Day 8ish to 11ish - Back in Auckland

only bit of sunshine we got our entire time in the city.

Oh my god, can we get out of these clothes already? That's one thing I'm appreciating about being back at home. Variety of attire, accessory, hairstyle, makeup...aaaah. Being able to launder that white jacket at whim's desire, simply because I can, and mostly because I now realize I was retarded for bringing a white jacket to wear on an outdoorsy vacation. I digress.

Our room at the Heritage Hotel in Auckland was gigantic. I mean, like, really huge. With a huge balcony terrace too. It's like one of Auckland's oldest hotels or something and had weirdo things like an elevator that traveled to a 1/2 floor to get to the gym/pool area, a mysterious lap pool that evaded our exploration, and wacked out bellmen with slicked back hair. Seriously, we could NOT find that dang lap pool. Here are some boring room photos, but they might show how big the room was. Oh and accommodation was completely reasonable, you guys. Go to NZ and stay in a posh place for $100NZ ($69US) or a backpacker hotel for $30NZ ($21US).

Things we did in Auckland:

• Prego - hugely popular Italian with a great patio and kickback service
  
• SPQR - totally happenin' place, looked v.cool. didn't end up back around here for dinner again, mostly because I couldn't imagine rockin' the week-old fleece and sneakers to a place so cool.
  
• Dizengoff - Jewish Deli & yummy bkfst
• Hung out at the Sky Tower - see photos below.
• Took the bus and train everywhere. Super easy to navigate and seemingly safe @ night, girls.
  
• Ferried across the bay to Devonport. Seriously. Devon-port.
  
• Windown-Shopped/Shopped at all the popular spots:
  
• Ponsonby Rd - boutiquey, loads of cafes/bars. my fave.
  
• Queen St - Ugh. touristy and terrible. Going through a remodel through June '08, so maybe it'll be less downtown and more chic. As much time as we spent here, I really wasn't a fan. Lots of euro-trash and asian-weird stuff (think Gwen Stefani's banana music video) that just didn't hit our yuppie demographic and the merchants were way too aggressive for my taste. Tried hard to not lash out, but ya'll know how I can get around those who annoy me.
  
• High St - wacky. kind of ghetto-fabulous in a graffiti on designer duds kinda way. I liked it, but we didn't make purchases until our second go of it because I think it confused us.
  
• Newmarket - missed it. :(
• Tried to convince Jamie he wasn't coming down with a cold + fever. - He was a total traveling trooper; staying out later than he probably should've, sleeping less than he probably wanted to, and walking around at a much too brisk of pace than he probably thought capable. We picked up some Benadryll Extra Forte to alleviate throat pain and reduce fever, but kept going strong.

it's fun to say the whole thing:
-"what do gay guys take for their colds?"
-"Benadryll Extra Fortaaay"

Town of Devonport, quick ferryride from Auckland. Had to do it.

it was like a modern King's Cross - goooo Harry Potter!

My head is just HUGE in this photo, but I think we look v.inlove.

Hmmm..now that I typed it out, maybe the caption should be below a more in-love-y picture.

SkyTower - we went up it 2x.
There are restaurants and a casino it there.

I'm bravely sitting on GLASS, people, GLASS.

Jamie didn't overcome his fear of heights.

Fiji's up next kids!! Let's leave the drizzly New Zealand spring behind!

Day 3ish to 6ish - Queenstown (3)

Unfortunately the weather was just crap enough to prevent any little planes from taking off @ the Queenstown airport so we had to take a looooong charter bus ride out to Milford Sound (#1 on 101 Must-Dos for Kiwis). Dude, FIVE+FIVE freaking hours on a freaking bus with freaking old people and freaking japanese tourists (map here). The entire thing narrated by the v.thick acc-in-ted old kiwi driver and translated by Yuki into Japanese. Me? Not happy at all. Beautiful drive, but 10hrs in one day on a bus going one place and then just returning right back? Great views, just not my idea of a good time.

4/5ths of drive was back & forth through farmland (sheep, cows, deer).

We disembarked at cool locations during the drive.
Gorgeous, dahling, gorgeous.

The water in NZ is incredibly clean! The locals fill their recycled plastics with it.
I think I look like I was close to puking into their drinking water.

I'm a fan of clean-looking plants.

In the summertime, this trip can be v.clear and heart-stoppingly beautiful.
Early spring brings much drizzle + a more mysterious feel to the views.

Fern = NOT cool by me. I hate spores.
Moss = I LOVE. Tends to help me ignore fern.

Luckily enough, I had a 2hr boat ride on v.choppy waters to look forward to and recover from during the drives. I always underestimate how seasick I get ever since a bad Catalina Flyer trip with my family in the 8th grade. Small boats are usually fine, I can hang on little sailboats, and jet boats are no problem at all. It's the side-to-side rocking that KILLS me! Bleagh. Jamie? Oh, he's completely unaffected by equilibrium-ruining motion. We're a great combo, huh?

Really not a cute picture, just needed to show how yucky I felt.
Jamie was nice enough to take pictures and make fun of me.

Fearless Jamie hopped onto the roof deck to enjoy the scary waterfall.
I stayed downstairs and nibbled on saltines.

The captain drove INTO this waterfall.

Like I said, the views were pretty cool. Just a little gray!

Highlight of day!!
woohoo! dolphins!

Day 3ish to 6ish - Queenstown (2)

Shotover Jet Ride! 2 magical engines suck up the water, spit it out, and
allows the boat to navigate through as little as 4 inches of water. They go waaaay
fast and take 360-turns on a dime, careening v.v.v.close to the threatening rocks on each side.

Under that bridge and through the canyon.


Just like Ryan Reynolds and Alanis Morrissette! (too many letters in her last name?)

Gondola Ride - -
I'm sure I've mentioned that Jamie's afraid of heights?


We LOVED the luging and wished we were there longer to take many more go's of it!

Where i wanted to bungy off of, but couldn't muster enough courage.
My aforementioned bravery, out the window.

I liked this place with its odd, greenhouse seating area.

View of the lake or ocean or bay? I dunno...water.
View of the water.

Mini Queenstown airport.

Day 3ish to 6ish - Queenstown (1)

okaay...if you're not getting bored!

Queenstown was our favorite city in the entire country. As a disclaimer, for the sake of time and the purpose of our particular vacation, we didn't hit up Wellington (SF-like) or Christchurch which we hear are great places to be. Wellington for its Napa-like wineries/vineyards and fun cafes and nightlife and Christchurch for....hmmm...I can't remember. Can I get back to Queenstown? No, literally, I'd love to go back. V.much what I'd imagine Aspen to be like in that it was extremely ski-town and had a ton of young, adventure seeking people of an eclectic mix. Although it's a pretty small town, here was so much to do, we definitely could've extended our stay here for a few more days (aka bungy-jumping for me maybe?). I fully enjoyed the capability of walking everywhere among the 8 - 10 square blocks, there seemed to be an abundance to great/creative places to dine, loads of pubs/bars, and isn't it always a good time when a majority of the people are on holiday? Lots of smiles, lots of simply happy/relaxed folks. Oh, and basically everyone was in sneakers, fleece, and wool hats. I liked that. No heels.

• Ate incredibly well - such yummy/yummy food here!
• Shotover Jet Boat on 4 inches of water through a rock canyon.
• Gondola'd up the side of a mountain.
• Luge'd down the other side of said mountain.
• Charter-cruise-Charter'd to Milford Sound (#1 on Kiwi must-do list).
  
• Watched Bourne Ultimatum (ok, maybe not an NZ specific activity)

Before I forget! Trish, Kiwi:NewZealand as Aussie:Australia and American:USA. Kiwis are little nocturnal birdies and yes, that's right. I enjoy typing in S.A.T. format.

View as we flew out of relatively warm Rotorua.

View as we flew into FREEZING temperatures in Queenstown. Snow??
Uh...I was already wearing like all the layers I brought.
FYI, Jamie bought long johns to put under his jeans w/in the first hr we were there.

Stayed at the Novotel here too.
The rooms in Rotorua and Queenstown were uber-modern and similar to
he Starwood-run WHotels, but Novotels are owned by Accor -
who run the Motel6 in the US! Wacky.

Obviously cold enough to run an ongoing fire in a clothing shoppe.

Spring skiiers...well, they were skiing earlier. i think.

And now the food:

Fergburger had the biggest sandwiches/burger EVER.
They're open until 5AM for those late nighters, literally had the best chicken burger I've ever had,
and when is often blogged about by those who want to take the whole place home with them.
Here's the menu. I had the Cock-a-doodle-doo.

Toasted banana bread with marmalade + passionfruit honey + marscapone.
My favorite meal @ my favorite restaurant (Vudu Cafe)!

Breakfast @Vudu Cafe! Pissed that I didn't get a pic of the actual restaurant.
Dev, you would've loved it! Such yummy combo muffins.

zoom in on this menu and check out them appetizers.

Hmmm...need to start a new post, I think.

Day 3 - Rotorua

smile like it doesn't stink like the high heavens!

After a 3 hr drive in the pouring rain while we were basically the only car on the road, we made it into Rotorua, home of the stinky sulfur pits and monster geyser. We stayed at the Novotel Rotorua on the edge of a big ole lake and, my god, when the winds picked up it smelled like pure ass. Got used to it pretty quickly though and although we grabbed the BEST chicken noodle soup EVER @ the Waitomo Tavern before we left, our appetite was definitely present in full force. I'm guessing that the soup was especially tasty because we had been activity-ing it all day outdoors and we're just not really oudoorsy to begin with? Anyway, that evening in Rotorua we ate a Fat Dog Cafe (thanks for the rec, Helen!) and called it an early night as the town was virtually dead! Dev, the restaurant reminded me of Becca's.

Super early the next morning, we returned to F-Dog for breaky (it was really cute in there and I dug the menu items) and trekked out to the Thermal Wonderland to further enhance our olfactory overload and raced through the park to make it to our afternoon flight to Queenstown! p.s. there was no ID check or security of any kind at the Rotorua Airport. weird.

We're borderline 5yrs old in maturity. this one made us laugh for a good 1/2 hr.

that's some geyser we're waiting for!

thar she blows!


there were literally millions of japanese tourists. it was like mad camouflage for me!

Can you believe we're hopping on this thing with all these people who haven't cleared security?

You guys aren't getting tired of lame trip pictures/posts yet? On a total side note, Snakes on a Plane is a LAAAAAME movie. The Ex with Zach Braff, however, is totally worth renting - funny.