March 29th 2011 Morning Hike

6:30am this morning I climbed out of bed (on my day to sleep in) in order to hike to the top of Mount Victoria to watch the sunrise. Since next week is daylight savings I would have to wake up at 5:30am to see the sunrise so I think Cortland and I planned it perfectly to go this week. We walked through downtown along the shore line which is very peaceful and quite beautiful when everything is still and dark. We spent so much time taking pictures at the base that we barely had time to climb to the top before the sun peaked over the mountains. We practically were running up Mt. Victoria and I was ill prepared because I did not bring water. By the time we reached the top I was out of breath and ready to hurl. Our speediness was rewarded because we had time to sit and watch the sunrise for 20 minutes. The view from the top is quiet spectacular because it feels like we are surrounded by water. Watching the sun stretch over the back mountains is quiet a scene to behold. Great way to start the week and the day!

 The dock right before the sunrise...I thought it looked like a painting!

 I love the trees here...They look like pine trees but definitely with more elegance

 Downtown Wellington

Rotorua Trip, March 25th-27th 2011

On Friday we left at 12:30pm to head towards the middle of the North Island called Rotorua. It was a beautiful sunny day on Friday so I was little bummed to be stuck in a van but all was worth it for the scenery on the way there. On the way to Rotorua we stopped in a town called Bulls. They took their name seriously because every store and sign had the word bull in it, but after awhile it was a little too much and I got irrita-"bull". Ha!
     Before we reached Rotorua we stopped at Huka Falls where we got to see how powerful the river was as well as how blue the water looked. It looked like someone put a lot of chlorine or blue food coloring in it.
      Saturday morning we woke up early and went to the agrodome where we watched a sheep show and saw all the different types of sheep and sheep dogs. This place was more touristy so it had people from all over the world and had head sets for people who didn't speak English. The man on stage picked a lot of girls from the U.S to come one stage as volunteers which apparently made the Aussie behind me mad because he sat there and mumbled about Americans the rest of the show because his daughter wasn't picked. After the show we hung out in the nursery and played with the lambs for awhile which were very docile and much different than the killer goats at the Children's zoo in Lincoln. Later in the day we went to the adventure park where we went jetboating and swooping. Swooping is another word for the Rip-Cord that is at World's of Fun in KC. However, KC is \above water and a little more professional which made the swoop kind of frightening. After lunch we went to a Maori cultural showing where we were part of a "Powhiri" and were greeted formally by members of an Iwi (tribe). Finally, at the end of the day we relaxed at a Polynesian spa which was outside and overlooking a thermal lake.
          Sunday morning we went to Wai-O-Tapu, Thermal Wonderland, where we watched the Lady Knox Geyser errupt. This geyser is much similar to the one in Yellowstone National Park. After the showing we traveled the rest of the park which was about a hour and half trail. On the way home I spent most of the time taking in the land. Pictures really do not do justice to how beautiful New Zealand is and I will miss the terrain when I am back home in the flattened land of Nebraska.
(Also, I was feeling a little creative so bare with me on the videos and weird pictures :)

 I think my favorite was one by a store that said Non-return-a-bull

 We were taking a break so I decided to mess around outside instead of sit on the van. I fogged up the glass and made a heart for Alex and she unfortunately caught me making this lovely face at her.

 Since there is a lot of thermal activity below the earth, many of the places have steam coming out of the ground. This picture was taken a golf course near a gas station where we stopped.

 Agrodome sheep show arena

 Each sheep shown here are used for different kinds of needs from meet to wool

 The sheep dogs showed off their skills by playing leap frog on the sheep! The man said that when the sheep are not phased by the dogs barks that the dogs will jump on top of the sheep to get them moving

Here's me wrangling up my own sheep

 Adventure park

 The Swoop.

 After we were harnessed in and heading up the guys thought it would be funny to act like our safety cord broke....I did not think that joke was funny at all

 Jetboating! It would've been more fun if we were on an actual river or if I actually got to drive it

I didn't get the actual footage of the ride because my memory card was full but I think this video is interesting anyways :)

 The Shweeb track. Only track in the world

 It's like a bike but allows you to go up to higher speeds and above ground. Above are the list of the fastest times from people all around the world.

 Thermal action in the Maori grounds.

There was so much steam that you could barely see in front of you when you were crossing the bridge

 Maori craftsmanship, hand carved and will be stained and used to replace a column on the house or Wharenoe (Fudi-nui)

 The chief of our group who was the tallest person I have ever seen! He is challenged by the Maori to see if he comes in peace. The Maori lays a silver fern on the ground and if our chief picked it up keeping eye contact then it showed we came in peace and would be welcomed.

Whole NZ group!

 At last the Polynesian spa!!

 Since the water naturally has sulfur in it, we were told to take off any jewelry that was silver because it would turn it black. I left my belly button ring in as an experiment...it in fact did turn black! I was told that tooth paste will clean it though so no worries

 The view from the spa. The water in the lake is too hot to swim in and therefor has no fish in it as well.

Saturday night some of us decided to go out to the top bar in Rotorua called Lava. Upon entering the bar we were ambushed by a bachelor party of 15-20 very drunk older men. Can you pick out who the bachelor is?

He had a check list, on the back of his dress, of things he had to accomplish before the night was over. One was to get a double D bra from a girl. Bummer, I couldn't supply him with that ;)

 Lady Knox Geyser

This was first discovered back when the land was used as prison labor. The men use to come down to a thermal pool, that once covered the geyser, and would wash their clothes in it. To their surprise, when soap was mixed with the thermal pool a chain reaction started and caused the pool to erupt. You can imagine what happened to their clothes when this reaction took place.

 

These signs explained what elements and minerals are causing the water to change colors

 

 Close up of one of the thermal hot pools

 Alex, Jill, and I playing on the bridge

 A lot of the mud pools were boiling hot and you could here the mud bubbles popping as you walked around the park

 A rain droplet on a tea tree. When there were a lot of the droplets on the leaves in the forest it looked like the trees had lights on them.

 When you stepped onto the rocks you could feel the heat conducting through your shoes.

 This was an opening in the middle of the forest with a bench so I decided to sit down and take a rest and enjoy the scenery

 This pool was at the very end of the trail. One lady said it looked like pea soup. I have never seen pea soup and from the looks of this I don't think I will ever want to.... so I will have to take her word for it