New Zealand gets better and better!

The last week has been amazing! Lahti and I went hiking on Fox Glacier, spent a couple of days in Wanaka (a town by a lake surrounded by mountains) and then headed to Queenstown (a city on the water surrounded by mountains). That seems to be the theme in this area of the country. :) It is beautiful here. This morning I went hang gliding off of a mountain!!! I think it was the most amazing experience of my life. The feeling is indescribable. I felt like a bird the way we caught the wind currents and sailed above the land. Tom, the hang gliding expert I was strapped to, did this thing called a stall where he pushed the bar of the hang glider up all the way and made us stop in mid-air (I felt weightless for a second, like I was going to fall) then he pushed the bar down and we started plunging towards the ground until the hang glider leveled out. It was the biggest thrill ever! We were swooping over a lake and I could see our shadow on the lake. Landing was awesome too - we made a couple of big turns down towards the ground and then it felt like we were heading towards the grass really quickly, but the landing was really smooth. To land you just slide along the grass on your legs, but it's a lot gentler than it sounds. I had so much fun - I'm a little obsessed with hang gliding now. I'm going to try to post some videos of me in the air!! The videos are kind of short because Tom was having problems with the camera, but at least he got some. Oh, and I just posted a bunch of new photos on Picasa Web Albums so check those out too! :) http://picasaweb.google.com/morganlwillis

Only 3 more weeks...

I can't believe I only have 3 more weeks in New Zealand. The time is flying by as I travel around with Lahti. We were in Christchurch for a night where we were super excited to eat Mexican food (they don't have much Mexican in New Zealand). We took the Tranzscenic train across the country from Christchurch to Greymouth. There were some nice mountain views. We went to the Monteith's Brewery in Greymouth, but other than that the best thing about the whole town was the hostel we stayed in - Global Village Backpackers. We were ready to get on the road again to Franz Josef Glacier. We went on a hike today through actual rainforest then hiked over a riverbed for a bit longer to get to the terminal face of the glacier. Pretty impressive stuff! I am continually amazed by the diversity of the landscape in New Zealand. We were driving by an ocean yesterday with mountains on the other side of us and today we were walking through rainforest to see a glacier. Where else can you do that!? Tomorrow we're headed to Fox Glacier where we are going to do a full day glacial hike onto the ice with a guide. I know I've been a slacker about pictures - it's really hard to find a computer that will upload them at more than a snail's pace. So here are a few pics to appease you.... :)

Kaikoura

My next stop was in Kaikoura - on the East coast of the South Island. The town is known for their amazing sea life including dolphins, seals and whales. Anybody who knows me knows I wanted to participate in every single marine adventure imaginable, but because of the outlandish prices of everything I had to choose just one. I ended up deciding to swim with the seals. They gave us big, warm wetsuits and snorkel gear then we took a shuttle down to the beach and walked on the rocks for about 20 minutes until we got to the spot where we would go in the water. Apparently the few days before they weren't able to do the seal swimming because the sea was too rough from a storm way offshore. They decided that the day I was there would be okay..... So we got in the water, snorkeled around a bit and then started following the guide out past some rocks to the calm part where the seals were lounging on rocks and sunning themselves. Well to get to the calm part we had to swim through a deep part with pretty strong currents trying to push us back towards the shore. We got through it fine and had a good time looking at the seals close up. Not many of them were in the water with us unfortunately. The guide said sometimes they swim all around with the people and even come up and bump their face masks. I had one get in the water near me, swim by, look at me and swim off to another rock. When it was time to go back to shore we started swimming through the deep part again and just at the same time some big swells started coming over the rocks towards us. I couldn't get out of the current and was being pushed towards the rocks then my leg cramped up - great timing, huh? So the guy is yelling at me to swim over to him (like I'm not trying). And I'm shaking my head, shouting "I can't". So I end up on this rock and he has to come over and pull me off and take me over to the intertube that 2 people are already hanging onto. So I'm definitely not one that every wants to give in and need help, but you better believe I was hanging onto that intertube for dear life until we got to shore. My hand was all bloody and cut up from the rocks, but other than that I survived! That was my big Kaikoura adventure.

Quick summary of the rest of my trip so far

Okay, so I feel like I've been typing way too much on here trying to catch up on everything. I've decided to try to give a broader overview (if that's possible for me). And then you have any questions or want more details you can ask me.
Alright, so I got to Turangi and hiked the Tongariro Alpine Crossing the next day. It's supposed to be one of the best day hikes in the country. The brochure said to take a hat and gloves and a warm jacket. I thought that was crazy because it had been so hot the day before, but I stuck them in anyway. Thank goodness I did! It was so cold on the hike! It was really windy and we were at a higher altitude so I definitely needed the warm clothes. The first part of the hike was all rocky terrain and uphill most of the way. Then I reached some emerald lakes of sulfurous water. Then the last part of the hike was mostly downhill with amazing views of Lake Taupo and farmlands. The whole thing took me about 6 hours to hike.
The next day I went to Wellington (the capital of New Zealand). I met up with Lahti again and we spent the day walking around the city. We went to the museum, had lunch at an Irish pub, then went to the Botanical Gardens that night where they had a free Cuban Jazz concert.
The next morning I caught the ferry to the South Island. The boat was huge - I felt like I was on a mini cruise ship (even though I've never been on a cruise ship). Coming into Picton was neat because we were between two land masses of huge green hills and hit was raining - it looked very surreal. After staying in Picton for a night I headed to Nelson where I got ready to hike in Abel Tasman National Park. The hike was 51 KM through the park, mostly in the woods right along the beach. There were amazing views of the coast along the way! I stayed in huts for 4 nights. They were just really basic rooms with bunk beds all in a row, toilets and COLD showers. The hikes each day between huts were only about 3 or 4 hours so I had a lot of time to lay on the beach and read. I met a nice family who were kayaking with their kids. They let me borrow a kayak one day and paddle around the estuary. I also met a nice older German couple - there was a random, really nice cafe in the middle of the hike where they bought me lunch. Lastly, I met a man from Virginia named Hank. Random, huh?! One of my favorite parts of the whole hike was a side trail that took me to Cleopatra's Pool - a fresh water river that ran down over huge boulders into an extremely clear pool at the bottom. There was a small waterfall there. Yay, I'm almost caught up. My internet time is up for now. I'll write more soon!

Craziest day yet!

Okay, so I left off with the weird rabbits. The next day was my craziest day yet. Lahti and I got to the I-Site to catch our bus after convincing the really unfriendly girl who worked at the hostel to drive us there. Lahti was headed to Rotorua and I was headed to Turangi, but we were on the same bus until we were supposed to connect to other buses in Cambridge. We were excited because we had planned to meet up and travel together some more after about 2 weeks. We were at the bus stop 20 minutes early and sat down to wait. There were a few buses that came and went, but none with a Naked Bus sticker on it (which it's supposed to have). After sitting there about 20 minutes after our bus was supposed to be there we got worried. I went into the I-Site to try to call, but they told me I had to pay to use their phone. ( I try not to use payphones b/c they are so much more expensive than using land lines). So I went over to Cave World and aske dthe guy working at the desk if I could use his phone. He handed it right over, but the phone number wouldn't work with my phone card because it was a toll number that cost $2/minute. The guy was so nice - he got online and was trying to find some help on the Naked Bus website for me, but he couldn't find any other numbers. Then I went back over to use the internet at the I-Site and one of the girls there decided to help me (I think she felt sorry for me). Even though they're not Naked Bus agents she called the toll number anyway and they told us to keep waiting. After an hour, still no bus so Lahti went into the I-Site. The girl called again and this time someone told her the bus had left 40 minutes late and would be there. After an hour and a half - still no bus. Lahti went back in and this time a woman on the phone for Naked Bus told her that one of the bueses that stopped was our bus and it was our fault we missed it! It was complete crap because there was no bust with a Naked Bus sticker on it. Plus the bus driver told her that there was no one else in sight at the bus stop when he had looked right at us and hadn't said a word. While Lahti and I were trying to figure out what to do this Canadian guy named Tim overheard her predicament and said he was driving to Rotorua in his rental car later that day and he could give us a ride. I know, I know - some of you are thinking we shouldn't have ridden with a stranger, but it was two of us against a scrawny, overly enthusiastic Canadian guy and it was definitely okay. So we decided to take him up on the offer and ride with him to Rotorua. I then figured out I could still get to Turangi that night by taking the 11:25 PM bus from Rotorua that arrived in Turangi at 2 AM. I really needed to get to Turangi b/c I wanted to hike the Tongariro Crossing the next day and it was my only day to do it. Plus I would have gotten charged at the hostel I had reserved and would have had to pay again to stay in Rotorua. So Lahti and I planned to meet Tim and the I-Site at 4 after he finished his cave tours. It was only 12:30 at the time so we stored our bags at the I-Site and decided to walk to lunch. There was a restaurant, Roseland's, 3 km out of town that was supposed to be good. We decided to walk there - 3 km really isn't far at all, but it felt like forever b/c we were walking uphill in the hot sun on curvy roads the whole way. There was pretty farmland and views on the way though. We got to the end of the driveway to the restaurant and there was a small path through the woods and up some steps. I went that way, but then we realized we were coming up the back of the restaurant. We went up some more stairs and I was going to see if we could walk around the deck to the front entrance. Then a woman washing dishes in the kitchen saw us and said "You've come the wrong way. Come on through here." So we entered the restaurant through the kitchen. The owner came over and was obviously amused we had come the wrong way and even more amused when he found out we had walked the whole way. When he sat us down there was a traveler couple beside our table and he said "Maybe these nice people will give you a ride back to town after lunch and if not then I will." Ha ha. So we had a great lunch and then the couple beside us who were from Germany gave us a ride back to town. We met up with Tim, loaded our bags in his small rental car and headed off. He wanted to go see a waterfall and natural bridge that were about 27km outside of Waitomo before we went to Rotorua. Both ended up being fantastic and we never would have seen them if we'd caught out bus earlier that day. The trails to the natural bridge and the waterfall felt like we were in the Amazon or a rainforest in Central America. Then on the other side of the road were rolling green hills with sheep - plus you knew there were caves under the Earth. Weird! It took us 3 hours to drive to Rotorua. We bought Tim dinner at an Indian restaurant b/c he refused to make us pay him gas money. Then they dropped me off at the bus stop at 11pm. I was on the bus when I realized I had left my camera in Tim's car! The man I was sitting beside on the bus was so nice - he got out his Blackberry and emailed Lahti to see if she could bring me my camera. (Unfortunately, she didn't get the email in time and I still haven't gotten in touch with Tim so I don't know if I'm going to get my camera back! :( At least I had my little camera with me too so I'm still able to take pictures of the rest of my trip.) I got to Turangi at 2am, walked around the corner to my hostel and fell into bed. So that was the end of my crazy day!

Off for good....

I left the town of Coromandel for good on Wednesday, January 9th. I can't believe that was already two weeks ago. Once I started traveling the time has been flying by! I rode to Auckland with Pam and Jenna who had a couple of days off of work and wanted to go into Auckland too. We went out to dinner for Mexican - something I have been deprived of in New Zealand! The next day I took a bus to Paihia, which is north of Auckland. I stayed at Saltwater Lodge, a hostel really close to the beach. The next day I took a bus tour of the Northern tip of New Zealand. We left Paihia at 7:15Am and drove to an old Kauri forest. They had spent one million dollars building a walkway through the forest for when Queen Elizabeth came to visit. She came and tood one step onto the walkway, looked around and then left - oops. It was only about a 5 minute loop, but the old Kauri trees were amazing. They were so big with straight trunks that reached up towards the sky. Next we drove to the very tip of the North Island, Cape Reinga. There's a lighthouse there and you can see where the Pacific Ocean and Tasman Sea meet! The currents crashed together creating waves - that was so cool! Cape Reinga is sacred for the Maori people. They believe that after you die your soul travels to Cape Reinga, through a Pohutakawa tree and then out to sea. Next we drove down to a bay and then to some giant sand dunes. It was hard climbing up the dunes and it was so windy - the sand stung your body as you got close to the top. We had boogie boards with us that the guide held at the top of the dune while you lay down on it and then off you go. I went really fast and made it all the way to the bottom while most people stopped further up and had to walk down the rest of the way. After the dunes we drove along Ninety Mile Beach, which is actually classified as a highway in New Zealand. We stopped the the Bluff that reaches out into the Tasman Sea. The ocean was so rough and powerful crashing against the rocks. After that we drove awhile then stopped at the Ancient Kauri Kingdom - a shop where they make furniture and crafts out of ancient kauri wood that had been preserved under the earth. There was an awesome staircase carved in the middle of a huge kauri stump. There was some beautiful furniture carved out of kauri wood if you have about $55,000 to spare. Our final stop was a fish and chips shop right on the water in Mongonui Bay. They have their own boats and catch fresh fish everyday for the restaurant. We had hapuka - delicious!

The next evening I left on an overnight cruise in the Bay of Islands. The name of the boat was The Rock. The crew was great - 6 people from different places - England, Argentina, Germany, New Zealand. The owners worked on the boat too. They were a pretty young couple (probably in their early 30's) and had come up with the whole idea on their own. They bought an old barge ship and built it up to be an overnight cruise ship. We cruised out into the Bay of Islands, anchored and fished (I caught a little one) and then ate dinner. The bottom of teh boat was a bar down the center, lounging areas and a pool table at the front and tables with chairs down one side. We all sat on one long table for dinner with candle lanterns down the center. I had met 2 woman from Canada who were really nice - Diane and Carol. I also met Anna, from Sweden, and Graham, from South Africa, who had met in Australia and were traveling together. After dinner we went night kayaking and saw the phosphorescent photo plankton in the water. It sparkled like tiny stars everytime you touched the water. After kayaking I sat around the fireplace with some people and talked. The next morning I got up to see the sunrise, slept another hour then went down for breakfast. We cruised to a good snorkeling spot and jumped in. It felt like we were in the middle of the ocean, but I guess it was a little sheltered. There was a big rock that the waves were crashing up against. The crew members who were snorkeling with us dove down to the rock and pulled big greeen mussels off. They cracked the mussels open and gave them to us. When you held the mussel under the water the fish would swim up to you and eat the mussel right out of your hand! There were some big fish too! Probably some at least a foot and a half long. I made it over to the rock and dove down to see the green mussels, but I couldn't pull them off the rock before I ran out of breath. After snorkeling we cruised to an island where we went on a hike up to a great overlook and then we ate lunch on the beach. During the cruise I had talked with Anna and Graham about riding with them to Auckland instead of taking a bus. When we got back to Paihia I canceled my bus ticket for the next day and got a refund. I watched Anna and Graham skydive before we left Paihia. I really wanted to do it too, but it was too expensive! I'm definitely going to skydive someday! We left Paihia to drive to a campground they had stayed at before near Goat Island. We got lost on the way on a bunch of dirt roads and Graham ended up going up to this house out in the country to get directions. Then we were worried that everything would be closed for dinner because it was pretty late at this point. It reminded me of many Willis family vacations from my past! Ha ha. We finally made it to the campground where we stayed in an old camper (they call them caravans). The next morning Anna cooked us pancakes on the grill (they call them bbq's) then we drove over to Goat Island. It's supposed to be one of the best snorkeling spots in NZ. It was awesome! We had a sunny day and the water was a pretty shade of blue. We snorkeled and saw lots of neat fish and plants growing on the rocks. After Goat Island we went to a bigger, sandier beach where we could relax and swim in the waves. We left the beach to get lunch and drive back to Auckland. It's so weird saying bye to people you travel with knowing that you'll probably never see them again, especally because you get close to people you travel with so fast. I spent the night in Auckland then caught a bus the next day to Hamilton then another bus on to Raglan. A girl sat down on the bus across the aisle from me and I could tell she was a traveler so I started talking to her. Her name was Lahti and she's from California. She had only been in NZ for about a week, but is planning to stay for about 6 months (with some time in Australia too). We talked the whole bus ride and figured out we were staying at the same hostel in Raglan for 2 nights and then both going to Waitomo. It was so great to meet her b/c we get along great and have similar interests in traveling. When we got to Raglan we found the hostel, checked in, then went and wandered around the small town - we got fresh fruit icecream - mmm. Raglan is a beach town known for it's great surfing waves. They filmed the movie Endless Summer there. That night Lahti and I ate dinner at a restaurant in town then watched a movie at our hostel. The next day we used the hostels bikes and rode to the beach. We walked along the beach then over a lot of rocks to the big surfing beach called Manu Bay. Along the way we saw some crazy moss growing on the rocks that was so long it looked like fur. We also saw some cool crabs scuttling about. It was fun to sit and watch the really good surfers - we saw one guy that completely snapped his surfboard in half. I've never seen waves like at Raglan. They started way out away from shore and came into shore at an angle. Plus it was layers of waves instead of just one. There were quite a few surfers in the water. I don't see how they don't hit each other all the time. It was was super hot out and we were baking in the sun - you can literally feel your skin cooking here. (Apparently there is no ozone layer over NZ and a girl told us that the burn time is 9 minutes!) We got back to our bikes and rode to a little fish and chips shop then back to our hostel. When we got back we napped in the hammocks at our hostel for awhile and then got up to go kayaking. We used the hostels free kayaks in the estuary right by the hostel. We paddled around a little bit and then just floated around and relaxed. There were dogs out swimming in the water - it made me miss Smokey - he would love it here! There is a bridge across the estuary before you get to the ocean that everyone likes to jump off. When we got back from kayaking Lahti heard the hostel owner telling someone that the week before there had been a shark circling the bridge where all the swimmers were! Apparently there is a huge amount of shark activity in NZ this summer and they don't know why. Scary!
Lahti and I spent a second night in Raglan and then wanted to get to Waitomo the next day. Our hostel owner knoew we wanted to go there and didn't have bus tickets yet so she ended up talking to the driver on Stray Bus and he said he'd take us for $20 each. That was great b/c it saved us from having to go all the way back to Hamilton and then wait for a connecting bus to Waitomo. I'm pretty sure the driver just pocketed the $20 from each of us, but whatever, we got to Waitomo. He even took us straight to our hostel which was a little way out of town. We went to the Waitomo Caves where a tour guide led us through. We got in a boat and our guide pulled us through the cave with ropes that were above her head. We saw thousands of glow worms on the top of the cave. They are actually larvae that hang from sacks they make for themselves. It looked like stars in the night sky. Before the guide had aslo showed us these sticky strands the worms produce and hang below them to catch food. Apparently the strands are stronger than a spider web. The strands sparkled in the light and looked really neat. Then we went to Aranui cave which had more formations but no glowworms. Oh yeah, on our way to the caves we had the weirdest experience. We went to this place called the Shearing Shed that was on our way into town. They imported Angora rabbits from Germany and breed them. It's the only other place in the world that has them other than Germany. They brought one out for us to see - it was so fluffy and soft with pink eyes. Then a van of Japanese tourists showed up so they decided to shear one for us. It was so sad! They took the rabbit and hooked him in this thing that looked like a stretching torture device. They put his feet in these rope loops then hooked them to a machine that they turned until his body was stretched out with no wrinkles. Then they took sheep shearers and sheared off his fur. The woman said they start doing it when the rabbits are 3 months old so they are used to it and it doesn't bother them, but he looked scared to me. The people that work there are OBSESSED with rabbits. They were so weird. The girl who was shearing the rabbit was probably only 17 or so. While she was shearing this woman came in and said "That's my daughter" while beaming proudly like she was graduating from college or something. That whole thing was quite an experience. Okay, enough writing for now. I'll write more later.

So much to say.....

Why I actually thought I would update my blog more frequently when I was traveling is beyond me. I finished working in Coromandel about a week and a half ago and have been going non stop since then. I decided to leave work earlier than I had planned because I was tired of being in such a small town and was ready to travel. I'm traveling for the next 5 weeks and then I'm coming home on February 26th. I wanted to come home on March 6th, but flights home were completely booked until March 30th except for the one seat I got in February - who knew it would be that hard to get home!!!! I'm really excited about my upcoming travels. I have everything pretty much planned out and I'm going to see almost the entire country. I have so many things to write about just from the past week and a half. This is going to be a really long blog - sorry if it's too much but I want to catch everyone up on what I've been doing and then I really will try to blog more often!
The day I finished working (Jan. 8) I worked a morning shift and got off about 4:30. Pam, one of the Canadian girls I worked with, and I rented a car from the gas station and drove to Whungapoa Beach - about 20 minutes from Coromandel. It's a really nice beach with waves about the same size as North Carolina's coasts. We walked along the beach to the end where we walked over some rocks until we found the path to New Chum's Beach. The path climbed up and around a saddle for about 20 minutes. We got to some stairs that led down through the forest to the beach, but there was also a little dirt trail that led off to the right up a hill. We decided to take the dirt trail first - it ended up being a really steep path up to the top of the cliff that bordered New Chum's Beach. There were a lot of roots and trees to hold onto on the way up. The view from the top was breathtaking. New Chum's Beach is like something out of a movie - white sand, crashing waves, bordered by huges rocks and trees. The coolest part was the alcoves formed from the rocks. After climbing to the top of the cliff we climbed back down and walked the rest of the way to the beach. The path went through some dense forest with neat plants. The best thing about the beach is that there are absolutely no houses or any development. Apparently a few years ago it was rated the Eight Wonder of the World - I could definitely see why. We went for a quick swim, but the sun was already down behind the hills. After walking back to our car we drove to Whitianga and had dinner. It's amazing how much you miss having a car when you're used to the freedom of being able to get in a car at anytime and go where you want.
The next day Jenna and I went to hike the Coromandel Walkway at the very top of the Coromandel Peninsula. I drove the rental car up the most ridiculous roads you have ever seen. At first it was just really curvy then the last hour or so was a narrow, gravel road. There was just enough room for 2 cars to pass one another. I don't think New Zealand knows what guardrails are. The views were spectacular though! We parked at Fletcher's Bay where the walkway starts. The hike took us a little over 2 1/2 hours to reach Stoney Bay. The first part was a little challenging with a lot of up and down the hills then the last part was an easy, flat path. We were hiking over large, green hills to the coastline where you could look down and see the ocean crashing against the rocks. There was also a part that went through dense forest. At Stoney Bay was saw a sign for a different route back and decided it would be fun to go back a different way from the way we came. We asked a lady that worked for the Department of Conservation if it was a good trail. She said "Oh yeah, it's great - just a little harder than the other one." (We found out later on that was quite an understatement.) So we started off - climbing over a fence and crossing a small stream. Then we started climbing and climbing and climbing - we climbed up for about 2 hours - we kept thinking we were at the top and then it would go up some more. When we finally did get to the top the views were spectacular. We were on the top of a mountain that was farther inland from the track we had taken before. It was cool because we could look and see where we had hiked earlier that day. When we continued on our hike going down was as steep as going up. We walked through a meadow with tall grass then started walking through cow pastures. We were walking alongside a wire fence and there were some cows standing in front of us in the corner where the 2 fences met. We kept walking and they didn't budge. They just kept staring at us - then we got freaked out that they were going to charge us. I don't really think female cows do that, but it was weird the way they just stood there. We shouted and clapped while we moved closer. They turned and walked away some then stopped and looked back. Then all of a sudden one of the cows turned and jumped the fence!!! She got here front legs over the fence then her body got caught and she was kicking her back legs trying to get over. I was so afraid that she was going to get stuck on the fence and get hurt. She made it over, but we were so freaked out. I didn't even know cows could jump! Could you imagine me having to walk up to some farmhouse and say "Excuse me, but I scared your cow and it tried to jump over a fence and got stuck." Ha ha. We ended up going down a really steep part of the hill to get around the cows, then we got into the next pasture and the trail just kind of ended on the top of this hill. Luckily we could see the trail we had walked on earlier in the day down at the bottom of the hill so we just headed towards that. We got back to the car exhausted, but it was a really fun day.
I have a lot more to write about but my time on the computer is almost up. I'll write some more tonight or tomorrow morning when I'm in Wellington. Hopefully internet there will be cheaper. I know everyone wants to see pictures, but I'm an idiot and left my camera in a car with this guy we rode with to Rotorua (that's another long story in itself). But anyway, I'm sure I'm going to get my camera back b/c Tim will mail it to me, but for now I don't have my memory card with all my pictures on it. Crappy huh? At least I took my smaller camera too, so I have that to use until I get my big camera back. I'll write more soon!