Study Abroad in New Zealand

We spent two full days in Fiji, most of which were spent relaxing by the pool and beach and enjoying the warm, sunny weather.  We had been so busy for the last two weeks, trying to see as much as possible in New Zealand, so it was nice to have a couple days to unwind.

The first day we didn’t get out early enough to get chairs by the main pool, so we spent the morning by the adult pool which was smaller but still beautiful.  We did keep track of the events schedule and went to the basket weaving and craft demonstrations.  I loved this because the lady let me try some of the weaving with palm leaves and I got to learn how to make bookmarks.  It actually wasn’t too difficult and I made a few for me, Mom, and Dad.

That night, after a gorgeous sunset, we walked to a nearby restaurant outside the resort.  It was right on the water and had pretty good food, including brownies that were really delicious.

The next day, Dad and Lindsey got out early to claim some chairs for us right by the pool and ocean.  It was the perfect spot to relax for the day and we even had a little shelter (the Hammond Hut as we called it) for shade if we wanted it.  Mom, Dad, Lindsey, and Unc went to a kava tasting session.  They all said that it tasted like dirty water and it made Lindsey’s tongue tingle.

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Later that evening, we all showered and got ready for dinner, but first we enjoyed “Bula Hour” drinks.  “Bula” is the Fijian greeting that we learned quickly after arriving.  Everyone you pass would say “bula” as a way of saying hello, and we thought it was funny when people would say, “Bula, family!” when were all together.  Each night at the resort there is a fire dance performance, so we got to see it both nights after Bula Hour.  It was pretty cool to watch and not something that I want to try.

For dinner we walked over to the same area as the night before, but went to a different restaurant.  It was really popular and ended up taking quite a while to get our food but we could enjoy the live music while we waited.  We enjoyed our last night of relaxation at the resort by playing some cards and then the next day got up to leave for Australia in the morning.  It was a great, relaxing stay in Fiji and I am glad we got a couple days to lay by the pool after being in winter mode for a couple weeks.

Bula from Fiji Airways!

After a little over five and a half months, it was finally time for me to leave New Zealand.  We spent our last morning in Auckland and took a ferry to an island town called Devonport.  The island had a hill that we walked up for a great view of the city.  As we were walking, it began to rain a bit, but it stopped pretty quickly and we were able to stay mostly dry.

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Once we got back to the town, we found a small café to eat lunch and then caught the ferry back to Auckland.  We had just enough time to stop back at our hotel, pick up our luggage, and head to the airport.  I was a bit sad to be leaving New Zealand, but knew we still had so many fun adventures to come in the next week.

We had an afternoon flight from Auckland to Nadi, Fiji and got there in the evening.  After an afternoon of travelling, we were all a bit hungry, so we went to the restaurant in the resort and got dessert.

Goodbye New Zealand!

Our first stop on the Coromandel Peninsula was Hot Water Beach (well, after breakfast at a nearby café).  It was low tide, so we took the shovels that we had borrowed from our hotel and went down to the beach.  It is well known because, as the name suggests, there is hot water under the beach that you can get to if you dig down about a foot.

We went down to the beach and found a spot between all the other people where the sand felt warm and began digging.  In just a few minutes we dug a pretty big hole that was filling with warm water.  It was interesting because depending on where you dug, you would find warmer or colder water.  In some spots, the water was steaming hot and it hurt your feet to stand there, and then just a foot over, the water could be much cooler.  So, we all tried to keep the balance so that everyone could stand in a warm spot and not be too cold or too hot.

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A lot of people wore bathing suits and were sitting in their own little “hot tubs,” but we decided to just stay in our clothes and roll up our pants.  Dad, though, changed into his bathing suit to get the full experience.  We put our feet in the Pacific Ocean quickly, but it was much too cold so we ran back to our warm pool.  It was funny that even though it was winter, everyone could enjoy the hot water and be comfortable in bathing suits, but then as they got out they would put on jackets and warm clothing.

This was a pretty unique experience and all of us loved being able to make our own little hot water spa.  We spent some time standing and enjoying the warmth before having to head back to the parking lot, which meant crossing through a small (very cold) stream.

Our next stop, Cathedral Cove, was only about 10 minutes away.  I had heard from my friends who had traveled here earlier that Cathedral Cove was one of their favorite spots, so it was on my list of must see places.  In order to get down the beach, you have to walk about 45 minutes along the coast.  It was a beautiful walk and the view of Cathedral Cove was well worth it.

The name comes from a huge rock arch that you can walk through to get to different parts of the beach.  It was cloudy when we first got there, but the beautiful rock formations and water were still so pretty.  Once it started to get sunnier it began to get even more beautiful with the sky and water such a bright blue.  A funny story now that I’ve been home is that at work, the screensaver on my computer changes every day and is usually pretty scenery.  I looked at it the other day and recognized the photo, and sure enough it was a picture of Cathedral Cove!  I was so excited to be able to say I’ve actually been there – to a screensaver worthy spot.

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We explored the beach for awhile and took lots of photos before we decided to head back up the path to the car.  Once we got in the car, it was later in the afternoon and was just starting to rain, so it was good timing for us to finish our hiking for the day and get on the road.  It only would take us about three hours to get to Auckland, our final destination in New Zealand, so we got there in time to have a nice dinner and ice cream that was just across from our hotel.

When we got tickets for the evening experience at Te Puia, tickets for the daytime were included for free.  So, we decided to go back the next day.  First, though, we went to Wai-o-tapu to see the Lady Knox geyser and the rest of the “thermal wonderland.”

The Lady Knox geyser has an eruption cycle of 24-72 hours, but to make it erupt more regularly park workers put a soap-like substance into it to break down the surface tension, making it erupt every day at 10:45.  It was pretty cool to see and was going off for over 10 minutes before we decided to head on to the rest of the park.

Lady Knox Geyser

Rotorua is known as an area with lots of geothermal activity (you can definitely tell from the smell of sulfur in the air), so you can find hot mud springs and geysers in many places.  Wai-o-tapu is known for its bright, colorful pools which makes it a little more unique.  There was one area called the Artist’s Palette, where there was a huge pool that was different colors in different sections depending on what minerals are found there.  One of my favorite spots, though, was Devil’s Bath.  It was the first pool we came to and was neon lime green.  It was so bright, it didn’t look natural even though it is only changed that color by the sulfur in the water.

Devil’s Bath

Artist’s Palette

After walking through Wai-o-tapu and taking all the different colors of steaming and bubbling pools, we drove back to Te Puia.  There, we were just in time to join a guided tour of the cultural center and geothermal park.  Our tour guide was very nice and because we were in a small group, he got to take us all around and tell us more about Maori art, history, stories, and culture.

Food storage

One thing that is very unique about Te Puia is that there is a school there that teaches people of Maori descent the arts of jade and bone carving, wood carving, and basket weaving.  We even got to go into the school and watch some of the students working, which was really cool.  I would love to try one of these amazing crafts (stay tuned for my blog post in Fiji).  There was a small kiwi house at Te Puia as well, but the kiwis weren’t too active so we didn’t really get to see them.

The end of our tour was by the geysers that we had looked at the night before, but now we were waiting for Pohutu, the big geyser, to erupt.  The signs showed that it would happen soon, so we waited for a few minutes and sure enough, it did erupt.  It was pretty impressive how high it was, so I was glad we were lucky enough to see it.  Unlike the Lady Knox geyser, Pohutu is not induced so you can’t predict when it will go off.

Pohutu and Prince of Wales Geysers

After our tour had finished and we had seen a lot of Te Puia, we had to get in the car to drive north about three hours to the Coromandel Peninsula, where we would be staying that night.  We stayed at a place called the Church Accommodation, which was actually an old church that was turned into a hotel (although we were staying in the house off to the side of the church).  That night we had dinner at the Pour House, the only restaurant in the small town of Hahei that was still open when we got there and everyone really enjoyed it- a great end to a busy day!

Between Wellington and Rotorua, where we would be staying the next night, there were not too many attractions to stop at.  We did stop for lunch at a town called Taihape, the gumboot (what kiwis call rain boots) capitol of the world.  We couldn’t not stop at such an iconic place, so we had lunch and drove by the giant gumboot statue.  Then, we continued on to Taupo, the largest lake in New Zealand.

We didn’t have enough time to really stop at Lake Taupo, but we did go to Huka Falls, which flows into the lake and is unlike a lot of the waterfalls I’ve seen.  Instead of being really tall or wide, it is a narrow waterfall with a lot of water flowing through.  It was bright blue and tons of water was flowing so fast.  It was pretty amazing to see and hear how powerful the waterfall was, so definitely a good stop on our way to Rotorua.

Huka Falls

We arrived at Rotorua in the early evening and decided we wanted to try to do something that night.  Rotorua is known for being a place with a high Maori population and there are many Maori cultural centers around the area, so we got tickets for one of dinner and performance experiences.  It was at Te Puia, which was a cultural center pretty close to where we were staying.

We went over around 6 and they brought us in and showed us our dinner, the hangi, which is how they cook their food in the groudn for a large group.  Then, we went to the performance where the chosen chief of our group, Chief Jason, had to go to the Maori chief and pick up a leaf, signifying that we come in peace.

The hangi

The Maori did a welcome dance and then we were able to go inside the building, where they did a performance.  We got to see demonstrations of some of their weapons, dances, and songs, and then at the end they asked if any men wanted to learn the haka, a war dance.  Dad got up on stage and followed along, even making the crazy faces with tongue out and big eyes.  It was pretty entertaining to watch (I put the video at the end of the post).

After the performance was over, we went to dinner, where they had prepared a huge buffet with the food from the hangi.  Dad, Mom, and Unc tried a lot of the food including eel, but my favorite part was the chocolate covered creme puffs.  After dinner, we went out to the geothermal area of Te Puia to watch to see if the geysers would erupt.  Sadly, only the small one was erupting.  We got hot chocolate though, and once it started to sprinkle we went back under a shelter and our tour guide and her husband answered questions, told us stories, and sang us songs which was a really nice end to the evening.

Overall, the experience was a really great way to get a taste of Maori culture and get to see another part of New Zealand.  I was glad we were able to fit it in, even though it wasn’t on my original itinerary.

Now that I’m back home, I finally have time to catch up on the last blog posts from our New Zealand trip.  Sorry for the delayed posting!

After arriving in Picton, we stayed the night and then were leaving the South Island via the Interislander ferry the next morning.  The ferry runs between Picton and Wellington, the capitol of New Zealand.  It was a cloudy and rainy day, so we were happy to sit inside for the three hour ferry ride.  Once we arrived in Wellington Harbour, the ferry had to wait for a few minutes because there was actually a Southern Right whale that had been living in the harbor for the last few days.  We watched the whale in front of the ferry until it swam away and we were able to go in to the marina.

On the ferry

Once in Wellington, we checked into our hotel, where we were in a townhouse-style apartment with three floors- Lindsey and I even got our own rooms!  The main thing on my checklist to see in Wellington was Te Papa, the museum of New Zealand.  So, we walked over in the rain and wind and got pretty soaked on the way over.  We had about three hours until the museum was closing and I wanted to see as much as possible, so we started at the top floor and worked our way back down.

The top floor was mainly art exhibits, and I listened to a bit of the audio tour and learned about how a lot of the art was inspired by Maori culture.  A lot of the art was very colorful, which I enjoyed.  Then, we headed down to the next floor that had exhibits about the Treaty of Waitangi and Maori culture.  There were lots of artifacts, videos, and even buildings to show different aspects of Maori life, which was really interesting.  The next floor had an exhibit about how the landscape of New Zealand has changed since the Maori arrived and then since Europeans arrived.  We ended the afternoon by going through the exhibit on the lowest floor that was about the Battle of Gallipoli.   Unc was excited about this exhibit so he had gone ahead of us and spent more time there.  Throughout the exhibit, there were huge lifelike statues with scenes from the battle.  They were really incredible to look at since they were so realistic, but on about twice as big a scale.

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After the museum closed, we left and went for dinner nearby.  That night we had a relaxing night so we could get up early the next day and begin our adventures on the North Island.

After leaving Fox Glacier, we traveled north to Hokitika and then Greymouth, where the TranzAlpine Train would take us back to Christchurch, completing our loop around the South Island.  However, in Hokitika I had read about a small place called the National Kiwi Centre that I thought might be fun to stop by since we had a little extra time.  Kiwis are, of course, one animal that I really wanted to see in New Zealand, but since they are nocturnal they can be hard to find in the wild.  At the National Kiwi Centre they had a nocturnal room with only dim red lights where you could go and watch for kiwis in their enclosure.  There was also an aquarium portion of the center, but we didn’t spend much time there since we were so excited to see the kiwis.  We did see a tuatara, though, which is New Zealand’s “prehistoric reptile” since they’ve been around for over two hundred million years.

There were two kiwis in the enclosure and we could see both, but one was much more active and came closer to us.  We decided to call her Kiki the kiwi and loved watching her run back and forth by the glass, peck at the ground, and fluff up her feathers.  The other kiwi, who we called Floyd, was much bigger (females are generally bigger, but he was overweight) and not as active.  He mostly stuck towards the back of the enclosure, so we only saw him from a distance before he went back into his little house.  We couldn’t take any photos in there, so you’ll just have to believe me- they were really cute!  Kiwis are flightless birds, so their wings are vestigial and so small you can’t see them.  So, they look like just bodies with legs and a head running around, kind of like Mr. Potato Head missing some parts.

This is what the kiwis we saw looked like!

After leaving Hokitika, we kept going north to Greymouth, where we stopped at Monteith’s Brewing Company for lunch.  Then, we dropped off our rental car and got on the train back to Christchurch.  This train goes through the Southern Alps and Arthur’s Pass, so the ride is very scenic.  Along the way there was commentary that told us about the different areas across the South Island and the history that goes along with them.  After about four hours on the train, the sun had set and we reached Christchurch, where we had a relaxing evening at our hotel and dinner at a nearby restaurant.  Here are some photos from the TranzAlpine Train:

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The next morning we woke up in Queenstown and were able to actually see the town in the daylight for once.  We had a beautiful view of Lake Wakatipu and the surrounding mountains from our apartment.  There was also the most incredible sunrise I have ever seen.  The sky and clouds were all bright pink and orange as the sun was coming up and we all got some great pictures and were able to watch the sky while eating breakfast.

Queenstown sunrise

Then, we got on the road and headed out towards the west coast.  We went through Haast Pass, one of the three ways to cross through the Southern Alps, and stopped at the Blue Pools.  There, we only had to walk a short distance to a bridge over a river running into a pool that had such clear blue water.  It was so bright and looked beautiful, even on this cloudy day.  I’m sure it was really cold, but if it was warmer out it would have been tempting to swim.  On the bank of the pool there were lots of smooth, flat rocks, and people had stacked them into little piles.  We decided to make one of our own before heading out and continuing on our journey.

Our next stop was at Fox Glacier.  We followed the directions from the guide book, but the walk we planned to do was closed, so we had to do a much shorter version to a lookout.  From there, we could see the glacier, but in my opinion it was a bit underwhelming.  It was pretty amazing that we were walking through a rainforest with tropical plants and everything, and still able to see snow capped mountains and a glacier, though.

Fox Glacier

After this walk, we drove over to Lake Matheson to see that before the sun was setting.  This is a lake that is known for being a perfectly smooth surface that has an amazing reflection of Mount Cook and Mount Tasman.  Mount Cook is the tallest mountain in New Zealand, and last time I was somewhere where I could have seen it, it was too foggy.  We walked the loop track around the lake and took some great photos.

Then, we were all happy to go check into our motel and get some dinner in the small town by Fox Glacier.  After dinner, I wanted to go check out the Minnehaha Walk through the forest where I heard you can see glow worms.  It was only a twenty minute walk, but in the dark it was a bit scary.  We didn’t want too much light so we could see the glow worms but Mom and Lindsey led the way with a flash light and soon enough we did see many glow worms on the trees all around the path.  It was a pretty cool to see them, although I think everyone was happy to get back out of the dark forest.