road trip

Busing to Krabi Town on Christmas Eve

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Today begins the first day of Meg s and my 9 day road trip during our Christmas break! We had both been really looking forward to our adventures around the Andaman Coast! As teachers, we were thankful to be able to get 9 days off. This is how my fabulous travel buddy and I chose to spend our days:

Eve of the 24th  -Board the night bus to Krabi
Wed Dec 25th    -Day in Krabi
Thurs Dec 26th  -Day at gorgeous Koh Phi Phi
Fri Dec 27th       -Commute to Phuket
Sat Dec 28th     -Professional beach bums at Surin Beach, Phuket
Sun Dec 29th     -Chilaxing at Hata Kata Beach, Phuket
Mon Dec 30th   -5 hour bus ride to Trang Town, Scooter rentals
Tues Dec 31st   -Death defying day of scootering around Trang / Evening bus back to Bangkok
Wed Jan 1st      -Arrive back at the Bangkok bus terminal only to see lots of POLICE and traffic…

[Apologies for my lack of blogging. I have plans of posting blogs to fill you in on the “gaps” from the past 5 months. I am an extreme procrastinator and STILL have so many photos to sort and edit through! I really hope to become more active on BROWN EYED GIRL in 2014. Thanks for sticking with me. I brought my laptop along during the vacation and was able to jot down notes every day of our travels. I had planned to blog and post daily but clearly that did not go as planned. I really had not taken into account all the commuting exhaustion and just how lacking the internet would be!!]

As soon as school ended at 3:30pm I excited walked home to grab my packed bags.  In order to meet Megs at our arranged meeting place I had to catch a songtow, ride on the Railink for 30 minutes and then transfer over to the BTS for one stop. We met up at the Victory Monuement BTS stop and hopped into a taxi towards the Southern bus depot (Sai Tai Mai). Even though traffic was bad at this hour we arrived with plenty of time to spare before our bus would depart at 8:00pm.

I set my iphone to capture this picture because we were so clueless as to what the ticket lady was trying to tell us...

I set my iphone to capture this picture because we were so clueless as to what the ticket lady was trying to tell us…

It took a while for the ticket agent to figure out how to print off two tickets and give them to us. There was some confusion and a bit of waiting around before we were given two tickets and a receipt.  The bus left shortly after 8:15pm and we were both excited to be starting our vacation. There was a little mix up in the seating arrangements when we first arrived on our bus. The seating attendant struggled to locate our seats on our tickets. At one point it seemed like we might be on the wrong bus or people were in our seat. Luckily it was sorted out and we were able to catch some sleep on our 12 hour bus ride from Bangkok to Krabi Town. We were pleasantly surprised that our tickets were less than we had budgeted and we were provided with beverages and snacks on the bus. We say snacks as opposed to a meal because the portion sizes were not comparable to any meal we would be satisfied with.

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I promise, IN TIME I will post an entry for each day of the trip.
Thanks for reading and please keep checking back for updates.

xo
Amanda Sumalee

Snorkeling around Goat Island (Last day of roadtrip)

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Time to head home 😦

We all set our alarms so we would be up bright and early for 7am. We quickly finished packing and ate breakfast. Homemade lunches (we made amazing homemade sandwiches again!) were prepared before we said goodbye to The Pickled Parrot hostel and were on our way to Goat Island. We aimed to be back in Auckland in the late afternoon so we wanted to get an early start on the day.

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We arrived at Leigh just after 11:30. It’s a coastal village just an hour north of Auckland. We found a place to rent snorkel, fins, and a mask just before heading to the beach. The beach was a short 10 minute drive away. We ate our  delicious lunches in the car before squeezing into our wet-suits  We headed out into the water looking hilarious with all of our gear on. My goggles were too big, Ana’s fins were too tight, Kaik’s goggles pinched and Em’s fins were wonky. We were lucky enough to have Emma’s underwater camera to capture pictures of the fish we saw and some action shots of us snorkeling. None of us had any proof of the time but it kept feeling like we were swimming forever. The sun wasn’t really out but the water didn’t feel cold with our wet-suits on. We swam out to Goat Island but only sat on the rocks. Once you’re up close it doesn’t really seem like there is much to see but a huge rock. We were in the water just over an hour swimming around and enjoying all the underwater sights around the side of the island. We were all a little disappointed because we were hoping to see a lot of different kinds of fish. We saw a few big fish (snappers) and lots of pale pink and white fish but we didn’t really see a huge range of fish. It was pretty neat how close I was able to swim up to the fish. All the underwater pictures are on Emzie’s camera so I will try to post a few once she has them organized.

We had a small crisis when Kaik misplaced her wet-suit at the end of the day but the lady at the rental place seemed very chill. We suspect that while Kaik was changing someone might have swiped her wet-suit OR that we left it on the roof of the car when we drove off. We were nervous that we wouldn’t get our deposit back on our rental equipment but the lady was pretty confident that it would show up and that we could leave without paying any money for it. *There are still some good people in the world!! Crisis averted. There was no way we wanted to pay $115 for a wet-suit we didn’t have!

We were all pretty tuckered out after snorkeling and had a quiet drive back to Auckland. We were able to dropp  Emzie off at her house around 2pm and drove the rest of the way home for our well deserved rest. We unpacked the car and were able to get some laundry done before the rest of my family returned home.

We enjoyed a family dinner outside on the patio and caught up with the boys. We easily shared stories and laughed our way through the meal. It was a great way to end off our unforgettable road trip.

I would say the trip was a success. We were able to not go too far over our budget and made really smart purchases. It helped knowing that we were all basically living out of backpacks and would have to carry whatever we bought! We are thankful for the GPS and all the sunshine!!!

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xox Buddha Blessings
Amanda, Ana, Emzie & Kaik!

Beaching it inThe Bay of Islands (Day #3 of roadtrip)

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Thursday January 10th (Day 3 of our Roadtrip)

We left Pukenui around 10am. We all had an earlier than usual morning as members of our hostel were super LOUD for a long time in the kitchen this morning. The large family did not realize it might be courteous of them to whisper if they were planning to cook and eat around 7 in the morning! Even though we started the morning off a little grumpy our moods all picked up when we realized it would be another gorgeously sunny day! We arrived in the Bay of Island after a fairly quick 2 hour drive. We drove straight here with no stops as we didn’t eye any Thrift Stores or souvenir type stores along the way. The Pickled Parrot Backpackers hostel is a very cute and quirky place that we are finding to be very cozy. We did find it very hard to spot from the roads as the signage was pretty small and minimal.  We are in a 3 bunk bed room and only 1 of the beds is vacant.

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We unpacked the car then went for a walk around the town lots of touristy stops. We saw the (noisy early birds) family that was at the hostel we were last at and had joked about running into. We all secretly hoped they weren’t perchin’ at the parrot like us! We dined on yummy fish and chips on an outdoor patio then walked back home. We were able to grab some cold drinks en-route to the hostel before jumping into our beach gear and heading straight to the beach. We had fun tossing a frisbee around and enjoying some drinks on the beach. It was pretty evident that we weren’t the only ones who had the idea to have a refreshing drink on the beach. The evening menu is any college students staple meal of: noodles, crackers, cheese and left over sandwich meat.

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We were easily entertained by Jenga and throwing in little rules and playing “never have I ever during rounds”. I have never played a more entertaining round of Jenga before playing with Kristy and Ana! Kristy was also christened with the new nickname of Kaik, which is pronounced cake. We went to 2 bars and really got to see there was not much of a nightlife on a Thursday night here. We played pool and tried to teach Emzie how to handle the cue. She wasn’t haven’ any of it and preferred to watch the 3 of us struggle through a game.

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During our first night on the town we can say we were fortunate enough to meet an Irish lad and unfortunate enough to meet 2 Aussie’s one of whom claims to have been a contemporary dancer…years ago. Without getting into too many details I can say we left the bar after receiving a “phone call” from another friend who wanted to meet up with us. After drinks, cowboy shots and 2 rounds of tequila shots we all got home safely. We were able to get into out beds and get somewhat of a good night’s sleep. The heat is so hot and is pretty harsh on the people who are stuck on the top bunks but we are managing. We DO keep the windows open at night but all the moths and flies love to LAND on our bodies. NOT fun.

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Complimentary breakfast is offered from 7-9 daily so we all plan on taking full of advantage of the free food. Tomorrow we have another beach day planned out. It’s a hard life sometimes 🙂 I forgot to mention that Ana did an excellent job of taking Myrtle for a quick spin yesterday. She did a wonderful job of staying left and working the indicator lights! Proud of her.

Thanks for reading – and I hope the snow isn’t too much of a nuisance for those who are getting lots of it right now.
Lots of warm thoughts to you all,
Amanda

Is there a camel coming for us? (Day #2 of roadtrip)

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Wednesday January 9th (Day 2 of our Roadtrip)

We left around 10 to rent sand carpets. The first place we stopped at was disappointedly CLOSED so we ended up driving closer to the sand dunes and renting foam boards with smooth plastic bottoms…aka  boogie boards.  The rentals of the boards alleviated our unneeded stress of not being able to ride the dune and we were reenergized to ride down the big sand dunes. To our dismay we somehow passed the little turnoff and ended up travelling 10 kilometers before realizing we missed the exit and turned around to head back. We were so thrilled when we found the turnoff.

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Combination of our emotions and thoughts that ran through our heads as we reached the parking lot of the Te Paki sand dunes: ‘overwhelmed, joyous, fearful, excited, oh sh!t I have to walk up that hill! holy fu@k that sand looks hot, are we in the desert?, where are the camels?’

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After around an hour and  a half of adventurous playing and fearful apprehension of dehydration and death we ventured back to the safety of Myrtle. We quickly GUZZLED water. After our lovely lunch break we headed on back to a baby hill for some pictures and last minute adventures before needing to return the 4hour boards at the rental place. At one point during our long trek in the hot sand I told the girls I felt like I was part of the 2nd Sex and The City Movie and a camel was going to appear with Mr. Big. I am so grateful to Emzie for remembering her waterproof/sandproof camera so we could capture ths shots of us onto of the hills. Thank you also to Ana and Em for taking some gorgeous shots of me in action after our lunch break. I felt a little naked not carrying my iphone on the dunes but I felt it best to leave it in the car safely away from all the sand. We treated ourselves to some cold refreshing ice cream before our drive to another beach destination.

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Rarawa Beach time!!!  Only about a 15-20 minute windy road drive followed by gravel patch to a glorious white sand beach. We only stayed for around 45mins because we knew we had another beach stop right after. The sand was so fine and white and Ana LOVED that the sand was squeaky. The water was so clear! We could see our feet through the water. There were millions of shiny beautiful shells. So glittery and small. We took some pictures of the water and collected shells before climbing back into our hot hot car.

IMG_6837Last stop of the day was spectacular. The drive to 90 Mile beach wasn’t too bad. We were all really keen to get there since we had; read, seen, and heard so much about it. We were kind of surprised by the lack of signage considering it’s popularity among the travel books and postcards. We drove along long gravel roads with gorgeous trees on either side. As I was driving, I couldn’t help commenting how it felt like I was living out a poem or scene from a movie or book. I didn’t REALLY know what the feeling?! It was so weird that we were driving through a huge forest that only had a two lane gravel road so we could get to this breathtakingly beautiful 90mile long beach. I don’t really know how to explain it. It wasn’t déjà vu but it just felt – unfamiliar – but somehow I was completely amazed and aware. No one else in the car really understood what I was feeling but it was just such a weird feeling of driving through this massive forest on a rock road to A BEACH. I couldn’t verbalize the sensation correctly because I have NEVER FELT it before but it was a sense of comforting awe?…still don’t really know but the feeling of nature and going towards something so incredible made me feel like I was LIVING. Let’s move on from that topic before everyone starts to think I am crazy!!

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When we arrived at the beach I was looking for parking but THERE WAS NO DESIGNATED lot.  I just drove on the beach and it was an indescribable feeling of joy. You could park anywhere on the beach. Some cards were driving along while others were parked. We drove a ways down the beach before settling on a place to park. I won’t lie: I was thrilled to be driving on the beach yet paranoid that the car would struggle through this unexpected adventure. The waves were so strong. We were startled to feel the waves powerful force the first time we almost got dragged away. It knocked me off my short legs and I was soaked in minutes! We wanted to go swimming in the ocean but quickly changed our minds when Ana spotted the first jelly fish. As I had never seen one before I thought it was just floating seaweed. We got to take pictures of them all along the beach and loads of pictures of our All Star Myrtle (Myrtle the Turtle is the car my Kiwi family fondly named the Au Pair’s car) then moved her back a ways as the tide was coming in quickly. After lots of frolicking on the beach and a million pictures we decided it was time to head on back to the hostel…but not before a mini drive to the other side of the beach.

Emzie's Iphone 5 took this panorama photo!!

Emzie’s Iphone 5 took this panorama photo!!

We had a quick dip at the hostel’s pool to try and rid our bodies of sand before jumping into the showers. After we were all cleaned up we enjoyed some noodles and yummy drinks. For our evening entertainment we watched slideshows of all the days’ pictures. It is always a good laugh to see what pictures we have taken from our 3 (good quality) cameras, 2 iphones, 1 itouch, and a water proof camera! Lots of the same angles are captured but also many candid pictures. WE all love to take pictures of people taking pictures but hate BEING CAUGHT taking them 🙂

Tomorrow we need to pack and be checked out by 10am. I think we are getting free wi- so I will be able to post these blogs. So far this road trip has been a blast and so many AMAZING memories and countless photos captured.

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“The END” Emzie proudly declares before slipping her eye mask over her head and calling it a night.
Buddha Blessings
xox Amanda

*Thank you so much to Ana, Em and Kristy for their very insightful contributions – I typed and we all spouted out suggestions so this blog could be completed! TEAMWORK!

Arrived in Pukenui! (Day #1 of roadtrip)

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Monday January 7th

We were leaving for our roadtrip tomorrow so we had to get Emzie’s house all cleaned, and we had to be all packed and ready to depart the city early in the am. We all helped to clean the house and get the recycling and garbage sorted out. We all packed our bags and filled Myrtle with bags and road trip necessities.  We dropped all our bags at home before going to grab Subway for lunch. We walked to Brown’s Bay and enjoyed our picnic lunch by the water. Besides the WIND we had a lovely outdoor meal. We spent a little time walking around the shops and popping into a few souvenir shops before heading to Pack’n’Save. We did a big grocery run to buy food for meals and snacks so we could save as much money as possible. All four of us are on a budget so we are trying to cut corners on food whenever possible. By the time we got home we were all exhausted and decided to go to bed early.

Tuesday January 8th (Day 1 of the Roadtrip)

We were all up around 6 so we could eat breakfast and have our lunches packed by 7:30. With everything packed and us all caffeinated we were ready to hit the road. We stopped at a St. John Thrift store to see if there were any cool finds. Bought some cassettes and magazines but was disappointed to not be able to work the cassette player.

The roads were really straight or super windy. It kept reminding of a mixture of Ireland, Vancouver Island and New Zealand with all the rolling hills and greenery.

Arrived at our Pukenui Backpackers Lodge right around lunch time. We were “on a budget” so we were staying right beside the motel with its quality waterfront units. I think we got the best bang for our buck considering all the accommodations have the same view 🙂 It is like paradises here with it’s clear skies and palm trees. We were excited shocked to see that the two flag poles outside were a Wales flag and a Canadian one. We felt like Sock’s was REALLY with us in spirit. (The next day we discovered that the flags are interchanged daily).

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After a picnic lunch by the water’s edge, we set off for Cape Reinga’s “The Meeting of the Oceans”. From the edge of the cliff you witness the Tasman Sea and the Pacific Ocean mixing together. The blue and green water is beyond gorgeous.

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This was transcribed on one of the wooden pillars:
The meeting point

Te Rerenga Wairua (Cape Reinga) marks the separation of the Tasman Sea (to the west) from the Pacific Ocean. For Maori, these turbulent waters are where the male sea Te Moana Tapokopoko a Tawhaki meets the female sea Te Tai o Whitireia.

The whirlpools where the currents clash are like those that dance in the wake of a wake (canoe). They represent the coming together of male and female – and the creation of life.

The view was EXTRODINARY. My pictures will not do the view justice. It is the furthest point you can travel in New Zealand. The tourist destination is fondly referred to as “Far North” There is a working light house where the light shone for the first time in May 1941. It is one of the first lights that shipping observes when arriving from the Tasman Sea and north Pacific Ocean. The light was fully automated in 1987 and the lighthouse keeper was withdrawn. The operation of the light is now completely automatic and is monitored by a computer and Maritime NZ staff in NZ. We made sure we took lots of photos. We all wanted our hair down for photos but found it to be so beyond windy for any of us to handle. Eventually all for our us put our hair up in some form so as not lose all sanity. The wind would not give us a break.I think at one point Kristy’s hair was blowing so much that she and Emzie were starting to eat it!

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On the drive home we stop at the Local Store for delicious ice cream. The staff was so friendly and very generous with the scoop portions!

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We headed back to the hostel for some instant noodles and drinks. We went to the local bar (literally right across the street) and each purchased what we believed to be have been ciders. Instead we ended up just buying 8% energy juice –NOT peach and apple ciders. It was annoying but made for a good laugh. Instead we headed back home and drank and hung out in our room.

The single beds are located on the house’s porch that was then enclosed. Our carpet was never properly trimmed to fit the room when it was installed so the door doesn’t close and the door knob falls off if you pull too hard. Nor does the door lock from inside or outside. With all that said we have been given lots of windows and a decent amount of common room space and nicely stocked kitchen. The place is an old house with 4 rooms with showers and toilets. It has a lot of character and quirks and much more accommodating then a hostel. More of a welcoming cottage vibe here 🙂

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Buddha Blessings
xox Amanda

(All photos from this blog except for one of the group shots was taking on my iphone. I will be trying to post more photos from the other cameras in the future. They are usually a better quality but it is easier and faster for me to just post my own pictures as they are already loaded onto my computer.)

Rotorua/Taupo Road Trip (Oct 19-22)

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This weekend trip was ALMOST a month ago but I am just getting around to posting it now…better late than never 🙂 I will work on getting the pictures posted on Facebook too.

Countless people raved about Rotorua! We could not have heard more about how great our weekend trip would be.  It would be well worth the short drive for all tourists near and around Auckland. With that in mind, we excited made plans to have Rotorua be our first roadtrip. We scheduled to leave on our first long weekend together. We made plans and were eager to depart before my unemployment came into play. Being “between jobs” (thanks brother!) had me second guessing if I should be heading out of town or laying low in the hostel. With some gentle coaxing by Emzie and my eagerness for some laughs, we set out on our first official New Zealand Sumzie Roadtrip.

Friday I packed my bag (which at this point had been getting far more use then I ever would have imagined—very glad I went with my gut and bought the pricier..but more gorgeous and more user friendly backpack!) Our ride up to Rotoru could have been dryer. We both lost track of how many times it rained. The drive took around 3.5hrs and probably rained at least 7 times. We stopped in Cambridge to get out and stretch our legs and grab some much enjoyed coffee. Sadly there was no Tim Horton run for us. Our Starbucks watch was unsuccessful as we found out the locals had never even heard of it. We did drive through Tirau which was a very decorated town of corrugated metal.  Their metal creations were seen everywhere.

As soon as you get near Rotorua your nose starts to tell you are heading in the right direction. The home of spurting geysers, steaming hot pools and and exploding mud pools leaves the air filled with its sulphuric aroma. We arrived in Rotorua around 4:30 and checked into our hostel. We were fortunate enough to get an all-girls room. The hostel was fully booked due to on the road swim teams. It was “interesting” to have the hostel be all ages. Kids running around and teenagers playing in the pool was not what I had become accustomed to during my hostel days.

We ate dinner at the restaurant Fat Dog. It came highly recommended to me by someone who had just been a week or so before. She was visiting from Austria and assured me the food was delicious. I will admit the restaurant overwhelmed me at first; as the menu is all written on the walls in chalk. You order and pay at the register and they come and bring you your food.  It is a very quirky place with delicious food and I would for sure go back again! Em had her first “hostel experience” when we arrived back to our room to find that the bedroom lights were off with the air thick of burning incense. Our roommates were singing along and swaying with an enthusiastic guitar player. Emzie’s pillow pet might have felt a little claustrophobic as it was nearly being squished to death by the musician! I wish I could have captured the look on her face when she opened the bedroom door!!!!!!!! Needless to say the roommates were all really nice and we had a lovely time getting to know them over the next few days. Even the girl who spread her makeup all over the foot of my bed (when she thought I was sleeping) so she could apply her makeup.

Saturday was a fun filled day full of planned activities. We were praying that the rain would hold off so we could enjoy our luge rides! We rode up a really short gondola ride and then rode down on plastic luges! We were fortunate enough to get the eight-seater gondola all to ourselves as we rode to the top of Mount Ngongotaha (487 metres above sea level). Through the spitting rain we saw Lake Rotorua and the city. The luge ride down was awesome! Emzie bought our Skyline Rotorua tickets on the grabone website (similar to groupon) so we were able to get a good rate on riding 3x down the hill. We did the scenic track that was 2 kilometre ride through Redwood trees. There were a few pit stops where you could get out and take pictures. We both really enjoyed the 1 kilometre advanced luge track that was much steeper and had more turns. The Jelly Belly factory turned out to be super disappointing. Definitely very over hyped and not worth the money to buy anything from it. We both love jelly beans and couldn’t bring ourselves to pay around 50cents a jelly bean.

Afterwards we took a walk around Kuirau Park (a free attraction) to see some hot springs. The park was nearby and gave Emzie the opportunity to see her first hot pool.  Let’s just say Em was under amused by them. I had seen some before in Canada but being her first time…she was unimpressed by their lack of entertainment. The volcanic area had an eruption as recent as 2003 which covered most of the park in trees. We got to see the boiling mud and plenty of huffing steam. The cheap thermal thrills were not as exciting as I had wished! Luckily we found a friendly popcorn vendor who was super friendly and had delicious stock.  We continued our walk around and randomly stumbled upon a festival. We searched for a caricature sketcher but were not able to locate any. We could have done without the creepy clown! We did see lots of antics and homemade crafts. There was also a zombie apocalypse (was an annual event to raise money and awareness for brain injuries).

Wanting to make the most of our day we headed back to the hostel to look through the wall of brochures and pamphlets. We were starting to feel we had exhausted most of our options in Rotorua. Originally we had planned to go white water rafting, parasailing or skydiving during our visit. Seeing as my budget had become tighter we nixed all the fun-adrenaline filled activities. There was a pub and bar conveniently located literally 5 steps away from our hostel but instead we decided to have an early night and head off towards Taupo in the morning.

Sunday We drove towards Taupo which was a under an hour drive away. Wai-O-Tapu Thermal Wonderland was only about a 20 It is known as New Zealand’s  most colourful and diverse volcanic area.  The rain was in full force the whole drive. When we got there we were really worried the rain would ruin our visit. Luckily the sky cleared and we got sun from time to time. We took full advantage of the moments where we did not need our umbrellas and hoods to take quick pictures of ourselves. 

The Champagne Pool was an insane experience! “Unique in the world, a fifth of a hectare of bubbling, hissing water, with a beautiful ochre-coloured petrified edge”(Brochure). Em and I could barely see the edge without our eyes trying to shut. It felt like we were being swallowed up by fog. Our glasses steamed up and we couldn’t see ANYTHING!!! It was raining but we were so hot. We never got to see Lady Knox Geyser erupt as we were not there at 10:15am for its daily eruption.

We decided we should check out Huka Falls while we were in town. It was not as spectacular as we were expecting…”Huka Falls! It should be called Huka River or Huka Mini River!” -Emma. Even though the water was a royal blue the falls was very small in comparison to Niagara Falls which we have both seen. (A sign informed us that the ice-blue, snow-white is famous for having about 200,000 litres of water plunge nine metres over the great rock face of Huka Falls, every second. The flow over the falls is son strong it prevents the upstream migration of trout and native fish such as eels which is why there are no eels to be found in Lake Taupo.)

In the afternoon we went to the Polynesian Spa for a hot mineral bath. We wanted to book mud bath back massages but they were completely booked. Instead we relaxed in a secluded private pool filled with alkaline water at a comfortable 38.5 degrees for 30 minutes. (Brochure) Our skin felt so smooth when we were finished.

One of the HIGHLIGHTS of the trip was our movie and dinner in-bed. We watched the Pixar movie The Incredibles and dined on crackers and double creamy brie. We made great decisions. I had never seen the movie and found it very cute and the brie was beyond delicious. Will creamy brie taste plain to me now?

Monday The sun finally came out and it was a gorgeous drive back to Auckland. To Em’s DEELIGHT we stopped off to Zorb. Large, clear, people filled spheres bouncing and rolling  150m straight down a grassy track down the hill (New Zealand Lonely Planet). We had planned to be strapped into the dry Zorb and face each other as we rolled down the hill. To our shock our heights did not fulfill the height requirement and we had to ride WITH NO STRAPS in a zorb filled with water. We were given VERY LITTLE direction on how the two of us would be able to roll down in the same Zorb without seriously injuring each other. The whole way down the hill we were laughing and screaming and shoving each other away. It is a miracle neither of us got a black eye. Someone really needs to bring this to CANADA.

As we drove through Cambridge our helpful Naviman (GPS) mentioned there would be passing a place of worship. It just so happened that there was an annual fair on the church’s property. Besides lots of homemade crafts guess what we found??? MORE popcorn from the same vendor that was in Rotorua. He recognized us and jokingly accused us of stalking him. We didn’t think it would be appropriate to ask him for his summer schedule…but we should have since his sweet and sour popcorn is beyond delicious. Before Em took me back to the hostel I had an interview with a potential family. We met in Browns Bay which is a lot more tropical and scenic than Mt Roskill. We both had our fingers crossed that this family would work out for me.

The long weekend trip was a great opportunity for a lot of photographs and smiles.I am so glad we decided to go! Sorry it took me so long to post this. I am glad it is finally up – I have had this nagging feeling in the back of my mind ever since we returned from our trip. As always, I hope you enjoyed the read and am so glad you are interested in keeping up with my adventures.

– more blogs in the future I promise,
xox Amanda