We got back to Auckland last night. We had a good but slightly bizarre dinner- we went to this place where they serve you raw meat and these really really hot stones that you cook the meat on. That's all fine and good, but the temperature of the inside of the place got ridiculously high by the end of the meal because the a/c wasn't on. Then this morning, we had breakfast and took the Explorer Bus to the Auckland Museum. The Explorer Bus is a tourist bus that goes in a circular route and you can hop on and off [View Full Entry]

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We arrived in Wellington 2 days ago, taking the ferry from the the south island to the north island. It was the nicest ferry I've ever been on! It had a cafe, a bar, a food court, a movie theater, all sorts of areas to sit in facing different directions, and a play area for kids. Bizarrely enough, it also had TVs you could watch, and they were all set to show Dr Phil. Oh well. We got to our bed and breakfast, which is on one of the hills. Wellington reminds me a lot of San Francisco- very hilly, lots [View Full Entry]

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Hello again. We left Hanmer Springs and then drove to Kaikoura, a beautiful town on the coast. After lunch there, we drove up to Blenheim, the main town in the Marlborough wine region. We stayed at a very nice bed and breakfast that is also a vineyard. Yesterday, we went on a guided tour of many of the local wineries. We got to try a lot of wines that aren't available in the US. Unfortunately, we aren't bringing any home with us as shippings and taxes would have been $315, and that doesn't include the cost of the wine! This morning, [View Full Entry]

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Hello! We took the train from Christchurch to Greymouth today. It was a very pretty trip, I took lots of pictures. They even had an open air car that you could stand in- cool, but very windy! Then we drove to Hanmer Springs. We went to the hot springs, which was nice and relaxing after driving on the left side of the street for 3 hours! We just had dinner and are just going to relax for the rest of the night. Tomorrow, we're going to Blenheim in the Marlborough wine region. We're going to take a break in the drive [View Full Entry]

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Hello again! We arrived in Christchurch yesterday and spent the afternoon wandering around, checked out 2 small but very nice museums, and then walked around the botanical gardens. It's such a gorgeous little city, with this very cute little river (the Avon) winding it's way around. Today, we went on a tour of a sheep farm, which was very interesting. The sheep were so cute! Then we visited a winery and returned to the city. We just finished a 30 minute punt down the Avon, it was all quite civilized. Tomorrow, we take the much anticipated train trip to Greymouth. According [View Full Entry]

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Hello everyone! It's Sat morning here (I think). This whole international date line thing has me really confused! We arrived in Auckland yesterday at 6 am. We got to our hotel around 8:30 but of course couldn't check into our room. So we dropped off our luggage and went exploring. We went to this kind of touristy but still kind of neat aquarium, with lots of penguins and sharks and sting rays. It was a beautiful bus ride just getting there. Then we went back to the city and went to the Sky Tower, the tallest structure in the Southern Hemisphere. [View Full Entry]

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Hello everyone! We haven't left the Boston area yet, but we're counting the days/hours/minutes until we leave (a week from tomorrow!). [View Full Entry]

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