so we had a great group of six! going out was fun, and we made our way to a western themed bar when we realized it was officially the 4th of july which was cool. most exciting part of the evening though was finding a mexican truck stand right by the hostel called burrito bros. if you know me you know i literally cannot live without mexican and while it was no la parilla or el rodeo it was delicious. i was about to cry i was so happy eating it!

the Catlins.

 i then got soaked by this wave. so worth it.

 giant sea lion, wish you could see it better it was so cool.

 so close to the south pole.

 "mightier than the thunders of many waters. mightier than the waves of the sea. the Lord on high is mighty!" - Psalm 93:4 "God is always greater than our troubles"

our mexican treat. 

Day 5 - July 4th -- Queenstown 
sharing a post here because while our fourth of july was wonderful we really only went skiing. ah it was awesome though! we were rushed to catch a bus up to the slopes because we didn't realize there was a time schedule to meet, but the people at the ski rental place were super helpful and we got a little workout running while carrying all our gear.

it was the most beautiful day to go skiing, i mean absolutely perfect. the sun was shining off the slopes and warming us up so really i was never cold until the sun went down. i had a great time skiing, i realized i haven't really been since high school but its pretty easy to have a practice run and get back into it. we stuck to green and blue all day but at the end of the day we rode the lifts to the very very top of the mountain (which we should've done earlier) and rode the blue all the way down. these slopes were definitely more challenging/steep but it was so much fun!! i only fell once all day, and i'm totally blaming the patch of ice i hit on this slope. haha. needless to say i really did miss being at camp/at the beach for the fourth but i had a great day and was so happy to have the opportunity to go skiing in new zealand!

it was a wonderful fourth. made me miss America and made me grateful for everything that my country has to offer. i know we complain a lot because well there are a lot of problems at home (and in every country) but being here makes me realize how many opportunities there are in America and how much i love my country! so God Bless the USA.