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Mt. Fuji....
Wrong Island, Mt Taranaki as we leave New Plymouth Currently we are on a ferry crossing the Cook Straight, which will take us from the North to the South Island, and since we stayed outside taking pictures too long we weren’t able to catch a seat for the movie, so we figured we’d fill you in on our latest week. So after Saturday night in the city visiting Jeanette’s friend Goldy we headed south to Waitomo Caves. This area is famous for its cave systems filled with glow worms, which in reality are a type of larvae which live in the caves and glow a bluish tint in order to attract insects. We decided to go on a caving adventure here. But in New Zealand fashion a cave trip is hardly a simple walk in a cave. After a freezing night in the car on Sunday night (there was ice on the car, temps had dropped below freezing that night), and hardly getting the car warm before we arrived at our guide company we embarked on our adventure. It was a real tough love kind of trip. It began by standing in the still freezing morning on puddlling wet and frozen pavers in just our socks where we were given
Circus training
The awsome playground we stopped at on the drive to Wellington. Here i am warming up on the double tightrope to make my attempt and the true tightrope wet and cold wet suits to put on. After our socks were soaked and our toes were sufficiently numb, we were finally given our boots and we headed off to the cave entrance. So for our tour we first had to abseil about 100 feet through the cave entrance into an underground river. Jeanette however had to first overcome her fear of heights. With a little begging and negotiating, some failed trickery on her part, some tears, and finally a push over the edge, she abseiled to the bottom…sort of, she was really just lowered by our guide. From there we grabbed some inner tubes and began hiking up the cave through an underground river. After a bit of hiking we all stopped and turned our lights off and noticed that the few glowing dots we had been seeing hiking were now everywhere. The glowworms were very cool, like looking into the night sky. Then, with our lights still off we sat down in our tubes and quietly floated down the river with the ceiling lit up as we went. We then passed our point of entry and continued to float down the river in darkness, going over some rapids
here and there. It was all quite fun. After a while we had to stop and turn around and hike back to where we started. The entire trip ended with some rock climbing back out of the cave and into the thankfully warm sun. I forgot to mention the water in the cave was certainly not warm…definitely not a trip for those seeking comfort, or not wanting to be cold and miserable. I think my feet took a good 4 hours to unthaw from that entire morning. But even with the cold it was well worth the trip, however we have no pictures of this to share since neither of us wanted to ruin our cameras and the pictures the guide took of us were not worth the 20 bucks.
After our little adventure we hit the road yet again and drove along the coast to New Plymouth which sits in the shadows of Mt Taranaki (also known as Egmont), a currently dormant volcano and one of the highest peaks on the north island. New Plymouth was a beautiful and fun little seaside town. Monday night we went to the Brewster-Govett Art Gallery. A cool art gallery with contemporary
Ferry
Aboard the ferry we go and interactive art displays. We had a great time there. We spent most of Tuesday morning walking around the shops and cafes, choosing to eat where all the senior citizens in town frequented…big line. With millions of cafes in town we couldn’t really figure out why all the senior citizens would congregate to one cafÈ really when they all offer the same fare. We think it was because they offered coffee cards. After breakfast/lunchish we headed south along the coast to Wanganui. Wednesday we explored Wanganui, went into some museums, shops and cafes, then it was off to the capital of New Zealand, as well as our departure point to the south island, Wellington. However on the way we made a stop into one of the greatest playgrounds we have ever seen. This playground was called Adventure Park. New Zealand playgrounds are nothing like those in the States, at least nothing like we find today. They still have plenty of see-saws and some merry-go-rounds, but a whole host of other more dangerous contraptions. This one was complete with a huge flying-fox, or zip line, a real trampoline, hamster wheels, and even numerous tight ropes to practice your circus acts. The
Wellington
A farewell to Welington as we leave the harbour on our way to the South Island lack of most insurance and sue crazy Americans certainly leads to tough New Zealand kids since during our short time there we heard no shortage of crying kids who had injured themselves, and one big kid (Jeanette) who managed to punch herself in the face on the flying fox and send herself home with a bloody knuckle.
Wellington is a lot like San Francisco, it sits in a bay with hills all around it, a cable car, but it has a bit more of the Seattle weather. And like San Francisco it is a great city with lots of shops, bars and cafes. After struggling to find a place to stay (we seemed to miss the last room in each hostel) we finally found a pretty horrible hostel a little far off from the city center to stay Wednesday and Thursday night…but it was cheap! Wednesday night we went into the city for dinner and some drinks, and of course to catch up on some World Cup games. Then Thursday we had our first sleep in for quite some time. Then we toured as much of the city as our feet could handle. First we walked to downtown, then
Baaaa
Look, they have sheep on the south island too. Its amazing. Sheep are great amusement while driving, honk your horn and watch them flee. took a cable car up to the top of a hill overlooking the city, followed by a walk back to the city through the botanical gardens, begonia houses, a “tree house”, and an old cemetery, which like in Auckland was partially relocated so a freeway could be placed through. Then we walked through Wellington city and the Maritime museum, followed by a trip to the national museum called Te Pape where I (Ryan) went to see the Lord of the Rings exhibit (yes I may be a dork but I figured we were in New Zealand I had to do something Lord of the Rings related). And it really was a great display full of costumes, props and models that were all used in the movie and lots of videos showing how the movie was made. The most interesting of which was how the hobbits were made to look small. Jeanette on the other hand decided to not spend the extra cash on this tour and instead toured the rest of this gigantic museum of New Zealand history and culture (free by the way). We also got to see a guy singing Bob Marley songs in Maori for a festival they were having at the museum….pretty cool. Following the museum we were supposed to meet up with Jeanette’s friend Goldy again but we missed his call that day and never got ahold of him again. So, since Jeanette feels like she is getting sick again we decided to stay in for the night and plan our trip on the south island. Since it will be winter break for the school kids here while we are down there in the winter wonderland, we now have to start planning a little for our accommodations lest we be left out in the cold like we almost were in Wellington. And it is very cold down there right now. Sucks to plan, since we haven’t really done any so far. It is nice to just look at a map and go. But I guess we will have to for the next few weeks. What is a vacation when you have structure and planning! Oh well…we’ll deal I think. Don’t ya’ll feel so sorry for us?
Anyway, this morning (Friday) we made a quick drive up Mount Victoria overlooking the city and its harbor then got on our ship. It’s a huge ferry, (and very expensive one too…bastards, they sure get you with that one), which will meander its way through the Marlborough Sounds to Picton on the South Island in 3 hours. So next time you hear from us the adventures will have begun on another island. Bon voyage!
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love reading your blogs
jeanette - why do i have to get my news thru kathy add me to your list ryann your travel journal is wonderful sounds like you two are making life long memories - to bad it is so cold adds a bit more adventure!!! we were in las vegas this week it was 120 ... jeanette it sounds like your dad would be proud of all your pub adventures have fun fun fun see you guys in august