This morning we awoke to SUN! It's beautiful out. Sunny, but a bit windy/cool by the coast. We went to the Aquarium in Napier. There was a conveyor belt that took us through some tanks that had giant rays and some sharks. It was an interesting way to go through some different tanks at an aquarium. There was also a giant squid preserved there. We saw some other creatures - lots of fish, a crocodile, some piranhas, giant river eels, etc. We also saw this enormous sea turtle! He was worthy to be Adam's new ride. There were seahorses too -- lots of pregnant ones, but no babies. My favorite part was the Kiwi House. It was very dark and quiet, but there were 2 kiwis running about. They were a lot bigger than I thought ... read more

Our campervan worked out great last night. We made dinner, read for awhile in bed, and didn't get too cold during the night. This morning we got up and made our way to Rotorua. The campground we are staying at is right next to Lake Rotorua. This place has a lot of geothermal activity, so there are some hot pools here and a place to steam food! We stopped by the i-Site and got tickets for the Skyline Skyrides and Wai-O-Tapu Thermal Wonderland (for tomorrow). We drove out of Rotorua to Mamaku Blue, which is a blueberry winery. We got to sample some jams, chutneys, chillies, and some wine and liqueurs. We got a bottle of blueberry wine to drink some night. It was all very tasty! Afterward, we went to the Gondola and rode it ... read more

We left San Francisco on Thursday the 12th, and when we got to the airport around 3p, we found out our flight to L.A. had been canceled. After waiting in a line for awhile, and talking to a United agent for an hour, we got booked on a flight to Sydney at 10:40p that arrived around 8am, then a flight to Auckland around 1:30p or so. The flight to Sydney was alright. We mostly slept the whole time -- even me! The entertainment system was broken, so for 16 hours the only thing to watch was our flight progress. Our flight to Auckland on Air New Zealand was really nice. Personal screens, shepherd's pie and ice cream for lunch! All this on a 3.5 hour flight! When we finally got into Auckland , we booked a ... read more

Today was a really fun day. We got up, had breakfast, and left to go back to Triberg. We went to see the waterfall. We parked in a much better spot (not all the way at the top). We walked down, paid to get in, and continued to the falls. This one is broken up into 7 different levels/falls. It was more crowded than the other one, but still really pretty. We walked to the bottom of this one. It was also really cold by the fall! When we paid to get in, the lady gave us a map of things to see int he area, so after the waterfall we set off to see the world's first largest cuckoo clock. It's in a small town, Schonach, and off on a small road by a bunch ... read more

So the past few days have flown by. On Monday we got up and left the hotel a little before 10am and walked to Oktoberfest. The grounds were only about 15 minutes away. When we got there we went directly into the big Paulaner tent. It was huge. I was so impressed that it's a temporary structure. We found the non-reserved section of tables and sat down. It was pretty empty in the tent at this point. We each got a liter of beer, which was tasty, and over the course of finishing it the tent had filled up a lot. By where we were sitting we could see the hundreds of chickens that they had roasting. Everything just seemed really big. We finished our beer and decided to head out and walk around. We fairly ... read more