Ok, so since I haven't done a post yet, this shall be a MASSIVE one.
Auckland:
Auckland kinda reminds me of New York, except a little smaller and a lot cleaner. It is know as "the City of Sails", and totally lives up to it's name. Auckland Harbor is beautiful! It also has the Sky Tower, which is the tallest building in the Southern Hemisphere. I have been there twice; once right after arriving in NZ, and once for a rugby game. The first time was just to see the sights a little. We got to see the Auckland Harbor bridge, go to the top of Mt. Eden, and explore the city. Oh, and I got free stuff for being a foreigner. It was awesome.
This is the crater in Mt. Eden, which is an extinct volcano.
View of Auckland and Sky Tower from top of Mt. Eden
The second time I went to Auckland was a couple weeks ago, to see a Waikato vs. Auckland rugby game. It was so cool! We got free Auckland Rugby flags (mine will hanging on our wall Jerbear!), and there was yummy hot chocolate, and the game itself was amazing! Rugby is like the unofficial religion here. No joke.
Auckland also has very good shopping. Most of the gifts/souvenirs I buy will probably be from here. I will return to Auckland again Nov 6-9, to spend some time there before I fly home on the 9th.
Raglan:
Ok, Raglan is my FAVORITE place in NZ so far. It's home to one of the best surfing beaches in the world, and has such a laid back, beachy lifestyle. I just love it.If I ever move to NZ, it will be to Raglan. Me and another American girl named Korin (one of the girls I'm going to Aus with) went for the weekend and it was so much fun! We stayed in a hostel in the middle of the rainforest, and it was like a 15 min walk to Manu Bay (surfing beach). Highlight of the day was climbing onto the rocks, far enough away that we thought we'd be safe, but then getting blasted by a giant wave. We also creeped on some hot surfer boys for a while, and met a really cool surfer girl who told us about surf lessons, which I might do before I come home depending on my money situation. Oh, and I also hitchhiked for the first time ever here. We didn't wanna pay for a bus back to the city, so we just hitched. It was interesting. I also got some shopping done here, since they had a lot of cute little stores in town.
Whale Bay
Rotorua:
Rotorua is probably my second favorite place in NZ. It has a ton of geothermal activity, and steam literally just rises from the ground. They are a ton of natural hot springs and mud pools, and a really strong sulfur smell, but you get used to it after a while. It is mountainous, and it has a pretty lake, and it has a ton of geothermal stuff, and it's just super cool. The town itself isn't too aesthetically pleasing, but the areas around it are absolutely beautiful. While I was here I got to go to Rainbow Springs Wildlife park, and Wai-O-Tapu geothermal park. Both were very fun, and Rainbow Springs had Kiwis! This was also where I learned the 'Kamate! Kamate!' haka and got to visit a Maori village. The village was especially cool because we got to have a hangi meal, which is the traditional Maori method of cooking, in which they cook using heated rocks buried in a pit oven. It was very delicious.
Hangi
Maori warrior
Also, while we're on the topic of Maoris, I feel I should explain the significance of hakas and the tongue thing. When doing a war haka, the tongue represents two things:
1. It was used to intimidate their enemies, and showed that they were prepared for battle, and ready to fight and die to defend their tribe.
2. It represents a penis. That's why it's usually only men who do it. Women will make threatening sounds and facial expressions, but they usually won't do the tongue thing. If they do, it means that they're prepared to fight like a man.
Wai-O-Tapu
(This was my favorite part of the park. So cool looking!)
Rainbow Springs. We fed these sheep for like half an hour! They were so cute!
Mountains outside Rotorua (can see the steam rising off of them!)
Taupo:
Didn't spend much time in Taupo, in fact I came to Huka Falls, did the jetboat thing, and then left, but it seemed pretty cool. The jetboat was AMAZING! Such a rush! (Our driver actually ended up going on it with us! LOL! He was a pretty cool kiwi dude.) And the Huka Falls were really pretty.
Waitomo:
I went caving here!! It was AMAZING!! Waitomo caves is a huge cave system underneath a lot of pastures, and it is super cool. They have tame caves, like the glow worm caves, where you ride through on a boat and just look at all the pretty things, and then they have Waitomo adventure caving. You can chose between 4 caving adventures. One, called the Lost World, takes 7 hours, so it wasn't an option for us; we ended up choosing between two wet caves (Tuma Tuma Tubing, and Haggis Honking Holes) or a dry cave (St. Benedict's Cavern). I originally signed up for Tuma Tuma Tubing, but it got cancelled. I don't know why. I was bummed, but I ended up signing up for St. Benedict's Cavern. (Mainly because there are apparently a lot of large spiders in the other one.) It was so FUN though!
We repelled down into the cave through a hole in the ground, climbed through the cave for about 3 hours, and then once we reached an area where it was no longer possible to go on foot, we zip lined to the end where we would exit the cave. It was the coolest thing ever. The repelling was terrifying and I never want to do it again, but the rest was great, and I'm really glad I ended up doing it.
Waitomo (The caves were located under these hills)
Hamilton:
Last, but not least, Hamilton. This is where the University of Waikato is located, and where I will be living until I return to you all in November. It's the fourth biggest city in NZ (and still isn't very big. Especially considering the population of NZ is half the population of NYC. Very tiny country), and it is a very cute little city. They have clubbing/shopping places uptown, and they also have Hamilton Gardens, and the Hamilton Zoo. Which I went to on Saturday btw.
Future Trips!
Australia: Sydney, Brisbane, Gold Coast, Anywhere else we happen to pass through on our road trip
New Zealand: Coromandel Peninsula, Tauranga, Wellington, South Island
Next Post:
Waikato and the differences between here and the US!
Miss you and love you all!!! <3
