July 3- Auckland

George here- It's 1:30 in the afternoon, and we should be out and about on our last full day of our New Zealand adventure, but it's pouring down rain in Auckland at the moment and about 50 degrees and windy.  We've already been to the aquarium this morning and will likely watch a movie in an hour, so a little down time in the hotel is just fine at the moment.

I feel a little guilty being in such a cooler climate with the whole East Coast baking and much of it without power, but we'll be home to face it soon enough. 

Not much to report on since Sunday, but we greatly enjoyed our villa at Hot Water Beach and Burke and I even woke up early Monday to watch Spain beat Italy in the Euro Cup soccer final. We left there around 10 and got into the heart of Auckland around 12:30.  We settled into our hotel here which is probably our biggest yet with 2 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, a living room and a small kitchen.  After a quick bite for lunch, we walked down to the wharf area and did some last minute souvenir shopping. 

With steady rain this morning, we thought the aquarium would be a could idea, but so did many others, including the Australian National Boys Choir, so while seeing penguins, sting rays and sharks was cool, the crowds made it difficult to get around. 

So while we will likely wrap things up later on, this will likely be it for me.  We leave Auckland at 9:30 tomorrow night and then depart from L.A. an hour later on July 4. (after 12 hours of flying and 8 hours of waiting)  It's been a blast, but we're all ready to be home again.

June 29-July 1

George here (and Josh too).  We left Waitomo around 10:00—we are not moving at a rapid speed in the mornings at this point-- and headed towards the Alexander Farm (also known as Hobbiton) used in the 3 Lord of the Rings and 2 Hobbit films. 

But in one of the brochures I was reading, I saw that there was a tribute to Tim and Neil Finn [two of my favorite musicians] in their hometown of Te Awamutu.  So we found the museum there and spent about 30 minutes reading news clips, listening to music on albums (I think Josh was pretty amazed music could be made that way), and watching old family videos of the Finn Family.

Once I had my fix, we headed to Hobbiton.  We got there in time for a 12:20 tour and loaded the bus with 25 or 30 other tourists. 

(from Josh)- We started off seeing some small Hobbit holes, then on our way up to Bag End (Biblo’s house), we saw the Party Tree where Bilbo had his 111^th birthday, and across a small lake, we saw The Green Dragon Tavern (soon to be a working pub). Then we went to Bag End and Sam Gangee’s house.  We were supposed to stay with our guide, but one little Russian boy kept wandering off and slipped into a pond.

Josh in one of the Hobbit holes at Hobbiton

From there, we drove to Hamilton, the 4^th biggest city in New Zealand.  We got a room with a Queen, a double, and a single bed and had a yummy buffet dinner. Josh even had an ornate pineapple-lemonade drink.

Josh's drink at Valentine's

We got up Saturday before we left Hamilton, we went to the museum there.  Josh says “it was cool.”  It had animatronics and gave Josh some ideas what he wants to do with engineering when he grows up.

Laura and Burke have a "real life" Mario Cart race

After a Subway lunch (our 4^th or 5^th this trip), we headed east to Hot Water Beach, where Laura and the boys had been on the second day of their trip.  We got their at high tide, so we spent most of the night cooking dinner and watching TV (George-rugby and Laura and the boys Spiderman 3)

Sunday morning, we got up a little earlier and headed to the beach at low tide around 9:00 armed with shovels to build holes in the sand and to create our on family hot pool.  Two hours later, we were a little sandy, but warmer than the 45 degree and drizzly outside temperatures. 

We had a small cabin with no amenities last night, but upgraded to the family villa where we’re now relaxing, watching TV and chilling after a nice warm shower.

We’ll do a little more adventuring around the Coramandel Peninsula this afternoon and then head back to Auckland tomorrow afternoon.  One more update from there in a day or two.

June 26-28

Burke: June 26^th & 27^th 
                I think that I’m developing memory lapses, because I had to ask what we did 6 hrs. ago, or the sheer awesomeness has temporarily given me amnesia. Ok, it’s all good now. So yesterday, we woke up and had a little jaunt through Windy Welly (Wellington.) It really proved its name the night before when it was gusting on our 25^th hotel floor at 4:00 in the morning. We then saw the national museum of New Zealand, Te Papa. It had lots of interesting exhibits about New Zealand’s wildlife, history, and their native people, The Maori. After Te Papa, we drove to Whanganui. We climbed a 176-step tower and saw a lovely view at the top. The side effects of going back down were jello-legs. We spent the night in Whanganui and had tacos for dinner.

                The next day we woke up and drove toward Waitomo. The drive had great scenery until it started snowing, I couldn’t see anything after that. Well, not until we got to The Grand Chateau, a giant mansion that was a ski resort. We were able to go outside and have a (snow) ball. I made Fort Burke and Josh and Dad made a snowman. We then finished driving to Waitomo and ate a lasagna made by Mom.

               
Laura: As I may have mentioned- the boys are a little short on words. The time in Wellington wasn’t too remarkable outside the Lord of the Rings tour. It is a lovely town that is very reminiscent of San Francisco, right down to the active earthquake zone. At one point the shore line for the harbor was about 500 feet above where it is now- an earthquake in the late 1800’s lifted up the entire harbor and gave the town a lot more real estate to build on. It is the capital of New Zealand, which is now embroiled in their own high profile murder trial (think OJ Simpson without the celebrity). The drive from Wellington to Whanganui was one of our easier drives- minus the 5-7 miles that went right along the crashing waves of the shore. Whanganui was a stopping point for us, not much to see there, but it did give us a good shelter for some rain and wind coming through the region. The next day we hoped to see the highest point on the North Island and the active volcanoes used as the Mt. Doom for the Lord of the Rings- Mt. Tongariro and Ruaphepu.

We couldn’t see them due to the 6+ inches of snow and the low clouds that accompanied them. We did stop at the Grand Chateau Tongariro and had a fun snow play day. Only 20 minutes away it was green, sunny with rainbows and no trace of snow. We headed to Waitomo.

We stayed 2 nights at Waitomo, best known for its extensive network of glow worm caves.  On Thursday, we took a short hike up to the Waitomo lookout, and saw a country very much like I picture Ireland- and found a flock of turkeys to visit in the process. In the afternoon, we had booked an adventure tour, and we were not disappointed. We went with Kiwi Raft Adventures and started by putting on wetsuits and harnesses and getting a short course in abseiling (what I call rappelling). We then abseiled into a 90 foot cavern, with a stream running at the bottom. This was followed by a walk upstream to a few caving spots where we tried our hands at squeezing through small spots and pulling ourselves out of holes and caving spots.

We then got a lesson on glowworms, turned out our headlamps and saw a constellation of glowing worm butts. They produce the phosphorescence to burn off their waste, as they have no other way to get rid of it. We then jumped into our innertubes and proceeded to coast down the stream, passing our entry point and continuing on in complete darkness at times. After a nice long float, we dismounted and did a little more caving. Our guide, Simon, was encouraging, even if his language wasn’t always family friendly!

After a nice warm drink and some chocolate, we then walked against the current back up to our entry point. This was the hardest part of the trip as we had gotten plenty wet and tired, and it was sometimes hard work slogging back upstream, but we all made it.

Our final part of the adventure was to climb out of the cave we were in. Simon practically walked up to the belay point, and then Burke was the first up, followed by Josh, then George and I brought up the rear. By the time I went, it was almost completely dark, so I didn’t have much help in seeing where I was going- There were plenty of hand and footholds, and the slope wasn’t too severe, so despite some jelly legs and wetsuits holding us back, we all made it up and back to our waiting van. It was a true adventure and amazing time for all.

 George won the award for caving, or the ‘superman’ award, Burke had the award for humor and ‘aiding and abetting’ award, Josh got the perseverance award as well as ‘I am ready!’ award, and Laura got the ‘that’s why we wear a helmet award’ or maybe the ‘I just want to take a swim’ award.  The next day we headed to Hamilton, but not before stopping for a Finn Brothers museum exhibit in their hometown of Te Awamuta and a full tour of the Hobbiton set near Matamata- but I’ll let someone else talk about those.

June 24-25

Take the LEFT side!

On Sunday, we got up early, and thanks to some good mountain driving on Laura’s part, we made it to Picton just in time to turn in our rental car and catch the Interislander Ferry to Wellington.

 We were aboard Kaitaki, the largest boat in the fleet- it was 9 stories tall and can carry 1600 passengers when full.  Luckily it wasn’t full. There was a movie theater on board, a two story play place, a couple of bars, a full cafeteria and the top most level was an outdoor deck where we could look out on the Queen Charlotte sounds and the Wellington peninsula.

 As we left the sounds of the South Island, we could easily see the land of the North Island. The Cook Strait was fairly smooth, with just a little rough water as we rounded the base of the North Island and entered the Wellington Harbor. We docked and then took a shuttle to our hotel- The James Cook Grand chancellor. The whole trip is about 30 miles and takes 3 hours. We will stay in Wellington (the Capital) for a couple of days and then make our way north eventually spending our last few days in Auckland.

Frodo senses Nazgul while hobbits hunt mushrooms

Josh here- today I’d say was the best day of the trip. We went on a Lord of the Rings tour around Wellington- viewing places where they shot the movie. We went with a guy named Todd who was an important extra in the Lord of the Rings. First we went to Mount Victoria where they shot s couple of scenes in big pine trees.

Then we went to the river where another scene was filmed, and there Todd had some replica props that we could use- hobbit/elf ears, and a real sword like Frodo’s and he also had Legolas’ bow. Then we went to Harcourt park where they filmed the scene of Isengard with Gandalf. I also sat, stood and crouched where Sir Peter Jackson, Ian McKlellan, Elijah Wood and the other hobbits had been. Then we went to the Weta Cave.

Weta is a special effects company that makes props, makeup, CGI effects and all the non-acting movie magic. We saw a life-sized model of Smeagol (Gollum).  It was so cool to see actual props and miniatures from the movies. It also had maps and things describing Middle Earth and pendants and Jewelry for sale (the ring of course).

Todd as Oliphant driver

Todd told me that one guy bought a $5000 ring that matched the one in the movie, then hired a helicopter and dropped it into a volcano, just like in the movie! Todd was an Oliphant driver in the battle for Minas Tirith scene where Legolas takes down his Oliphant, and he was a courier for Denethar- the steward of Gondor, and was in the scene where Denethar lights himself on fire. At the end of the tour we came back to our hotel and got an autograph from Todd in our new LOTR Location guidebook as well as a shot of him dressed as an Oliphant driver. Having just seen the movies before we left the States, this was a great way to make them a little more real.

June 23

George here--It was another day of unexpected adventures (although we really don’t have any decent pictures today to show for it). We had a leisurely morning in Akaroa and ended up leaving there around 10.  We stopped again in Christchurch to switch rental cars (a Toyota Corolla for a Mitsubishi Triton/ pick up truck) and headed north.  Laura got to drive with severe wind gusts (40-50 mph) and a few drizzles, and made it to Hanmer Springs a little before 3.  It is a cute resort town best known for it hot spring and Thermal Spa.  The only problem was that once we arrived, there was no power in the entire town, including the Spa or the Holiday Park where we were staying.

Since we have a decent drive ahead of us tomorrow, we debated driving ahead, but we decided to stick it out and are ecstatic that we did.  The boys jumped on a trampoline in the rain and we were hanging on in the room until 4:30 when the power came back on. 

After doing a quick happy dance, we got our swim stuff together and headed to the spa. Despite 50 degree temperatures, stiff winds and a steady rain, we spent two hours in and out of 100 degree pools, sulfur baths, and several water slides.  We had a great time and finished in time to watch most of the All Blacks vs. Ireland rugby match (at this point, a 36-0 All Blacks lead)

Off to Wellington tomorrow with a 3 hour drive and a 3 hour ferry trip, so lots of excitement to come!

June 21-22

June 21-Burke

I’m not quite sure that I can full capture the actually coolness of skiing on Mt. Hutt, but I’ll do my best. The day began with a joyful hour and a half trip to the ski area on Mt. Hutt with the last half an hour of the drive up the mountain and some of the drive on snow chains.

When we arrived at the ski area, we purchased our passes and had some lunch. The cool thing about the passes is that you don’t have to pull them out every time; they had scanners that could read it through your clothing. We then were given rentals and we hit the slopes.  Josh and I didn’t have much of a difficult time starting on the kiddie hill. After several runs through it we thought we were ready for the beginner’s hill. Nope.  After several crashes and half an hour of speed then crash and speed then crash, we actually got done and went inside for some drinks. With 45min. left, Josh and I went on the kids slope again and Mom took one run down a real course. I would have liked to do better, but I haven’t skied since I was 10, and that was my first time so I was beginning then. I improved, but still have a ways to go. We had a fun time and another semi-adventure going back down. The day was a very beautiful and enjoyable experience.

June 22

Hey its Josh here, today we went on a small 2 hour cruise said to see about 2-4 Hector’s dolphin which is the smallest and rarest dolphin in the word and a couple of little blue Adelie penguins which are the smallest penguins in the world but we actually saw about 3 dozen dolphins about 3 penguins and 2 humpback whales which have only been seen in winter (we are in winter) rarely! It was really cool and I got to drive the boat for a while too! I loved it and the company loved Moms pictures so much they kept a lot of good shots. I had a very fun time! See you (theoretically).

 From Laura: Wow. What a couple of days. The skiing was beautiful. We had some great weather- the road to Mt Hutt was an alpine course all unpaved and the further up you got the more it was surrounded by banks of snow and the steeper it got. We had to stop 2/3 up and get chains put on for the last bit by a full team of mud covered women mechanics. What a job. The resort was great- nestled up in the top of the alps. Lots of snow and not a lot of people. There were Keas- large green alpine parrots, wild, in the parking lot. They are often found up in the Southern Alps and there are lots of signs to keep people from feeding them. We got set up with the skis and had some lunch then hit the kiddie hill.

It had a cool lift called the magic carpet that was just a large enclosed conveyor belt that took you to the top. Easy enough if you can stand up straight on skis. Josh only had a problem once. Both boys showed me they could do turns and then I challenged them on the ‘easy’ slope- a long S turn slope. I think they would have done better had the slope not had a steep drop off one side that felt like imminent doom to them- it kept them from doing big wide turns. That led to a lot of speed and mostly calculated falls, but a few spectacular ones that earned their badges for skiing. It was a tiring but beautiful day. My one trip to the mountain top was a beautiful view of snow capped mountains on one side and the Canterbury plains on the other.

We checked out of our Christchurch lodging on Friday morning, and headed out to Akaroa- a beautiful French village in an ancient volcanic crater that is now a sheltered harbor.

We went on a nature cruise that usually promises a few dolphins, a few seals and penguins, and some local history. We had just started our tour when the captain got news from another of their boats and put on the speed, because they had spotted three whales breaching and playing in the ocean outside the harbor entrance. This was really unusual- they were humpbacks migrating from Antarctica up towards the Equatorial waters for mating.

 

We caught one surfacing and heading north and followed it for a while. We then went to check in on some others and were able to catch them breaching- we spent probably an hour following them and clicking away at the pictures.

 Meanwhile, there were dozens of Hector’s dolphins, where the cruises usually see one or two on a winter cruise- they were all playing around the boat and very interested in the whales as well. The captain kept saying they never saw whales like that and he was ‘gobsmacked’ and he even pulled out his camera.

Zoom this one for great detail!

 We finally started back to do the rest of our cruise in short order, as we were already 10 minutes overdue. We did catch a royal albatross (the largest ones) and a few blue penguins as well. On the way back, the captain let Josh drive the boat for awhile and spoke of how amazed he was. He said he hadn’t gotten a great picture of the whale breach, so I offered to let him copy mine. They copied all 100 pictures we took- they can sort out the good ones from the bad! It was really special and I understand the meaning of gobsmacked fully now! Looks like we’ll pay for it all with some bad weather on our way north to (hopefully) Hanmer Springs and Picton. Fingers crossed for good weather for our ferry trip on Sunday.