Our FInal Days in Lily of the Valley

Hello friends! Sadly, we will be bidding farewell to Lily of the Valley tomorrow... she has been good to us...minus the break-down in the middle of nowhere.  We head out for the Samoan islands for 10 DAYS!! tomorrow evening (can you tell I am excited??!?).  But before we leave, we thought we would give an update on our final days in the campervan.  

This past week, we have been traveling up the most northern part of the North island.  Our first stop along the way was Hot Water Beach.  Hot Water Beach is so cool because there are "pools" of hot water heated from thermal activity under the sand! Jared and I headed out early in the morning (to make sure the tide was low) so we could dig us a little hot water pool.  Now when I say hot water, I mean HOT water.  The pool was so hot in some spots, your skin would literally burn!  Rumor has it that some of the hot water pools can reach 140 degrees... I'd say we dug one that was about 120 degrees.  And remember...it's the winter down here, so outside it was about 40 degrees.   Here are some pictures from that adventure.  WARNING: you may want to put sunglasses on...there are pictures of us in bathing suits and we are WHITE as snow.  

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The north is made up of a ton of beaches. We did a couple of hikes up here and wanted to show you some pictures of paradise.  Even in the winter, this place is absolutely beautiful!

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Here is a story about one of the weirdest things that has happened to us while on this trip....  While we were planning this trip, we heard about a guy named Ron Laughlin that does itineraries for people coming on holiday to NZ.  This guy is originally from Ohio but moved to the South island of NZ in 1988 and absolutely loves it here.  So...we decided to email him so he could help us out.  Long story short - he was a super nice guy, made us a great itenerary for the South island and even got us a discount on our first campervan.  I don't know if the stars were aligned one night or what but here in this beautiful country, in the NORTH island, we ended up running into him while eating supper!!  We made great friends and had a great chat.  Typical Ron, he gave us a cafe suggestion that was a must do. He told us about this cafe, Corogate, that was owned by a British couple and it was super "quirky."  Him and his brother had eaten there about a week ago, ordered a dessert, and the owner totally forgot to give it to them because they were wrapped up in conversation.  So Ron sent us there to eat his dessert and enjoy the quirkiness.  Here is a picture from the cafe - the back half of the restaurant is dedicated to the Royal family.  The owner now loves Jared and me and put our picture on her website.  Haha! 

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There are tons of tiny sea-side towns here in the North island.  Here are some pictures of what some of them look like.

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After a week, we made it to the most northern tip: Cape Reinga.  This is a very sacred place to the Maori people - it is where the spirits go when they leave this life and begin their travels into afterlife.  The Cape is also where the Tasman Sea and Pacific Ocean meet, so they waves and wind can be fierce.  Needless to say, the place was absolutely gorgeous.

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On our way back down to Auckland, we hit up the massive sand dunes for a little sledding and boogie-boarding.  I could not capture the actual size of these dunes in the pictures, but I'd say they were about 55 feet tall.  Sand dunes = BA.  We could have done this all day! 

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And just a fun fact to end on: NZ is known for these gargantuan trees called Kauri (pronounced "cow-ree").  They're huge.  This first picture is the largest living Kauri tree.  It's estimated to be about 2,000 years old, stands 51.5 meters tall, and has a girth of 13.8 meters.  Basically, they're massive and we wanted to show you a picture of them.  

So that's about all we've been up to this past week.  In about 18 hours we'll be boarding a plane to the lovely Samoan islands and couldn't be more excited.  I'm not sure we're going to know what it's like living outside of a van. ;) 

Welcome to the North

We have now been in the North island for 9 days and have managed to escape the massive snow storm further south (woo!).  Supposedly, this is the biggest snow storm NZ has seen in the past 20 years... So while everyone else has been preparing for Jack Frost, we hit up some pretty awesome natural wonders.  

One of our first stops since our last blog post was to Mount Doom (from Lord of the Rings -- LOTR).  The mountain is really called Mt. Ngauruhoe; but since I can't seem to pronounce that word at all, we just refer to it as Mount Doom.  

Here is a clip showing Mt. Doom in LOTR: http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xmp56n_mt-doom-from-the-lord-of-the-rings-the-two-towers-2002_shortfilms#.UcFyAJWROFI

...And the picture below is what the mountain actually looks like in real life.  

Anywho, we did a hike up to another peak so we could get a panoramic view of Mt. Doom - probably one of the best hikes we have done so far (minus the awful climb at the very top...I wanted to vomit).  Jared, on the other hand, was feeling very energetic throughout the entire climb.  Here is a picture of him from the top of our peak.

So after our 5 hour hike, we headed back to Lily of the Valley so we could get to our next destination by nightfall.  Little did we know, Lily of the Valley had other plans for us.  She decided she didn't want to start... Lucky for us there was a hill and two helpful Aussies.  We pushed Lily of the Valley down the hill and got her jump started half-way down.

While we made it safely to our next destination, we were still totally confused about the campervan.  We decided we would just wait until the morning and see how she started up.  Long story short...Lily of the Valley left us stranded AGAIN because her spark plugs were bad.  Here she is gettin' fixed up real nice and purty.

She is as good as new now. ;) 

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The North island is predominately known for their thermal and volcanic activity due to their fault line location.  Jared and I visited the best geothermal park in the North island and got a better glimpse of why the North has this reputation.  Minus the god-awful smell of sulfur, the geothermal park was one of the coolest things we have ever seen.  Here are just a few pictures from the thermal and mud pools.  

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We honestly didn't think our day could get more interesting after our visit to the geothermal park but, oh, how we were wrong.  That evening we planned to visit the Taranaki tribe's village to get a taste of local Maori culture.  The Maori people are similar to our Native Americans back home...but just a little bit more awesome.

The Maori people are bred to be warriors.  They all have a large, stocky build and are beast-like.  Culture and tradition are very sacred to them so when we visited the village, it was important we show our respect.  Anyone who enters a Maori village is given a traditional greeting - which includes a peace offering, delicious meal, and a performance of the haka.  The haka is a war dance the Maori people do when faced with a potential war threat.  The dance is done to bring fear into the enemy.  Because Maori culture is so strong in NZ, the All Blacks rugby team performs the haka at the beginning of each match.      

Just so you can get an idea of what I am talking about, here is a cool video of the All Blacks rugby team meeting a Maori king and performing the haka. The beginning of this clip is similar to what we experienced with the Taranaki tribe.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Vxy_-e_hZ8

Here are some pictures from our visit to the Taranaki village.
This first picture is an example of a traditional greeting - rubbing of the noses:

 

 These last two pictures are of Jared trying to learn the haka. ;)

Needless to say, that entire day was eventful and one that we will never forget.

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Even after being here for almost a month and a half, we are still amazed by how beautiful this country is.  Earlier this week we took a hike in a forest that runs along the outskirts of a city.  As we made it to a lookout point we experienced our first geyser.....in the middle of the city! 

And we just thought this picture was pretty awesome....

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Today we got to take a visit to Hobbiton (aka The Shire).  For those of you who don't know, this is one of the movie-sets from LOTR.  This place was absolutely incredible (and I'm not even a die-hard fan).  

 In front of Bilbo Baggins' hobbit hole:

The Green Dragon pub:

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We had a decently long drive today (in the relentless rain) after our visit to The Shire but were blessed with this gorgeous site upon our arrival at the beach.

In the next few days, we are headed up the northern peninsula before we take off for the Samoan islands.  More blogs to come.  Hope you enjoyed the read! 

North, South, East, West...REPEAT!

So we picked up our new campervan in Christchurch last week and have been all over God's country ever since.  We named our new wheels Lily of the Valley....she's a gem compared to Bertha.  Looks just like Bertha on the outside but is a bit more spacious on the inside...but not by much.  Here are some pictures so you can get a good visual.  

The first place we headed to was called Moeraki Boulders.  The boulders are about 60 million years old, weigh a couple of tonnes, and measure up to 3 meters! 

But the best part about these boulders is they are located in this tiny fishing town that houses a hole in the wall restaurant that is BY FAR the best in the region: Fleur's Place.  The restaurant has a fisherman that brings in fresh fish every day and filets it right out front.  A key dish on the menu is Bluff oysters.  Bluff oysters are only found in the very southern tip of NZ and are considered to be the best oysters in the world.  Jared LOVED them...I personally thought they were disgusting; however, the rest of our food was absolutely freaking delicious.

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Our next stop in Lily of the Valley was Lake Tekapo.  This town looks post-card picture perfect.  The lake is the predominant feature of the town and couldn't be prettier.  When the sun shines on the lake, the water shines a turquoise bright blue.

 <---- stud muffin

Lake Tekapo is also known for having the clearest night skies in the southern hemisphere.  On top of Mt. John (a mountain right by the lake) is a really cool observatory.  We took a day hike to the top - here is a picture from the top of the mountain.  The mountains were so pretty, I could have sworn they were fake.

That night we headed to the top of the snow-capped mountains for some star gazing.  This picture doesn't do the sky any justice whatsoever but here is a shot of the Milky Way. 

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 We started our journey to the north island and stopped on the way at this cool spot called Castle Hill.  Jared referred to this place as a "big kid's playground."  The hill is made up of these huge limestone rocks...in the pictures, they really don't look that big but they are actually HUGE.  If you look closely enough in the last picture you can spot Jared in a gray-striped sweatshirt.

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Castle Hill was pretty much our last stop in the south island and then we made our way to the north.  To get up there Jared, Lily of the Valley, and me hopped on a gigantic ferry.  Here are some pictures from our ferry ride.

 <---- this is where we landed in the north 

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Today we headed out to Egmont National Park to hike to the top of an active volcano.... We couldn't actually reach the peak because of the snow and ice, but we made it to the top of the tree-line (pretty sweet).  Here are some pictures from our hike.

 <----the white peaks along the horizon are other snow-capped, dormant volcanoes

What was actually so cool about this mountain was that is completely solitary.  There are no other mountain ranges or anything else around it...just a small coastal town.  

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And some other cool things that have happened since our last blog....

1. We helped herd some sheep.  What was most entertaining about this is that we learned sheep pass out when they get overly frightened.  They just freeze, black out, and fall over wherever they are standing.  When this happens, the farmers pick them up and slam them in the back of their four-wheeler.  Seeing this in person is hilarious.  

2. A bird decided to commit suicide on our windshield and splatted himself right on Lily of the Valley.  

3. We discovered we had a friend (unwanted friend) living with us in our new campervan....a MOUSE!  

4. We made new friends with this black cat (who we named Sherman 2)....our friendship was most likely due to the fact that we had a mouse living in the van but we like to think it's just because we're awesome. 

In the next couple of days, we are headed out to Mt. Doom (from Lord of the Rings) and local Maori villages.  I'm sure we will have more to blog about soon from our adventures.  Sending some Kiwi love your way. :)