First Week of Kiwi Experience

So we decided to book our trip with Kiwi Experience, it's basically a bus that takes you all over New Zealand and you can hop on or off whenever you want. You end up traveling with a lot of the same people so it's a really cool way to make friends from all over the world.

Our first stop was the BAY OF ISLANDS. It's basically 145 islands right off the shore...one of the most beautiful places ever. We hopped on a boat tour that took us all through the islands dolphin hunting. Our plan was to hopefully be able to swim with them in the wild but the conditions weren't right so we couldn't. Still an amazing day though, with lots of great pictures!

Then we left through Auckland to MERCURY BAY. We did a 45 minute hike down to this gorgeous cove. We do a lot of random little hikes on the way to places so we are getting great at them...still a stuggle on some of the tougher ones though! We spotted the biggest jellyfish we have ever seen as we were swimming so needless to say we had a quick swim that day!

From there we headed to ROTORUA. It's a thermal hot spot so there are vents all over the city with steam from the earth's core spewing out. Cool to see, but one night is enough because the whole town smells like rotten eggs and farts from the sulfer. Our highlight of the day was luging. You take a gondala up this huge hill and race down on these little carts that are similar to tabogans. You're not supposed to race but of cource we all figured out how! We raced the six guys we went with and the two of us and managed to beat some of them. It was crazy, battle wounds to prove it! You get three times up and down and practically everyone took a corner too fast and ran off course at some point into the sand. It is was amazing. That night we went to a Maori (native people of New Zealand) cultural performace. It was similar to a luau but you actually got deep into the forest so it was similar to how it was way back when. They performed the Haka, which is an intimidating warrior dance, and they were chanting, screaming, slapping their chests, and making crazy scary faces. It ended with a huge buffet dinner, cooked underground.

The highlight of the trip thus far was this afternoon in WAITOMO, home to the glowworm caves. Of course we decided to do the most adventurous way of seeing them. It's called black water rafting but we decided it should be called caving considering only twenty mintues of the 5 hr tour in a tube and the rest you are trecking through the caves. We wore these crazy black wetsuit things with all the abseiling equipment around our waste and a helmet with a light on it. We looked rediculous! It starts with abseiling (like repelling)down a very narrow hole all the way down into the caves (44 meters we think). Then, in complete darkness before you know it you are launched down a zipline. From there you jump down about 5 meters with an innertube on your butt into dark water. We spent the next 4 hours getting through the cave...20 minutes floating down in an innertube in pitch black checking out the glowworms all around us. Then you start hiking through about waist deep in water through the caves. At some points you have to crawl through on your stomach with your head turned to the side (or else it won't fit because it is exactly the size of a body) and sliver through like a snake. It ends with crawling up three massive waterfalls. When we first saw the waterfalls we thought there was no way in hell we could do it. Somehow is happened and we finally saw the light of day! It was unreal. We couldn't believe they actually let people do it.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

So we thought you guys might like to hear how we celebrated coming into 2009. In the early afternoon we scoped out what Lonley Planet (the travel book we purchaced) told us was a fun strip of bars. It looked a little different than home, but we still figured it would be fun considering there were bars and clubs lining the street. After a few beers in the hostel (trying to stay on a budget) we strolled up to the main street and hit up the bar that seemed to have the biggest crowd. At first the completely decked out drag queens checking out our ID's seemed all in the New Year's spirit, but on further glance we realized we may be the only straight people trying to enter the bar. Realizing this we took off to find another bar....same situation. The guy at this door asked us if we were here for "the show", looking at him confused we asked "what show?" He looked at us like we were from another planet and then pointed to a poster. We realized it was a lip syncing talent show preformed by drag queens. Turns out we were at the wrong part of town for 2 straight girls. (Well I guess we looked like a pretty cute couple!!!) We decided "what the heck" lets just stay! It was too late to try and get anywhere else. We stayed and watched what was like watching a Britney Spears music video. Lights...cameras...disco balls....fans...perfect choreography and of course lip syncing. Needless to say, it was one of the most memorable, and unexpected nights we have ever had. It turned out to be a great time and a great way to bring in 2009!

Almost a full day later, we recovered at Mission Bay, a beautiful beach! It reminded us a lot of Laguna Beach in CA. Hope you guys have as much fun celebrating New Year's Eve tonight as we did last night! Miss you all!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Auckland, New Zealand

After countless hours in airports and airplanes we finally arrived in Auckland, NZ late on the Dec. 28th. Sadly, we woke up to a horrible phone call that Hannah would have to be leaving us for a family emergency. So it's just the two of us (Britt and Shanna) starting this journey...hoping to possibly to meet up with Hannah along the way. Hannah, we love you and it won't be the same without you!



While aimlessly wandering around the city we stumbled upon a ferry to an island off the coast. We decided to hop on and ended up at Waiheke, one of the most beautiful islands we have ever seen. It resembled Hawaii but even more beautiful if you can imagine. However, we learned a few things quickly. After a ferrry ride and a short hike to the beach we were already completely sunburnt before we even got down to our swimsuits with perfect T-shirt outlines! We also realized how out of shape we are b/c we could barely walk by the end of the day from all the hiking around (not to mention our hostel sits on top of a rediculously steep hill). By the end of this trip we are hoping to be really tan, not burnt and buff and strong, not sore!




We're about to get ready to go out and celebrate New Years (almost a full day before anyone reading this will)! Happy New Year and we love you and miss you all!