A friend from school, Brownie, spent the last two weeks with us. Friends here kept saying how disappointing it was she could only come during the winter. But as I reminded them, winter in New Zealand is pretty mild compared to winter where we're from!
Brown arrived on Monday to a four-day stretch of cool but beautiful, sunny weather. We walked around the Mount, then up the Mount on Tuesday. Wednesday, we checked out the giant kauri trees and shopped the main street. Then Thursday we took a day trip to Rotorua, which involved a walk through another great thermal area (bubbling hot pools, a mud volcano) and a visit to the kiwi hatchery. Friday we wandered the Strand over in Tauranga, where Brown found some new dishes (made here in NZ). Saturday involved the excitment offered by Kiwi360, a tour of a local kiwifruit orchard, and a trip to a beautiful local waterfall. Even more exciting was the daVinci exhibit at the Waikato Museum on Sunday. We headed back west again the next day to visit the Waitomo Caves, which were stupendous. Tuesday we had the world's best fish 'n' chips and got to see Transformers 2 from the front row. A break in the rainy weather on Wednesday made for the perfect chance to walk trails in the Karangahake Gorge. Then, after three days of postponement, on Thursday we were finally able to sai out to White Island, an active marine volcano. It was AWESOME! Friday was a lazy day, with all of us preparing for our upcoming trips home. Today we dropped Brownie off at the the airport, taking the route we'll soon be taking ourselves.
The count down is on... T minus 4 days!
Saturday, July 4, 2009
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
