Getting there: Melbourne

Thursday 28 April
     After only being home for 2 days Kirsten and I were off to Melbourne for the weekend. We started our journey at the domestic terminal in Sydney airport. We go there really early just to be safe, and it was good we did because their lines aren't labeled so we stood in the wrong one for 20 minutes the the right one for 15 minutes, and then wouldn't you know it our flight got delayed twice, about 25 minutes each time. Nothing too unbearable, but still a minor pain. When it was time to board, I handed them my "boarding pass," which was really a plain piece of paper I printed at school, and was instructed to go down the stairs and to the left. I followed the instructions and soon enough I was on the tarmac. I believe my exact words to the stranger in front of me were, "Well this is new." I then followed her to the tail of the plane, where we boarded through the back door, which until now I thought was for emergency use only. I was wrong. Kirsten had a seat up front and so we didn't board together. After this we were soon in the air. The plane seemed to be a little old and outdated, and boy the seats were uncomfortable, but other than that the trip was fine, and after only a 1 hour flight we were landing in Melbourne.
     I disembarked through the back door and out onto the tarmac once again. I then walked along a "hallway" and by this I mean a sidewalk with a roof and no walls (and mind you it was pretty cold) to "baggage claim," and by this I mean a little caged in area (much like a mini garage) where by the looks of it one would imagine horrible things could happen. I was not impressed. Nor was I impressed by the amount of time it took for our bags to arrive from the plane... I mean its not like they had to take them inside...
     After finally getting our bag we headed out to the bus stop, but it wasn't running from that stop, so we had to walk to the "other" terminal, or the REAL terminal, which has an actual building, to catch the bus to finally make it to.... nope not our hostel.... the bus station, because after 10 pm the bus doesn't do hotel drop offs. So we took my handy dandy map and headed for the hostel on foot. After walking many blocks (in a hurry because if we weren't there within an hour of our estimated arrival they could give up our room) we finally made it. It was after midnight and we were exhausted, so we went straight to bed.
    This adventure alone was enough to make me NEVER want to take a budget airline again, but I still had the trip home...

KBs Adventures Pt 2

KB came along to Auckland, but he liked Base hostel so much he didn't go anywhere.

Here is a picture blog of his "adventures" in NZ.

This is KB relaxing after an exhausting day of travel from Rotorua to Auckland. 

This bed was super comfortable and he almost fell asleep, until....

I introducing KB to Tim Tams! 

KB having his first Tim Tam! 

He LOVED IT!

Lauren and KB enjoying a box of double coat Tim Tams together! 

Trust me... I'm an Expert!

Public Transport.... I am now a master at it. In Minnesota we don't really have that much public transportation, I mean we have a bus system but not anything near what a big city like Sydney has. On my way home from Auckland I took all forms of transportation.

1. A bus to the Auckland airport
2. Then plane to Sydney International
3. A train to Circular Quay 
4. Then a ferry to Manly Wharf 
5. Finally a Taxi to the top of Darley Road.

All this to get back to the Castle and to leave again and do it all in reverse to get to Melbourne 2 days later where I took one other form of transportation, a trolly! I'll write about that trip next.

New Zealand Pt 4- Polynesian Spa Day

Monday 25 April
In the US this is known as Easter Monday, and it is usually is known as this around the rest of the world as well. However, this year it fell on the 25th which in Australia and New Zealand is ANZAC day, which is similar to our memorial day, which meant Easter Monday was on a Tuesday. So on ANZAC day we all decided we were going to do separate things. Kirsten and I really wanted to go to the Polynesian Spa at the hotel across the street and the others wanted to go to a volcano park.

An arch in the town. 

     Kirsten and I decided to go to the adult pools and priest spa. It was an adult only area with 7 hot mineral spring pools with view of Lake Rotorua. There were 3 cascading marble-line pools which is where we started. Then we moved to one of the 3 priest spa pools that have Radium hot spring water, which is renowned for its therapeutic properties, and then we went into large deeper pool, which was just like a hot swimming lap pool. We ended by going back into the cascading pools, which turned out to be our favorite. We spent over 2 hours just relaxing and finally we got hungry and decided to go grab lunch. We ended up at the little deli they went to for breakfast the other day.

Rotorua clock tower. 

    After this we walked around the town and hit up all the little shops, and found lots of fun souvenirs and we went to a little cafe and split a chocolate cake. Later, we went back to the hostel and met up with the others to take the bus back to Auckland.
     On the way back there was a ton of traffic, so it took an extra hour. We made it back to out hostel in Auckland right before 10. We went to our new room which was in the sanctuary again and it was AMAZING! It was just the 5 of us for the night, and we had our own bathroom and a TV! After getting comfortable we made a big meal of pasta with marinara and went to bed right after because we had to be ready to catch the airport bus at 5am!
    Altogether it was a fantastic trip and I can't wait to visit the South Island someday!

New Zealand Pt 3- Maori Dinner

Sunday 24 April

Our group with a traditional Maori sculpture. 

     Tonight we had booked a traditional Maori dinner. The Maori are the indiginous people of New Zealand and we were really excited to learn more about their culture... and also about not having to cook our own meal.

Intimidation dance.

    The evening started with us walking to the company's main offices where we were being picked up for the evening. Here we received our itinerary for the evening and some phrases we would need to know. Such as Kia Ora (pronounced key oar-a) which means hello and goodbye among other things. We then got on our bus (or waka), and headed to the village.
    While on the bus our guide gave us some background on the Maori people and told us some things we should expect that night. He also picked out chief who would represent our waka when we got the village and during the opening and closing ceremonies.
     Once we got off the bus, we followed our chief to the front of the village where we gathered around to watch our chief and the other waka chiefs face the warriors. The warriors of village were doing their traditional intimidation dance to see if our chiefs were weak. We were soon let into the village where there were little huts with someone at each explaining something different about the Maori culture. We learned a traditional Maori games, how they stored their food and how they carved their houses.

Explaining about carving. It would have taken his ancestors 10 years to carve the mantel behind him. 

Earth Oven.

    After learning about their village we went over the cooking area where our dinner was being prepared in a traditional earth oven. They explained how the dug a hole in the ground and used lava rocks to cook the food because they won't crack in half because of the heat. Then they put the meat in, and the vegetables, and then finally the desert on top, and over the whole thing in huge wet leave and then pile on the dirt from the dug hole to keep the heat inside.
     After this we went into the meeting house for the welcoming ceremony which is "The Pressing of Noses, Twice." Most Maori villages only do the pressing of noses once, but the particular tribe we were visiting does it twice. Our chiefs all got on stage with the village chief and each shook his right hand while pressing noses together once, then twice. After the ceremony the chief and his family put on a show for us. Check the video bar to see some of the songs performed.

Pressing of noses twice ceremony.

New Zealand Pt 2- Rotorua

Friday 22 April

     Sulfur. Sulfur. Sulfur. This is what Rotorua smells like! And if you don't know what Sulfur smells like... its like rotten eggs. And if you don't know what rotten eggs smell like... Well LUCKY YOU! Rotorua is known for its geothermal activity. This means there are lots of hot springs and geysers and volcanic activity going on around the area. Now this all sounds really cool and it was, but I wish someone would have warned me about the smell. I did NOT know about the smell. 

This is why the whole town stinks! A sulfur lake.

     We got to Rotorua late, almost 10 pm late. Which normally I wouldn't consider late, but on Good Friday it is pretty late. Or at least it felt late. The whole town was deserted. I wasn't expecting a big city, but it is a tourist destination on the North Island, so I was at least expecting people. Nope, there were none! It was us and the people on our bus. So we got directions from the bus driver and headed to our hostel, Crash Palace. 

     We were lucky because we got there right before they were about to close reception for the night. This was weird because it is a backpackers so you think they would be open late...? Nope. But it was a nice cute place. It wasn't a chain and I believe it used to be someone's house. So it was really fun and the staff was so nice (we were constantly asking them questions... Where is there good food? How do you get to here? How much is a taxi? What is there that's free?) hahaha you get the idea. So we got all checked in and our stuff up to our room when we realized we were starving! 

     We went back down to reception because they had free pasta available that night. So we got a bowl and started trying to get the water to boil. Lauren and I decided to go see if we could find any pasta sauce. We walked to the outskirts of town and NOTHING was open. "Looks like we'll just have to deal with plain pasta." Well the lack of pasta sauce was the least of our problems. We got back and the water hadn't even started to boil, turns out the stove was broken. So we switched to another one. And this one was taking forever. Soon Lauren and Michelle decided to take over and once the water was "hot" not boiling, they put the pasta in thinking it would be fine. BOY WERE THEY WRONG! It was sitting in there for an hour, we were using an electric kettle to boil water and changing it out frequently to get the pasta to cook. We were soooo hungry. Finally they decided it was "cooked" enough and we all started to dig in. Ugh! It was horrible, it was gluey on the outside and still slightly crunchy on the inside. So we found the spice rack and attempted to cover up the mess. It wasn't perfect but we made it work. We all had different combinations of spices, and after a blend of garlic, rosmary, black pepper and basil, mine was alllllmost edible. But of course as starving backpackers we ate it anyways. Every last noodle! 

     Finally we went up to bed so we could be up early for the next day's activities. 

Saturday 23 April

View of Skyline. 

     We got up pretty early and headed to breakfast. Some of the girls ate at a little deli and had pancakes or eggs, but Lauren and I went over the to grocery store and each bought a pastry and a piece of fruit. After this we decided we were going to go to Skyline (even though it was raining and foggy). This is at the top of the mountain and has a ton of stuff to do. To get to the top you take a gondola, and then once at the top you can go on the skyvue swing, or do a street luge down the side of the mountain, or you can even dine on the gondola or at the restaurant at the top. 

     We all decided to go up on the gondola, and the view was amazing even with the fog. We could see most of the town.  Then all of us except Michelle decided to luge. But first Jessica and Kirsten decided to do the skyswing! It was really fun to watch, but I would never do it. Its similar to the ripcord at Valleyfair, but instead they were in a giant swing/ ball thing, and were flying over the side of the mountain! 

     After this we went over to the luge area.

We're ready to Luge!

I was a little hesitant to go, not because I was scared of the ride, but because I was afraid to ride the chair lift back to the top. Ha. But I decided it was worth it and got in line. It was so much fun. You get a little cart with your feet in front of you and almost like bike handles between your legs. You steer like a bike, but to go faster or slow down your move the handles forward or backwards. 

Luging! 

     After my 1 ride the others had 1 or 2 more to go, so I waited inside with Michelle, and once the others were done we got food, and headed back down to town. Here we had a debate about what to do next. Kirsten and I ended up going to get stuff for dinner while the other went to the hot springs, and then Kirsten and I went to find them, but ended up wandering around the park looking for them before giving up. But it was really cool to see the different hot springs, at least while the wind blew in the right direction. After a while though the smell got to us, and in then end we could only look at bubbling pools of mud for so long. (See video bar for my commentary). So we decided to go back to the hostel and wait for the others. 

Hot spring/ bubbling mud. The sulfur causes the different colors. 

     They showed up soon after us and we began cooking dinner. Grilled cheese and tomato soup. We used the upstairs kitchen this time so the stove worked and we had a pretty decent meal. But Lauren and I were still hungry so she had a fantastic idea! Let's go get some pasta from the front desk and put the rest of the soup on it! Now normally this would be totally disgusting, but the soup tasted like marinara sauce. So I agreed, and with adding a little bit of rosemary and garlic to the soup it actually tasted pretty good! After this we decided to sit in the spa (hot tub) and just relax. 

Sunday 24 April

The bungee platform!

     Today was the day that Kirsten was going to bungee jump. Its an interesting idea since she is terrified of heights but is an adrenaline junky... (such a combo). So we all headed out to Agroventure for the day. Here there were tons of things to do, but it all turned out to be super expensive. There was the bungee jump, the big swoop (similar to ripcord again), the shweeb which is like a mini monorail race, and you're in a capsule and you pedal as fast as you can to make it move. There was also the agrojet, which is a jet boat ride, and finally the extreme freefall which is like indoor skydiving.

Shweeb!

     After waiting 1 ½ hours for Kirsten to jump, Michelle, Jessica and I decided to go over to the Zorb area. For those who don’t know what zorbing is… its where you get into a giant rubbery/plastic ball and roll down the hill. We were all going to do it together, but after a while Michelle and I decided it wasn’t worth the money (since we can do it in Michigan where she is from) and so Jessica went alone. (Check out the video below). On our way back we met up with Lauren and Kirsten who had finished her bungee and we headed back to the hostel to get ready for our Maori dinner experience.

      I’ll write about that in the next blog! 

My beautiful friends! Jessica, Lauren, Kirsten and me!

New Zealand Pt 1- Auckland

Wednesday 20 April

A group of my friends and I decided we wanted to go to New Zealand while we in Australia, since it is "right there." It just so happens this year that ANZAC day (which is Australia's memorial/ veterans/labor day all in one) was the same day as Easter Monday, which means Easter Monday was moved to Tuesday, which meant we got an extra long weekend to travel! So Wednesday night myself, and my friends Jessica and Lauren headed to NZ, while our other two friends Kirsten and Michelle we meeting us the next day. 

     We headed to the airport, got checked in and had time to eat before our flight. We settled on Maccers and made an amazing discovery... they have American style Ketchup! Not tomato sauce! You cannot imagine our excitement. Tomato sauce is much much sweeter and runnier than our ketchup, so it was quite the treat to have normal ketchup again. After this we went to our gate, and right when we got there they started boarding. We didn't even sit down, we literally walked up to the gate and handed over our tickets. The flight was normal, it took just under 3 hours to fly from Sydney to Auckland. Here we found the cheapest transportation to our hostel and were quickly on our way! 

     We arrived at the hostel, got checked in and headed up to our room which was in the sanctuary. This is a part of the hostel that is just for girls. You also get free shampoo, conditioner, a towel, bar soap, and a free glass of bubbly (champagne) from the bar next door just for staying here! It was a great deal and it now our new favorite hostel. Once we got to our room we went to bed so we could get up and explore the next day. 

Thursday 21 April

     We started our day early by heading down to the wharfs and getting brekky. It was a really nice day which was perfect because my friends were bungee jumping today! I was not participating so I was the official videographer/photographer. We were picked up from the wharf by the company and taken to their office where we all strapped on harnesses and helmets for the climb. I went up the Auckland bridge into the jump pod with them, and caught the whole thing on tape. The view was amazing from the bridge, we could see the whole skyline, and though it does go against nature to let your friends jump off a bridge, it was really cool to see! hahaha!

The crazy bungee jumpers!

Auckland skyline

     After this adventure we walked around the city and saw some parks and we were pleased that they had Wendy's! New Zealand has far more American items than Australia, they even had Hershey candy! 

     While we were walking around we saw this huge tent with lots of people outside holding small cans of Coke Zero. So we headed over to see what was going on where we were each handed a free can of Coke Zero in support of the All Blacks. This is the New Zealand Rugby team and they were having a huge campaign to support them in the upcoming world cup, which is in NZ this year! They had this a place to write an encouraging message to the team (we did),

Writing our message of encouragement! 

and you could get an autograph from an All Black's legend (we did), and they had a chance to win game. The game was you had to drink your mini Coke Zero, recycle the can, then pick a empty Coke bottle off a wall of Coke bottles. 

Wall of Coca-Cola bottles for the game.

If there was a W on the inside of the cap you win a t-shirt. You're allowed to play 3 times a day, and if you win again you get a different prize. So we went up, and wouldn't you know it we all ended up winning! Odds of 1 in 7 and all 3 of us won! 

I WON! 

     After this we went over to Vector Arena and then to the grocery store to get supplies for dinner! Finally we went back the hostel where we met up with Michelle and Kirsten and we made a yummy dinner of penne pasta with tomato sauce and a ceasar salad. That night we went over the bar next door to check out the locals, but it wasn't really our taste so we ended up leaving after our free glass of bubbly.

Friday 22 April (Good Friday)

     Today we decided to explore more of Auckland as it was our last day here and Kirsten and Michelle hadn't seen anything yet. We walked down to the wharf, but the whole city was really quiet because it was a holiday, so a lot of things were closed. 

Countdown to the Rugby World Cup! 140 days! 

We decided to go see if the museum was open but on the way it started to rain, well pour is a more appropriate term, so we were hiding under 2 umbrellas under a tree, when the owners of the hostel across the street invited us out of the rain. They were so nice, they let us watch TV while we waited out the rain. Soon we were on our way again, and after getting lost a few times we finally found the hiking area that is before the museum. 

Hiking to the museum.

    However, a few of us were getting tired of walking and thought the museum too far and that it wouldn't even be open because of the holiday so they decided to explore the city more. Lauren and I decided to continue on and to our delight found the museum was open! We went in and saw a large exhibit on the Maori people, which are the New Zealand Aboriginals. We then went through many other exhibits including a fashion one, one one WWI, one on WWII, one on the Holocaust, and finally one on volcanoes! The museum was really unique in that they were really interactive, for instance in the war exhibits parts of them were fake trenches, with tapes playing war noises. And in the volcano exhibit there was a fake house that had a volcano simulation! It was definitely worth the trip. 

In a model traditional Maori meeting house! We had to take our shoes off to go in! 

     After this Lauren and I headed back to meet the others, and then we all headed to the bus station to head to our next location, Rotorua!