I woke up for our last day on Coralview. We'd be here for the morning but after lunch our boat would be shuttling us to the next resort. I only had a 2.5hr ride this time so I was hopeful the seasickness wouldn't destroy me again. Breakfast was the usual fare of coffee, fruit, an "onion" pancake thing, and bread that was similar, but not, cornbread. Sometimes a crepe instead. We had wanted to do one last snorkeling trip but it turned out the water was choppier today. Not good for snorkeling we were told. We had another surprise awaiting us, though. Last night, the resort employees had come across a sea turtle. So they saved him for us to examine (gently) and then release back into the water. It turns out Coralview participates in turtle ... read more

There were two reasons I wanted to go all the way out to Coralview for our beautiful island adventures. One, was the snorkeling with sharks (which we did the day before). The second, more important reason, were the Sawa-I-Lau Caves. Only the resorts (three or so) this far out did tours of the caves. Mostly because of proximity. They're these gorgeous limestone sea caves owned by the locals. That morning after breakfast we headed out to the caves in a motor boat. I really enjoyed the small boat travels- they didn't make me sick at all. We loved flying over the water, our whole group would laugh and yell when we'd hit a rough spot and bounce in our seats. Toki, our main guide, and his helper thought this was odd but funny. I think it's ... read more

Today was a travel day from Rotorua to Auckland to Nadi, Fiji. We heard a rumor of bad traffic near Auckland so we hit the road at 7am, hopefully the last of the early days this trip. We decided to get driving and then stopped on the way at the most random food place in a rundown town. Literally, a small shop on the country crossroads. I ended up with a soggy but good sandwich, a custard pie and something colorful but unidentifiable. Me, "what's that?" Pointing at brightly colored cake. Cafe guy, "a Lolly cake. Me, "what's in it?" Cafe guy, "Lollies." Hm. Candy cake? 'Cause the closest thing to a lolly that I grew up with is a lollipop, and that's candy. So let's just run with it. And it was delicious, too. Tasted ... read more

We woke up and headed a few doors down to find the closest coffee and breakfast, which happened to be a gym cafe type thing. Works for me! Latte and peanut butter protein ball. We assembled at the car, loaded up and headed to the first stop of the day for our continued roadtrip- Hobbiton. Initially when I'd planned out the entire itinerary for this trip, we were just heading to the South Island. My friends reviewed my plans and Nathan stated, "Looks good but you need to make one change. Include Hobbiton." I looked at my map- we had to fly out of Auckland anyway to get to Fiji, so if we just roadtripped south it was definitely doable. "Done," I replied. A good chunk of our group was pretty into Lord of the Rings, ... read more

I can officially add Milford Sound to the list of some of the most beautiful places I've ever been. It's such a small area but the cliffs (towering thousands of feet high) over the water is breathtaking. We were up very early for a 6:00am breakfast at the Cafe. I chose yogurt with muesli- very yummy. And coffee of course. We were at the kayaking meeting place around 6:45am. It was literally right down the road, a little further than where we had walked yesterday. I think there's two or three companies in the area but we went with Roscoe's. Our guide, Mendela, turned out to be amazing. She was a well-traveled nomad who seemed to do jobs that had to do with yoga and guided small boat tours (kayaks, canoes, etc.). She was very informative ... read more