Taupo, Mount Doom, and Wellington

Hey everyone! We've made it to the South Island and are staying in a gem of a hostel called The Bug. One of the best parts about staying at this place is...FREE HIGH SPEED INTERNET! The reason I'm so excited about this is because high speed internet and free hardly ever go together in Kiwi-land. Anyways, In the past three days we've visited wonderful places on the North Island. After Rotorua, we headed to Taupo (known as the skydiving capitol of New Zealand) and saw the beautiful Waikato River (the longest river in NZ), Lake Taupo (the largest lake in NZ), and Huka Falls. Taupo was great and as a tip to future travelers to New Zealand, we'd recommend skipping Rotorua altogether and heading straight to Taupo.

We didn't get in on the gorgeous skydiving (~$400/person), but we did some beautiful hikes that really showcased Taupo's natural beauty.

We also went to a lesser known attraction called the Honey Hive. New Zealand is known for their various types of honey and this place allowed us to have free samples of everything from lavendar honey to high quality mead. Ryan insisted on acting like a honeybee afterward... After wearing ourselves out from hiking, we slept well and headed to Tongariro National Park. The Park is one of three World Heritage Sites in NZ, and one of its three volcanic

peaks (Mt. Ngauruhoe) makes a cameo appearance in the Lord of the Rings films as Mount Doom. It's still an active volcano and quite the scene to behold. There were other hikers also there making a much more hardcore trek than the two of us...to be a serious hiker you'll need hiking boots, bandanas, a backpack, and walking sticks! Ryan and I had shorts and a tshirt on along with our running shoes...I also wore my fedora which probably made me look really lame to the hardcore hikers. After gazing at Mount Doom for a few minutes, we headed back to the car for a 4 hour drive to Wellington. We stayed in a great little hostel called Moana Lodge about 25 km outside of Wellington but RIGHT on the beach. It was beautiful! We drove into Wellington city for dinner, ice cream, and a short trip to the famous Te Papa Museum. Our time in Wellington was far too short, and we wish we'd had longer in the museum because it was really the most fascinating museum I've ever been to (very interactive)! It was nice to see where I was born though :-)

We left our hostel at 6am to get to the Cook Straight Ferry Terminal and took a 3-hour ferry to the South Island. We've been told by pretty much everyone that the South Island is even more beautiful than the North Island...we're not sure how this is possible but we'll spend the next 9 days seeing if it's true.

Rotorua AKA Little America

Rotorua is New Zealand's most visited town, and it's known for its beautiful hikes, tons of thermal activity (think bubbling, steaming mud pools and geysers), and the 'unique perfume' that fills the air (think tons of Sulfur). When we drove into Rotorua, it was clear that the most-visited town in New Zealand clearly catered for a very American demographic. There's a state-of-the-art McDonald's right next to a Ford dealership showcasing its trucks, two KFC's within walking distance, New Zealand's version of Costco, two other large grocery stores a block apart from one another, and restaurants with signs like "BUFFET" or "Cold Beer and Sizzling Steaks All Night!" In addition to these details that remind us of home, Rotorua is chock full of touristy things. After a good night's rest, we decided to start the morning off with a tasty breakfast at the Lime Cafeteria (a Lonely Planet recommendation which offers delicious Gluten Free options). Then we hiked around a thermal activity park, which show cased samples of things you can see all over Rotorua: boiling mud pools, mineral pools, and geysers. Afterwards, we decided to do our first tramp (AKA hike...a famous activity in New Zealand) in a redwood forest which offers beautiful views of the town. The 3 hour tramp was a fair amount of exercise not to mention absolutely beautiful! We were worn out afterward and decided to catch up on laundry, reading, and grocery shopping. Now we're watching Lord of the Rings in our hostel's lounge to really reiterate the Kiwi spirit. We're off to hike some more tomorrow morning!

p.s. Thanks for reading and thanks for commenting! We love to read comments :-)

The Legendary Black Water Rafting Company

Our last night at Black-Jack Lodge ended with a beautiful sunset, but we didn't linger much longer after that. We got up at 5:00a.m. and left for the Waitomo Caves. There we ate our sandwiches while we waited for our black water cave tour to start.

We chose the most intense of the cave rafting tours named the 'Black Abyss', because this is how the brochure described it: The caving tour of choice for natural born adrenaline junkies everywhere. Descend into the seemingly bottomless black depths of the glow worm studded Ruakuri Cave. This five hour expedition combines abseiling the 35 metre tomo, climbing, whizzing down a flying fox and cave tubing underneath glow worms into one unforgettable journey. We weren't disappointed! We started off by getting a quick lesson on abseiling (aka repelling), and then we actually repelled 115 ft. into the dark, narrow mouth of the cave we'd spend the next three hours in.

The guide was the only one with a camera (it had to be waterproof), so we won't be able to post the pictures of us in the cave until later. Senushi was sent down the zipline first in the pitch black except for tiny glowworms that studded the ceiling of the cave. After we'd all ziplined down, I joined a few others by taking my innertube and leaping 13 ft down into the black water river that flowed through the rest of the cave. By the way, this water was COLD (50 degrees)! Our very worn-in neoprene wetsuits couldn't keep our hands and toes from going numb, and Senushi spent the first hour of the trip thinking her extremities would fall off from frostbite. We floated on our tubes with our helmet lights off, allowing the glowworms to provide us with just a bit of light. The floating lasted 5 minutes, and we were off to do those 'adrenaline junkie' things the brochure had touted about. Hiking through the cold river that was sometimes knee dip and sometimes up to my chin, we came across waterfalls to climb up or jump down and cave walls to scale up. Senushi lost one of her boots in a gushing waterfall, and hiked the last hour in one boot (not so fun considering the sometimes sharp rocks at the bottom of the black river). We climbed out and agreed we'd had a great time! After a quick shower, we were off to New Zealand's most popular tourist attraction: the town of Rotorua.

Rainy, Fun Days in Coromandel

 After spending the night in Auckland, we got a relatively early start to the Coromandel Peninsula. It was about a 2 hour drive to the base of the peninsula, where we refueled and then set off up the coast. Driving here is an interesting experience; driving can change from fun to terrifying in a matter of moments, yet it is almost always incredibly beautiful. Driving up the coast to Coromandel Town was stunning, and we even had some sunlight for a short period of the drive! Coromandel Town is a small, quaint little town with a few shops and restaurants, but not much else. We stopped at a little cafe that Lonely Planet recommended because it had gluten free options. The food was good, although the people seemed a bit pretentious. After lunch, we continued down the road toward our hostel, Black-Jack Lodge. The road here stops following the coastline and instead winds its way through the mountains before reemerging on the coast on the opposite side of the peninsula.

 We arrived at the hostel, which has turned out to be a great little place to stay. Everything is very clean and nice, and the hosts are very helpful. We decided to go for a walk on the beach when the rain temporarily stopped, and we got to the end of the beach before it picked back up. When we made it back to the lodge we were thoroughly soaked.

We cooked dinner and then spent the rest of the night talking with an older British couple that was staying in the lodge with us (it's their fifth time to New Zealand). This morning, we awoke to more rain, so we decided to make it an easy morning that involved reading, checking email, and making brunch. Carl, the owner, has a small flock of chickens that produce the fresh eggs he shares with the lodgers.

Despite the rain, we decided to try and see a famously beautiful beach nearby: New Chums Beach. Alas, we arrived there at high tide and we weren't able to swim across a small but deep stream to reach the walkway to the beach. Instead, we watched the surfers take on the amazing waves. We also saw some funny looking birds and, of course, more beautiful scenery.




After our failed attempt to see New Chums Beach, we drove up more windy roads to the closest town: Whitianga. There, we found a grocery store to replenish our food stock. Tonight we're going to cook up some famously good New Zealand lamb chops in the lodge's beautifully kept kitchen.

Kia Ora from New Zealand!

We're in New Zealand and it is gorgeous! After flying to Auckland from Fiji on March 23rd, we picked up our rental car and drove straight to the Wainui Lodge in the Bay of Islands. Ryan was pretty nervous about driving on the left side of the road, but he did an awesome job. Not only did














he have to learn how to drive on the other side of the road, but the roads up north were treacherous! The roads were the curviest we've ever seen plus it was dark and raining...and we had rented the "econo-car" AKA 229,000 km. It took about 5 hours to get to our hostel, and I honestly wasn't sure we'd ever get there. The hostel was really cute and the very sweet hostel owner answered the door for us at 11pm. Our room had a beautiful view of the bay, and we explored the coastal town of Russell the next day. The food and wine in New Zealand is everything it's cracked up to be, and the scenery is just as great. We spent a few hours just taking in the scenery while walking on one of the many beaches in the Bay of Islands, then we split 1 Kilo of mussels for dinner. Now we're in Auckland, the City of Sails, and unfortunately it's raining. We've arrived in New Zealand at the very beginning of the rainy season, so now we have to cross our fingers and hope for good weather. Everyone here is incredibly friendly and helpful, and we're loving New Zealand so far!

Pool --> Lunch --> Mud!

It's hard to believe that we've already been in Fiji for two days and that we'll be leaving for New Zealand in the morning. Today was a great day! We decided to stay on the main island, both to save a bit of money and to see a different side of Fiji from the beaches. We started out with breakfast at the lodge, where we talked to other travelers to get ideas about what we could do around the island, and decided that we would go as a group into town for lunch and shopping, and then to some hot springs. The great thing about staying at a hostel is the diversity of the people you meet. For example, we ate breakfast with people from Switzerland, the Netherlands, England, and Japan. After swimming for a bit at Bluewater Lodge's pool, we joined our friends Jackie and Kaori for quick taxi ride into Nadi town center. We ate lunch at an Indian restaurant-- about 30% of Fiji's population is Indian-- and then we were off to stroll around town. The four of us met up and took a taxi back to the lodge so we could be ready for the day's main event: Mud Pools & Hot Springs. The owner of the hostel, Mike, drove five of us up to the mud pools. On the way there we saw beautiful mountains, lots of palm trees, and sugar cane fields. The trip there was also a chance for Mike to tell us how the Bluewater Lodge came to be. Mike is a true Brit, and he met his now wife Fiona (a Fijian) in England when they were working at an office together. They got sick of their daily commute into London, heard the lodge was up sale in Fiji, and decided to buy it and move to Fiji. They had only known each other for two years at that point, and they've been running the lodge for 5 years now!

Anyway, back to the mud pools and hot springs... The pictures speak for themselves really. You're asked to cover yourself in mud, let it dry on your skin, take a dip in a muddy pond, and then sit in a pond fed by a natural hot spring. It was a hilarious experience! On the drive back, we saw true Fiji sunsets. Next on the agenda was to wash off the mud that had managed to stay pasted on our skin.Then we joined our friends for dinner just as we had the night before. More delicious food, laughter, and fun conversations. Great final night in Fiji.

Bula Bula from Fiji!

We finally made it to Fiji! It was a long trip, followed immediately by a long but really fun day. We landed in Fiji at 5:15 AM local time and had an easy time finding our bags and getting through customs. Ali, the driver from Bluewater Lodge, where we are staying, was waiting in the arrivals lounge to take us to the hostel. Upon arrival, it took a few minutes of paging and banging on the gate before Ali managed to wake up a sleepy, slightly grumpy man in the hostel, but we finally made it in. At this point, we had been traveling for the past 24 hours, and were in desperate need of a shower, but our room was not going to be ready for us until 11:00 AM. We pondered how we were going to spend the next 4 hours and decided that it would be best to start by checking in with the family and waiting until someone slightly less grumpy woke up.

When guests and staff finally started appearing, we started asking around about things we could do for the day. After discovering that the beaches on the main island are nowhere near as good as the beaches on the smaller surrounding islands, we decided that we needed to visit one of these islands. We settled on Bounty Island, as it was supposed to be less crowded than some of the other islands. Ali took us to the port, where we purchased our ferry tickets, as well as some grossly overpriced sunscreen ($13 for a small tube). A few minutes later, we were on the ferry headed to our island. When our stop came around, only 4 of us disembarked the very full ferry. We boarded a smaller boat that had pulled up along the ferry, which then headed for the beach. We landed at the island to find a ridiculously beautiful beach. We decided to take advantage of the included snorkel gear rental and explored the coral around the island for a while before deciding to walk all the way around the island on the beach. We spent the rest of the day swimming in the pool and ocean, lounging in the shade, and seeing what else was on the island. We discovered a small sea turtle pond within the small forest on the island and spent a little while watching them...wishing we could pet them. The island was the perfect place to unwind after a full day of travel. You'd have thought we'd be exhausted after the flights, layovers, and the dramatic time change...but the scenes of Fiji really made it difficult to draw the shades and just sleep the day away. When it was time to go, a small motor boat picked up us 'day trippers' and boarded us onto the larger ferry to go back to port Denarau. We stepped down into the middle level deck where windows to the outer deck surrounded us. Right in front of us were windows displaying the bow of the ferry. An Italian couple decided to use this area as a stage for their passionate, bikini/speedo-clad love affair. The 80 or so passengers, of every age and ethnicity, sat in the middle deck staring straight ahead as the Italians put on a show. It was both hilarious and embarrassing to watch (especially if you happen to be sitting next to one of the 70-year old Japanese tourists). Finally, one of the passengers on the middle deck walked up to 'the stage,' tapped the Italians on the shoulders, and asked them to kindly stop. We finally left the ferry for a bus headed back to the Bluewater Lodge-- our home sweet home.


One of the lovely hosts, Kiara, informed us that our bags had already been placed in our room. We were so excited for a shower! After freshening up, we joined fellow lodgers at the outdoor dining table. A Fijian man sat in the corner playing Fijian folk songs on his guitar, and guests sat along a wooden table laughing and talking about their travels while candlelit lanterns provided just enough light for the evening. The food at Bluewater is famous for being delicious. So much so that guests from other hotels and hostels come here for meals. We ordered two of their prawn specialties: Ginger Prawn Stirfry and Garlic Prawns with Crispy Potatoes. The hearty, delicious meals and the company of fellow travelers were the perfect end to our first day in Fiji.

T Minus 9 days!!!?

This morning it finally hit us just how close we are to D-day...departure day that is. In the past year, as many of you know, Ryan and I have been going through the ups and downs of applying to dental and medical school (respectively). Applying is not fun, but it's just a small taste of what the 4 years of school we've signed up for will be like. It made us think, "What should we do with the last bit of time before school starts?" We, along with many of you, agreed that traveling would be the best use of our time. I won't be hearing if I've gotten into medical school until the day we leave: March 19th. Meanwhile, Ryan and I are both busy making our final travel plans: booking our connecting flights, deciding on hostels, finding the best deal on a rental car in New Zealand, and tying up loose ends at home. Planning a two-month trip to Fiji, New Zealand, Australia, Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, and Vietnam is not easy. Thank you to all of our friends and family who have given us travel advice, donated airline miles or hotel points for the cause, and tolerated our constant chatter about this trip we're so excited to take. We are so lucky to have you in our lives, and we hope you'll keep in touch with us while we're away!!