Cathedral Cove, Hahei, North Island NZ

NOVEMBER 2, 2009

We arrived in stunning, nearly unprecedented Hahei today. Apparently this incredible place has only recently started to boom during the summer months. And if you check out tourism promo’s for NZ’s beaches- they’ll most likely sell you with this scenery! All the amazing volcanic remnants from millions of years ago including islands (usually named after body parts by the Maori people who first discovered them), white coastline, New Zealand’s national ferns growing everywhere, and just scenery, scenery, scenery as far as the eye can see!

Hahei has a great view of Mercury Bay, so called, as it was the place where Cpt. James Cook anchored in 1769 to watch the passage of the planet Mercury. The area as a large marine reserve, and since the country as declared it a marine reserve, the fish population has increased by 1600%!!! Wowzers!

I was in my own little world taking photos along the trail. Jodie tried running up to a cow in one of the fields to win a $20.00 bet, and didn’t manage to even touch the big-horned animal! Those farm girls, I don’t know?! Funny part was how freaked out all the British girls were that she’d dare try J. Brave one! Britt had to pinch us to remind us this wasn’t all just an incredible dream- but in fact, our completely blessed reality. Valena titled the track to our theme song this week “Good girls gone bad” as we followed her beyond the red tape barriers that were up under Cathedral Cove’s hollow (due to falling rocks from above)…but that didn’t stop us! We broke through to take in even more brilliant views…finding photographer friends along the way to capture the memories for us! (Thanks Grant).We ended the evening with a fabulous Stray group BBQ with our driver Honey. V & B chef’d it up at the grill…their first experience barbequing chicken. It was delicious- and everyone walked away without Salmonella! Cheers to them! Much Love Readers! Stay tuned for more adventures from kiwi-land! d.

Our 1st of many rugby games

Sorry this is a bit late...haven't had access to internet for a few days so we will try to catch you up.

Oct 31st was probably the highlight of our trip so far for me...it was an afternoon and evening filled with us experiencing the love that Kiwi's have for their national sport, Rugby. The Wellington Lions were playing against Southland in the semi-final at the stadium, which is referred to as the 'cake-tin' because of it's shape. It ended up being an intense game, which each of us girls got really into and loved. But before I go into the rugby game, I should mention the cricket game that we watched first. Now cricket is very different from rugby. It's more of a 'gentleman's game' and that because very apparent as soon as we got to the cricket field. All the players were decked out in their trousers and v-neck sweaters, complete with their pancake (google) hats. Cricket is not an easy game to explain, but we quickly learned that there are 11 different ways to get out, 3 different ways to get points and the games are usually played for 7 or more hours. We lasted for about a half hour.
Ok, now back to the real action! Rugby is more our style of sport that we want to watch...a very rough, contact sport, guys in shorts tackling each other...need I say more?
We were all pretty stoked to be watching their national sport live, and were fortunate enough to say that we knew one of the players on the team, which came with a few perks. Danielle was lucky enough to be a WAG (wife or girlfriend of a player) for the game, which she reveled in, and I must say, she filled the role very well.
With our team flags in tow, we were all ready for the game to start and to see what it was all about. As soon as the game started us girls were right into it, cheering like true fans and quickly learnt the rules to the game thanks to Jamie and his friends. Soon into the game we were all hooked and the two 40 minute halves just flew by with the Wellington Lions coming out with a big win at the end. Brittany would even go as far as saying Rugby is a better sport than football and Britt is a die-hard football fan! So if none of you have ever watched a rugby game, check it out and find out for yourselves what the big deal is. We were decked out in yellow and black to support the Lions, and can't wait to watch the big final this Saturday night at the closest kiwi pub (or wherever we can find a T.V. set).

More to come soon!

Jod

October 31, 2009 Reality Check

Happy Halloween everyone!!! We are a little ashamed to say we didn't dress up last night, but really I like to think of it that we were just adapting the Kiwi mentality...

We just checked into our first hostel (Jodie's first ever night in a hostel) and we realize now more then ever how spoiled we have been thanks to Jamie and his friends. They seriously blew us away with all their Kiwi hospitality and generosity... We seriously left a huge part of our heart in Wellington and NZ is already more than we could ever imagine... There's a part of us that are wondering why we ever plan to jump across the lake to Australia...But Here's to our first of many nights of hostels and backpacking!!!!!

For our last day yesterday, the weather warmed up and the wind died down just a bit. Jamie, Matt and Allie took us on a drive to see some gorgeous beaches (where Valena was the first of us to dip her foot in the ocean but that's it... haha.. not quite beach weather yet) and on the tour was also Peter Jackson's house and Miramar Studios (the Weta Cave) which is the home of all the genius artists behind designing Gimli, Golom, the orcs, Frodo, basically everything in LOTR and the White Witch in The Chronicles of Narnia and so many more!!!! Brittany was in her LOTR geek glory and the rest of us were equally amazed at everything we saw. We are all dying to watch LOTR again... Please feel free to send us a copy...

One of the reasons we stayed in Wellington was to experience the nightlife in town and it didn't disappoint! We got to tag-a-long to a triple 30th birthday at an amazing pub where we got to watch our first All-Blacks Rugby game where the All-Blacks walloped the wallabies over in Japan. Apparently, Japanese frown upon revealing tattoos in public and the All-Black players, who are typically heavily tattooed, were asked to cover up when they went swimming. Then, at the game the All-Blacks did their famous haka, but their shirts were on. We were earlier led to believe that hakas are usually performed shirtless. Our question is; Do the All-Blacks typically take off their shirt for their haka but just not in Japan?

The nightlife in Wellington is said to be the best in all of New Zealand, and Courtney St. in particular is quite famous for it's clubs. We were all amazed to find that the clubs were open till 6 a.m! Britt, Dan and Valena found this out first hand when we had our first all-nighter, getting home at 5 am with just enough time to warm up under the blankets before having to finish packing up, call a taxi and head off to start our bus tour. It was worth the lack of sleep because we finally convinced our N.Z friends to perform the haka for us!!!! The boys requested one thing first... We had to perform a Canadian Haka which, I am sure most of you know, does not exist but we were determined to see them do their haka so, we brilliantly improvised a quarter-cheer, quarter-anthem, lil bit of hula with hand-clamping threw in and BAM! we had our haka. The boys didn't seem impressed but if we go with the response of the other spectators we gathered, we did pretty darn good...

I Can't Believe it Hasn't Even Been a Week!

Just a quick lil addition... I have never realized how lucky we Albertans are to live in such a disaster-free zone... We went to the National Museum in Wellington and there was a whole section dedicated to all the potential natural disasters... In fact they have a unique organization that is set up that covers everyone in NZ for the following likely disasters; earthquakes, tsunamis, volcanos, etc etc.... In Alberta all we have to worry about is minor floods, drought, and the occasional mini tornado... There was a sign in the museum with this cheerful message, "There is nowhere in New Zealand that is safe from natural disasters!" haha... The boys say they experience an earthquake every couple weeks or so...

Jamie was kind enough to accompany us to the local "Wal-Mart" kind-

of-place so I could purchase a very over-priced hairdryer (but I must say that I don't think I can go 5 months without one) and there we had ourselves a little bit of fun at the warehouse on our search for Halloween costumes (not so successful) when we came across dancing Santas!!! Check out the video!!!

Luv, V

Wellington...the city that we love!

Everyday that we stay in Wellington the more the fall in love with the city and Wellingtonians (what they call themselves...kinda like we are Albertans). We had a lazy morning again, which is becoming routine for us, filled with skype chatting to family and friends and finally some showers for some fellow travellers...it's impressive how long we can go without washing our hair...impressive or disgusting?

We went for a hike that Valena and I were not looking too forward to because we had the pressure of performing to the serious hikers of the group, but it turned out to be lovely! I, being the Lord of the Rings fan out of the group, was quite excited to find a spot that they filmed the first movie in with the Hobbits! It was amazing walking from the city into the hills (in the middle of the city) and to be in the most amazing green piece of heaven! We just couldn't get enough of it! But we had to end it eventually to take Jaime some coffee since we promised him that yesterday and didn't commit! We just love to take Jaime's car and go around the city...especially to the grocery store!! Valena is becoming an excellent kiwi driver. I trust her!!

So the interesting thing is even though we have only been four days I have noticed that each lady is picking up some kiwi tendencies....

Danielle: loves to throw in a "mate" or "cheers" into the everyday conversation, we of course make fun of her for trying to be a natural kiwi!

Valena: is the official driver and actually opens the drivers door on the right side instead of the left with only one incident of driving on the "wrong side"!

Jodie: has definitely mastered looking both ways crossing the road since we tend to look one way and tend to miss the vehicle heading towards us.

I (Brittany): has taken a keen liking (thanks to Jaime saying it all the time) to saying "mmmm" and nodding my head in response to any comment. It's addicting and so easy that I can't help it! Of course I bug Jaime about it constantly!

Tonight we are trying "hokey pokey" ice cream...a delicacy for the kiwi's!!! Luv B

NZ Hospitality

Day 2 of crashing in my old Contiki friend's living room.... Jamie, the kind/foolish guy that he is let me drive his car on the way to the supermarket and I'm proud to say that he made it five minutes before he grabbed the suicide handles... It's amazing how unnerving it is driving on the opposite side of the road when everything you've known in the last 23 years is flipped... It's like going against nature when you drive on the left side of the road, you're always having to consciously think "Left, left, left" but strangely, the hardest part of driving on this side of the road is remembering that the blinkers and windshield wipers are reversed... Let's just say his windshield was VERY clean by the time I had parked the car. Jodie drove home and I hate to admit that she made it seem so much easier than it really is.

After dinner Jamie's 3 friends came over and we had a great night just playing games... Initially, they were intended to be drinking games but since half of us don't drink and the other half are quite light drinkers the guys did most of the drinking and taught us some new games... We played a game that is sure to become one of our favorites and one that will continue with us in our travels. Let's call it, "G'Day Jase".... Basically everyone starts out as Jase and each time you mess up you get a new name and new voice... After Jase, you become Kylie and you develop a high pitched voice. After Kylie is Bouncer, with whom you must have a deep voice.. And so on.. The last one is Squiggles, and when you're squiggles you are just allowed to kinda "motor-boat" your lips and so your head movements are very key... haha... It sounds like a mess but it was such a riot... Check out the video to show the four guys play a round...

Initially we had plans to leave Wellington tomorrow morning but we are now thinking we might leave Sunday... Two of Jamie's friends we met last night are professional sports players here in Wellington; one a rugby player, one a cricket player. All the boys swore that part of experiencing NZ is going to a cricket game and a rugby game and both guys have a game on Saturday.... How could we pass up such an opportunity to experience two of the national pastimes????

Luv, V

Things we've learned about New Zealand thus far...

1)The toilets really DO flush the opposite way (we know this thanks to a volunteer back home and the wonder of skype)

2) Ozzies and Kiwis do not like to mistaken for each other... the only way I've been able to determine the difference is when they say "6"... sooo when in doubt just ask them what 9-3 is...

3) Look both ways when crossing the street has never been such a necessity than here

4) This is the youngest country is the world (I wanna say they had their first dominion day in 1907)

5) Kiwis are ridiculously nice

6) I will never ever complain about the price of mascara again after being here.... $32 for normal drugstore mascara? ick...

7) Central Wellington is on a major fault line and has many other fault lines all around... This is the best chance I will prob ever have to experience an earthquake... Part of Wellington is actually "New" land that was under water until 300 yrs ago and a massive earthquake brought it up..

8) Just because you here it's summer over here do not assume it can't get cold... First night we arrived we were freezin!!!! Luckily Jamie, our kind host, provided us with blankets, mattresses, and a space heater! Cheers to the wonders of central heating back home..

9) To all you calorie counters... Good luck in NZ... They use Kilo-joules not calories over here... For someone from a supposed metric country I have no beginning of an idea of what a kilo-joule is....

10) There are no sharks, snakes or spiders.... Why are we going to Australia again???

11) We are already in love with NZ and we've only seen Wellington!

Luv, V