NEW ZEALAND MARATHON TRIP Part 2 of 2 : 11/12/18 - 11/24/18

18NOV18 – Fly to Aukland, UBER to hotel, rent car, walk downtown.

The day after the race, we were off to fly to Aukland on the North Island!  We got up and said our goodbyes to Janet and Chris and Miss Kitty.  The Queenstown airport is really small, maybe the size of Grand Rapids, so it was easy to return our car, get to the airport, check in and wait for our flight. 

It was a quick 2 hour flight to Aukland.  We were staying close to downtown, so we used Uber to get to our hotel.  The hotel I chose was the old main train station that they converted into a hotel and apartments.  I thought it was really cool.  Not as nice as the place we stayed in Queenstown, but the building was neat.  They also had laundry there, so that was a bonus!

The old main train station converted into apartments and hotel rooms

The community lobby of the old train station

The first day there, we just walked around downtown, we ventured up the space needle, and checked out a random church before heading back to relax and watch some New Zealand TV for the night.

It was fun to actually watch TV here.  Every other time we have traveled, we either didn’t have a TV in our room or all the shows were in a different language, so we would just end up watching American shows that were in English.  This time we actually were in a country where we spoke the same main language!  All the shows were in English.  We watched this soap opera called “Home and Away”, a cooking show called “MKR – My Kitchen Rules”, Project Runway New Zeeland and House of Drag.   It was just fun to watch TV where everything is like America, but with an accent!

Farmer's is like the Macy's of Aukland.  They have a big Farmer's Christmas parade.  This display on their store was a big deal in the local news.  Apparently, The Santa used to wink and shake his finger.  A local somehow got possession of just the winking eye and he was going to give it back to the store! haha  They are in the process of repairing this Santa so that he does that again.  Not sure how old this display is though.

The Aukland Space needle! You could do a 'sky walk' around the outside or you could bungee jump.  We just went to the observation deck.

View from the Aukland Space needle.

Not sure what was going on here.  We observed this several times.  There was always a line of Asians outside of this store.  They would only allow a few people in at a time.  The store was never over capacity, but we think they did this on purpose to make it appear like going to Gucci is a big deal?

The Spark arena near our hotel.  They appeared to be filming a show or movie there.  Spark is similar ti Charter communications or Verizon.

I was pretty pumped to try this out.  I have never had plum pudding before.  I must say it's terrible. haha.  It's a cinnamon / nutmeg spice cake with raisins in it.  Maybe homemade is better....

We bought Tea and Crumpets! I was pretty excited to try these as well.  The crumpets are terrible! They are a bland, spongy cake....like a pancake but plain.  

19NOV18 – Boat to Rangitoto Island

Our second day in Aukland, we decided to explore a volcanic island just off the coast of the North island called Rangitoto.  There is not much to do on the island other than hike the trails and explore.  Before we took the boat over, one of the boat crew talked to us about making sure to scrape our shoes really well before getting on the boat.  Because it’s a remote island off the coast of another remote island, they are very nervous about transferring non-native plants and seeds from other countries.

The boat ride was really short, maybe 30 minutes.  We got dropped off and we were basically on our own until the last boat left around 3pm.  We decided to hike the main trail to the summit of the island and have lunch at the top.  The island is really bizarre.  It basically lava rock and trees/bushes in between the lava rock.

Heading across the harbor to Rangitoto Island

About midway to the summit, we got to some lava caves that we wanted to explore.  The caves were formed when the lava was flowing, hardened and then the inside somehow broke apart leaving a ‘shell’ which became the caves. 

Entrance to the lava caves.  They are big enough to walk through

Gary in the Lava cave!

After the caves, we eventually made it to the summit of the island.  There’s a small fire-lookout post that is no longer in use and some benches to sit and relax.  We ate our picnic lunch and relaxed for a bit before heading back down to the boat launch.

The summit - An old fire look out

Not sure why it's a big deal, but they do not want any rodents on the island.  Maybe because they multiply so quickly and there are no other animals on the island that would control a rodent population.  They told us that they were finally rodent free and they wanted to keep it that way.  They had these live traps all over the place.  We peeked inside and they put an egg on a trigger.  None of the traps we saw had any rodents in them - alive or dead.

Black, crunchy, lava rock

20NOV18 – Walk around Aukland, go to Mnt. Eden, Cemetery, Bar for lunch

Final day in Aukland before we decided to just walk around the city and not do too much before we were planning on taking off again.  Unfortunately, Gary woke up and his back was killing him.  He somehow found a chiropractor that could see him in the morning.  So, while he was at the chiro getting his back adjusted, I did laundry.  I thought for sure that the chiro appointment would cost Gary a couple hundred dollars.  When he got back, he told me that New Zealand has a policy where the doctors can bill against a “tourist injury” clause or something like that.  It only cost him $50 out of pocket and he didn’t use his insurance at all.

Once he was straightened out,  we spent the rest of the day walking through Aukland Univserity, wandering through an interesting cemetery, getting pelted by a major hail storm, climbing up an old volcano crater that’s been turned into a park, having lunch at a brewery, and observing the funny differences between New Zeeland and America.

I know it seems weird, but I always like to check out old cemeteries.  I guess I always expect this kind of thing to only happen in America, but I guess Money talks, BS walks where ever you go.  The government put up this sign to gently explain how this old cemetery was 'in the way' of constructing a new highway.  So, they respectfully relocated the graves to build the overpass.  The way I read it was this: We need a new highway, this cemetery is so old that no one comes here to tend to the graves anyway so we are just going to plow a new highway over it and no one is going to stop progress.

It was a beautiful park and cemetery - the parts that weren't plowed over.

Across the street was the Jewish area

Farther down the road was Mount Eden - an old volcano crater that looks over the city

Mount Eden - in the upper right corner you can see people standing - kind of give you perspective of how big this thing is.

Looking out over Aukland

Having lunch in a bar - Galbraith's Alehouse

Signs like these make me laugh

Ketchup is called tomato sauce!

Other word differences we noticed people saying:

Skim milk is called Trim milk.

Trash is called Rubbish.

A Flashlight is called a Torch.

A Shopping cart is called a Trolley.

Where is the Restroom? -- Instead people say "Where is the Toilet"

Everyone is called 'Mate'.

Instead of saying "a little bit", people will say "A wee bit".

Turn signal / blinker is called an indicator.

Common grocery stores are "Countdown" and "New World".

Pumpkin and Beet salads seem to be as common as a Caesar salad.

TV shows we watched: Home and Away, House of Drag and My Kitchen Rules and Project Runway New Zealand!

21NOV18 – Drive to Matamata for Hobbitown tour.  Continue drive to Rotorua for the night.

On Wednesday, we checked out of our hotel, rented a car and began our couple hour drive to the Hobbittown movie set in Matamata.  Now, I have never seen the Hobbit movies or read any of the books, but seeing this movie set seemed really cool to me.  Driving from Aukland to Matamata takes a looong time.  They really don’t have the highway infrastructure like we do.  Their roads are all 2-lane, windy roads that meander in and out of small towns.  It was raining most of the drive there, but luckily it cleared up during the movie set tour.

What we learned was that Peter Jackson, director of the Hobbit movies, wanted to find the perfect location to build this Hobbit movie set.  He flew around in a helicopter looking for the location.  He came upon this area that happened to be owned by a sheep and cow farmer.  He approached the farmer and asked if they could take over part of his land to build this set.  The farmer agreed, and Hobbitown was born.  There was no access to the area of the farm that they wanted to build the set on, so the government had to build a new road.  After Hollywood left, the family and Peter Jackson struck up a deal to keep all the buildings intact and allow people to tour the movie set.  Peter Jackson splits the profits with the family 50/50 to this day.

The road to Hobbittown.  This is the road that the government created to get to the center of the farm where they wanted to film.

The set was absolutely amazing!  I thought it would be touristy and cheesy, but it wasn’t at all.  Our guide explained every building and all the details.  The hobbit holes are all facades.  The doors open and you can go inside about 5 feet, but then the hole just ends. They are constantly maintaining the set to keep it perfect.  They have gardeners keeping the grounds maintained and planting flowers and vegetables.  The hobbit holes have ‘smoke’ coming out of the chimney too.  It’s dry ice that is blown out the top.  All the little details make the whole set just so cool.   At the end of the tour, you get a free beer at the Green Dragon restaurant.  After the tour, I bought the book set and vowed to read them all!  I already finished the Hobbit and I am halfway through the Fellowship of the Ring.

This hobbit hole is supposed to be Bilbo / Frodo Baggin's place.  The tree above the hobbit hole is completely fake.  We were not allowed to crawl up there an touch it, but you could not tell it was fake.  Every leaf was hand painted and individually wire tied to the fake branches.

A worker doing some upkeep on a hobbit hole

The party tree - the area where they held Bilbo's birthday party

Where we are standing is about as far as you could go inside the hobbit hole facade.

I actually did not know black swans existed!

Inside the Green Dragon Pub and restaurant. 

After our tour ended, it was on to Rotorua where we planned to stay the night.  Rotorua is a ‘spa town’.  It sits in an area where all these hot springs reach the surface.  The hot spring water is supposed to have healing properties.  Basically, the entire town smells like rotten eggs or sulfur and there is weird steam coming out of the ground everywhere. 

When we arrived to Rotorua, we got settled into our rental and just walked around the town a bit.  It was raining pretty good, so we didn’t go far.  We just wandered around looking at the different hot springs and mud pools and souvenir shops. 

The common area of our guest house

The deck - The mist that you see in the middle of the picture is that sulfur smelling gas.

Overlooking Lake Rotorua

The 'steam' just randomly comes out of the ground all over the place.

Best day ever!!

Mr. Sour Puss

Gary got a back massage while I played with the kitties

Every cat had a description card so you could learn about them.

We just checked out the place, but didn't get any spa treatments

Boardwalk along the lake.  It's really smelly here

Rotorua Museum and government gardens building

All that steam smells like rotten eggs!!

 22NOV18 – Te Puia Tour and lunch, drive back to Aukland to turn in car and stay the night before flying back to Queenstown.

For our last day in Rotorua, we did a tour and lunch at Te Puia, which is a ‘cultural center’ for the native New Zealand Maori people.

Basically, you can think of it like this: New Zeeland has native people just like North America does.   Just like in America, when the white settlers came to New Zealand, they fought and took land away from the Maori people.  The Maori people (not all of them) now live in "cultural centers", which is similar to a reservation in America.  They have their own language, their own schools, their own traditions and beliefs and the cultural center helps to keep all that alive to pass along for future generations of Maori people and for outsiders to learn about. The Maori people have a look similar to Hawaiian / South Pacific people. 

Our guide trying to teach the white folk how to pronounce this very long Maori word

At the entrance to the center, there was a circle of wood carvings around a rock that had water flowing over it.  I can't remember exactly everything, but each wood carving has a different image or 'spirit' carved into it and each has a different meaning.  If you touch the rock and the water you will have good luck or good fortune.

Me touching the rock and the water.

Our tour included this 'steam box lunch'. They would use the steam from the geyser to cook our lunch.

Only Maori are allowed in the school. Woman and Men are separated.  The men can learn traditional tattooing and wood carving.  The women learn how to weave using reeds.

Face tattooing is a Maori tradition.  The more facial tattoos you have the more knowledge you have in the tribe.  They jokingly (?) told us that if anyone wanted to get a face tattoo, they could for free!

The men learning how to carve wood

These carvings were huge!!

The women learning how to weave using these reeds that they dry

This was a traditional welcoming ceremony.  The tribe was welcoming us tourists to their place.  They chose one person out of the tourists to be the spokesperson for the group.  The guy had to present a gift  and also accept a gift (I can't remember exactly all of the details!) and walk backwards....the tribesmen and women sang and danced.

The Maori people performing their welcoming ceremony with song and dance.

Our guide taught us how to make this flower with some of the reeds that they use in their traditional weaving.

The Kiwi is a protected bird of NZ.  These poor things are not meant to survive.  They cannot fly.  They nest on the ground.  They only lay one egg during a mating period.  They are nocturnal.  They were almost extinct because the rats and cats that people brought to NZ almost took them out.  At the cultural center, they have a Kiwi exhibit where they are trying to breed the Kiwi to increase their population.  They have cameras on their nests so you can see them, but walking through the exhibit we did not see any out and about.

You can see all the minerals built up on the rocks

The chef pulling all of our lunches out of the steam box for us to eat.

If I remember correctly, the geyser spouts off about every hour.  It's a really funny sound when it starts up.  It almost sounds like a rumbly train getting closer.  This is when it was at it's peak.  After a minute or two it's over and the water goes down and it just goes back to steaming.

After our steam box lunch, our tour was over and we needed to head back to Aukland to return the car, check into a hotel and then just hang out and relax before our flight early the next morning back to Queenstown.

23NOV18 – Fly from Auckland back to Queenstown. One last walk around Queenstown.

Our trip had finally come to an end.  We arrived back in Queenstown without incident.  Our guest house was within walking distance from the airport, so we just walked with our luggage from the airport to the house.  The weird thing about this check-in was that everything was over text or email.  We never even spoke to anyone!  They texted me the code to get the key from the key box and that was it.  They did have cameras everywhere though.  I took a hotwater coffee pot thing from the kitchen to take to our room.  Within 10 minutes, some dude shows up at the door and asks for it to be put back in to the kitchen.  Weird.  Anyways, we got settled in and just ended up walking around the lake one last time and having a few beers at this brewery on the lake.  Gary was nervous about the long flight home, so he did go see a chiropractor for one final adjustment so he wouldn't be in pain during the flight.  

Until we meet again New Zeeland!

The next day, we just packed up and said goodbye to New Zeeland!

But wait...there's more.

The flight from Queenstown to Sydney was uneventful.  We had to change planes in Sydney for the long 17-hour flight back to DFW in the US.  We get to our seats just fine; however, Gary discovers that his seat will not recline at all.  He calls a flight attendant over, and the attendant confirms that the seat is actually broken.  There's another seat that Gary could move to, but it's just a single so we would end up not sitting next to each other during the whole flight.  So, since Gary's back had been bothering him and since I am about a foot shorter then Gary, I told him that I would switch seats and I would sit in the broken chair.  

At first, it was no big deal and the flight was fine.  However, after we were served our dinner, they turn off the lights, they crank the airconditioner and people tend to settle in to a sleep.  Gary reclines his seat and I try and get comfortable in mine.  I thought maybe I could use my tray table to rest my head on.  That did not last long, because the teeny little woman sitting in front of me slammed her chair back as far as it would go so I could not lay on the tray table.  And since my seat did not recline, her head was basically in my lap.  

For the next several hours, I tossed and turned in my seat trying to get comfortable and trying to catch some sleep.  At some point during the flight, I woke up freezing and huddling next to Gary.  I was miserable.  I couldn't really sleep and my back hurt from not being able to recline.  I look over at Gary.  He's fully reclined and softly snoring.  He is wearing the sleeping mask they give you and somehow has gained full possession of my blanket to cover up with and his blanket is wrapped about his neck and shoulders to hold his head up.  It was at that point that I decided to never ever ever trade seats with him again! haha

Other then suffering for our 17hour return flight, the rest of the vacation went great.  I loved New Zeeland and cannot wait to return to this beautiful country again someday.