Surfing Raglan

I'm going to apologize in advance for having a very long blog tonight but it's worth it. Also, sorry for having so many pictures without people. The landscape here alone deserves it's own blog entry.
Our 2 week trek across NZ has started out with a bang. On Sunday, we packed up all of our stuff, took our non-essential stuff to storage, checked out of our apartment (goodbye Waldorf) and hit the road. Our first stop was Rotorua. It's a couple hours southeast of Auckland and we'd heard good things about it so we thought we might as well check it out.

 This is downtown Rotorua. It's a cool place with a bunch of little cafes. We had a problem because it was Sunday and this place shuts down on Sundays. Good to know.

 We at some lunch at a Japanese place and then headed down the street to some kind of local fair. It looked like people went to the dollar store and bought a bunch of junk, set up a tent, and tried to sell their junk.

 This is the fair. Look at the yellow trailer. American donuts and American hot dogs? First of all, what other kinds of donuts and hot dogs are there? Second, can't we be known for something other than food that is terrible for you?

 After the excitement of the fair wore off, we checked out a thermal park. It had some cool thermal pools that were steaming. The best part of this place was that it was free. What can I say? We're cheap.

Liquid hot magma! Ok, maybe it's just boiling mud but let's just pretend it's magma.

After the thermal park, we didn't have much to do because everything was closed so we headed to a place that grew blueberries and made all kinds of products from them including blueberry wine and liqueur. These are the fields.

 

 They had blueberry ice cream so I had to try it out. Not too shabby.

 

That was Rotorua. Nothing too crazy but it was fun seeing another place. Next time we'll plan in advance and do more of the fun things around town. Sunday evening we left Rotorua and headed east to Raglan on the west coast.  The drive there was pretty uneventful but we found some great scenery as we got closer to our hostel. 

This is the view from the road that heads up the side of the mountain and to the surf place.

This is from the same road but a little higher up. This country isn't short on good views.

Then we got to our hostel. This place is great. It's tucked halfway up a mountain in the middle of the jungle and is just a bunch of people our age from all over the world hanging out. The surf school owns the hostel so we see all of the people pretty much all day long. This place is one of the cooler places I've been in a long time.

The sign to our place

 This is the driveway up to the surf school lodging. Did I mention it was in the jungle?

 We checked in and got all of our stuff set up. There are 4 bunks per room. This is Erin showing us those bunks

 This is a what the front row of rooms looks like with wet beach clothes hanging off the balcony. The kitchen and living room are up ahead. It doesn't look like much but I promise it's great.

 Area in front where people meet before heading to the beach. They keep surfboards in that shed.

 This is another little kitchen area that is off the driveway area in the previous picture. Smaller than the main kitchen but it was just right for us.

This is the main living room where everyone hangs out. We watched Jurassic Park with people from all over the world tonight. I know there are people here from Ireland, Germany, Sweden, Denmark and some other places that I'm blanking on right now. Anyways, they all like Jurassic Park.

 

 This is the other half of the living room with the main kitchen in the background.

After making some dinner last night, we found out that there was a bus that takes everyone into town at 8:30 and returns at 1 am. We decided it'd be something fun to do since we haven't gone out pretty much our whole time here. By far the best part of the night was Erin getting "iced". You may remember that from last year. If you don't know what it is, it's basically a game where you have to chug a Smirnoff Ice. It's terrible but funny. Hey, we're just trying to bring some frat games to New Zealand.

 First, Erin tried to show me her robot dance skills. I wasn't impressed.

 Then we got down to business. I was explaining the rules of icing to the rookies

 These two had no idea what they were in for.

Downing that Smirnoff

 

 And they were so proud of themselves when they were done. 

We got some much needed sleep following the icings and had a nice surf lesson this morning. It was a ton of fun! None of us had ever been surfing so they didn't expect much out of us. We started out on flat ground with learning the basics of how to stand up on the board. Then it was off to the water for some extreme surfing action. It started out slow, with most of us having a hard time staying on our boards but after more and more tries we were actually able to get up every now and then. I felt bad that the instructors had to put up with us but they were really patient. There weren't any broken bones but we are all sore from the workout you get from surfing. I wish I had pictures of us actually surfing but we didn't get to that today, we'll try to get some tomorrow. I guess some pictures of the beach we surfed at will have to do for tonight. 

 These were our boards before we terrorized them. They were big and soft so that beginners can't hurt themselves or anyone else.

 This is the beach. It was bigger than the other beaches we've been to and seemed to stretch all the way back to the city.

The beach looking the other way.

Us walking back up the hill from the beach after finishing surfing. What this doesn't show is the wetsuits we just took off. Those were great for keeping us warm but weren't the prettiest things.

After surfing, we drove up to Te Toto Gorge. This place had the coolest views we've seen anywhere in New Zealand, and that's saying something. Here are some pics...

 Erin and Cindy making their way to the viewing platform

 Chase acting like a Japanese tourist again, this time on the viewing platform

 A better shot out at the ocean.

 Looking to the right you could see the gorge. Even further in the distance you can almost see Raglan

 This is looking back to the left.

 They have steep cliffs in New Zealand

 Another picture of the gorge

Some more scenery

This was the mountain behind us. This cloud just seemed to cling to the top of it but it was mostly sunny everywhere else.

 And this is just for proof that I was there.

Well I'm gonna wrap it up because I'm almost out of internet usage. I'll try to get more pictures of us actually surfing tomorrow. We're getting some more surfing in tomorrow morning and then it's back to Auckland tomorrow night. More updates to come soon!

Piha and deep thoughts from Auckland

Kayla left for Australia early this morning and it was Ryan's last day so we had to make the most of it. We rented a car and drove to a beach about 45 minutes west of Auckland called Piha. As expected, the scenery was beautiful but slightly different because it had black sand beaches. I had never been to a black sand beach but I quickly learned that black sand gets VERY hot. Also, this beach didn't have the fun little waves that other beaches have. Instead, it had big waves that would crush an average person. It's considered one of the less safe beaches in the area and swimmers are only given an area about 50 yards wide to swim in and it's watched closely by lifeguards. There's even a show on New Zealand TV about the lifeguards called Piha Rescue. I don't surf (surprised?) but there's some great surfing there and they were even having a surfing competition today. Here are some pics....

A good view of our surroundings. Lots of big rocks around this beach.

Another view. This time off to our left.

Ryan tried a little surfing. He's braver than me.

Black sand from volcanoes. This stuff will burn your feet off.

There was a fine mist coming off the ocean on the beach next to us

And what's a good New Zealand beach without wild penguins? Unfortunately we didn't see any.

So that was today's trip. Tomorrow it's off to Rotorua and the Raglan for surfing lessons. Since it's our last full day in Auckland, I thought I'd make a list of little oddities that I've noticed since we've been here:
1. Jean shorts A.K.A. "jorts" are in style here. I mean they are everywhere. I guess it's  that Euro fashion stuff.
2. When you cross the street , you don't have to just walk in 1 direction, you can walk in any direction, including diagonally across the intersection. I tried to get a good picture but this is the best I could do

I don't think you can get away with walking diagonally at a crosswalk in the U.S.

3. The word yes is pronounced "yeees" with a strong emphasis on the E. And the letter Z is pronounced "zed". I'm not a big fan of either.
4. People are allowed in operating rooms without masks. The surgeons still have to wear them but nurses and other staff (including anesthesiologists) don't. Doesn't seem too sterile but they didn't ask me.
5. The scrubs the doctors wear are basically the same thing nurses in the U.S. wear. Complete with pockets on the front of the shirts. They are awful.
6. French here is a lot like Spanish is in the US. A lot of people speak at least a little because a lot of the people from Pacific islands speak it and come to New Zealand.
7. While on pediatrics I learned that all white kids cry ALL THE TIME and the kids from pacific islands (Tahiti, Guam, etc.) don't. This includes all kids from newborns to 12 year olds. I have no idea why but it just seems to be the way things work.
8. Personal care items (soap, shampoo, etc) is way more expensive here. I'm pretty sure there are some people that skip on the personal hygiene a little bit because of this. Sunscreen is also really expensive. The same bottle you can get at home for $8 will cost about $20-25 here.You'd think a place with no O-zone and a lot of skin cancer would do something about that.
9. People take coffee breaks like it's their job. This place runs on caffeine.
10. Cigarette warnings aren't nearly as boring as they are in the US. Here's an example

11. They call Bandaids "plasters". I don't even know how that came about.
12. They charge extra for ketchup and call it tomato sauce. Seriously annoying.

That's all I could think of right now but it's just some things that were interesting for me. I'll let you know how the surfing goes. Wish us luck!

The NEW plan

After hours of debating, we have come up with a new itinerary for the next two weeks that avoids the south island mess. So here's the new plan:
Saturday 2/26- going to the beach at Piha. It has black sand beaches (from volcanoes) and we have been told by a lot of people that we shouldn't miss it. It's only about 45 minutes from Auckland so it's a good day trip.

Sunday 2/27- going to the Rotorua region for most of the day. There's supposed to be a lot of cool things to do there. Then that night we're driving to Raglan on the west coast.

Monday and Tuesday 2/28, 3/1- surf lessons! Should be interesting to see how a bunch of people from Kansas who've never surfed before handle it. We got a good deal and our lodging, lessons, and surf boards are all part of a package. Tuesday evening we're driving back to Auckland and staying there Tuesday night.

Wednesday 3/2- flying out to Nelson on the north area of the south island. We'll probably hang around the town for part of the afternoon before heading east to Blenheim to spend the night.

Thursday 3/3- Blenheim is in the middle of the Marlborough wine region so of course we have to taste wine. We've booked an all day tour where a bus picks us up from the place we're staying and takes us to different wineries all day. And best of all, they take us back to our doorstep so we don't ever drive! Me driving after drinking wine would be like watching Erin drive sober...scary. We'll spend the night in Blenheim again.

Friday 3/4- hanging out in wine country again but probably checking out some of the other things to do around there because we're driving back to Nelson and staying there Friday night and going to some New Zealand band's concert.

Saturday 3/5- Monday 3/7- going to Abel Tasman National Park. This is the place that I had pictures of yesterday.  On Sunday we're doing a 4 hour hike that is followed by 3 or 4 hours on a sail boat. We also get to see a seal colony on the boat. Sounds cool. We'll probably do the beach Monday and then drive back to Nelson Monday night and stay there.

Tuesday 3/8- Fly back to Auckland.

Wednesday 3/9- hang out in Auckland. Maybe go to the museum or zoo or other things we haven't gotten to.

Thursday 3/10- leave for home

So that's that. I know this has been a boring blog so far so I'll throw some pictures in of things we've been doing. First, I went to a Mexican restaurant with Chase and Erin. I know that doesn't sound like a big deal at home, but here it is. Mexican food is hard to come by. And we couldn't leave without looking like tourists...

Yes I know, there are no words to describe how good we look.

That was Thursday evening. Then the convenience store down the street from us had a sale on V energy drink so we bought some.  We don't have this stuff at home and I didn't know what I was getting myself into. This stuff is like liquid crack. I drank one at around 7 or 8 and couldn't fall asleep until 2:30. But it does taste good.

Study juice

The next exciting event was tonight when I went to dinner with Ryan, Cindy and Mary at the Orbit restaurant in the Sky Tower (their space needle-looking tower). The tower is supposedly the tallest structure in the southern hemisphere but I'll have to double check on that one. It was a rotating restaurant and had amazing views of the city. And of course, we took a bunch of pictures.

 Some good info on the tower. We were in Orbit Revolving Restaurant

 The girls on the elevator on the way up

And the guys

 The elevator had a glass floor so you could watch below you as the elevator went up. I think Mary has on coral colored nail polish there. Solid choice Mary

 And then the cement walls disappeared and were replaced with windows so you could watch out from the elevator. Ryan was terrified.

 This is the inside of the restaurant. Nice place. And the seating area revolved.

 The floor below the restaurant had an observation deck. Mary took full advantage of the telescope

 And here's a view out

 This is part of the floor from the observation deck. It was glass and you could see all the way to the street. I didn't walk across it.

 I know this probably just looks like a blurry city street but that's Wakefield and our apartment is a little hidden but it's up there on the right side.

 Oh, and I guess I should probably mention the meal. It was awesome. This was a Caesar-like salad. I forgot what exactly it was called but if you put enough cheese on it, you can make anything taste good.

This was my main dish. It was shrimp, scallops, and some kind of fish (I forgot) on risotto. It hit the spot

That's all that's happened. Sorry if the first part was really boring but now everyone can know where we are for the next couple weeks, especially since internet service might be a little spotty. But of course I'll keep updating the blog as much as possible. I'm off to bed. Goodnight.