Valentine's Getaway

I have always had a strong dislike for Valentine's Day - it makes single people feel bad about themselves and makes couple people feel weirdly obligated.  But this year I realized something - if life hands you an excuse to celebrate, take it!

So this year, Rob and I used Valentine's Day as an excuse to go back to Rotorua! On our way we stopped at the Big Sheep, which is something I've wanted to see for a while. Their yarn selection was disappointing (and nearly nonexistent), but it was a good place to stop for lunch. They also have the Big Dog next door.

While we were there, we thought we'd give sledging a try as well. To some people, sledging is the same as sledding. To Kiwis, it is white water rafting on a one-person sled. It's one of the more extreme sports I've ever tried, and I'm proud to say that I escaped with only a few scrapes and bruises (although I did hit one rock so hard that it scraped my knee through my wet suit - owwww).

Above: Pictures of sledging I stole from google images. They are not messing around!  Below: A much-deserve post-sledging beer flight at Rotorua's only brew pub (cleverly named "Brew")

And then Sunday was luging! As some of you may recall, we went luging during our Christmas travels and had the best time! We kept making jokes that it was like Mario Kart, and so I had the oh-so-brilliant idea of making Rob hoodie of his favorite Mario Kart character, Yoshi (I bought a green hoodie and added red spikes) and dressing up as my favorite Mario Kart character, Toadette.

If you know nothing about Nintendo, you may find these pictures confusing and slightly disturbing, but rest assured - they are awesome.

Our inspiration

To the left: Another excellent eHarmony picture for Rob. To the right: Bowser

Just in case you forgot that this is also an absolutely breathtaking area to spend a day (on the luge ski lift)

Entertain Us

Over the last few weeks we have been to multiple shows and even an amusement park. Before moving here we were warned that we might find New Zealand to be a bit lacking in culture, but we've been pretty pleased so far with the offerings available to us.

We got a groupon to Rainbow's End, which is New Zealand's biggest amusement park. I think there were something like 7-8 rides, but there were also very few people there, so we got to ride them as many times as we wanted. Also they played "Timber" in line for the enchanted log flume (which turned out to be very strange indeed).
 

Not pictured: The Power Surge, aka the scariest ride I have ever been on. 

 I found out Dolly Parton was coming to town soon after we moved here, but Rob had no interest and I didn't want to go alone. So I was thrilled when a friend let me know she had a last minute cancellation and therefore an extra ticket. I loved Dolly before the concert, but now I love her even more. She sang old songs and new songs and told stories and played all kinds of instruments. Age has definitely not slowed her down.

It is important to me that you know that they played "Hello Dolly" just before Dolly came on stage.

We are kind of Shakespeare nerds, so when we saw signs around town for Shakespeare in the Park, we got some friends together to go see it. It turns out we are also Shakespeare snobs. According to the experts, Othello is a Shakespearean tragedy, but this cast (unintentionally?) played it as a comedy. I miss Stratford (Ontario) already.

The outdoor theatre was pretty neat, even if it did start to rain.

Auckland has a pretty great movies in the park program, and we have been to two movies so far - The Graduate in Silo Park and The Great Gatsby (the 2013 version) in Milford Reserve.

From top left: View from Silo Park back to the city; Graduate on the silo; one man's creative seating arrangement (Erin - I thought of you!); Gatsby on the big inflatable screen; Rob and I nerding out with our dual Gatsby shirts.

I don't know who makes Rob's shirt, but if you are jealous of my Gatsby shirt, you can get yourself one through Out of Print clothing (it also comes in sweatshirt form, and their sweatshirts are super cozy). That is also a handy link to have if you ever want to buy me a present.

Finally, we celebrated 6 months in New Zealand on February 9th with a hike up Mount Victoria, which is the big hill in our back yard that overlooks the entire town of Devonport (our new home, which I promise to tell you more about soon). I was intending to write a big long post about being here for 6 months with lots of profound thoughts about our first half-year of living abroad, but my thoughts about it are actually pretty simple:

We love it here. We miss you there. We're glad we picked this winter to leave Chicago.

Celebratory picnic on top of Mount Victoria overlooking Rangitoto.

Christmas Vacation Part IV - Middle Earth

I largely credit Lord of the Rings for putting New Zealand on my radar. Generally, Kiwis don't appreciate this type of fame, but the film and tourist industries have embraced it.  Which brings us to the fourth and final photo essay of our Christmas Vacation - the Lord of the Rings Nerdery part.

Visiting Rivendell, which is in between Martinborough and Wellington. The stone in the bottom center photo is the last piece of Rivendell still standing. Rumor has it Legolas took some promo shots where I'm standing on the right.

Rob is between Gandalf and Aragorn's height. I am almost exactly as tall as Gandalf (because I'm a wizard, obviously).

This bridge was not in any movies but it's in the same park as Rivendell and I like it. It reminds me of Indiana Jones.

At Weta Caves - Peter Jackson's prop workshop and mini-museum. We did a tour of the workshop, but no pictures were allowed.  It was pretty neat! They had lots of non-LOTR stuff as well - the studio has done props for moves such as Avatar, District 9, King Kong and the classic horror film Black Sheep.

Some cool stuff around the mini-museum. If you don't recognise it, no explanation can help.

Hanging out with the trolls in the Weta Caves garden.

After Weta Caves, we headed to Stansborough studio, who did all the weaving for the Lord of the Rings movies and many others in association with Weta Caves. They made their own yarn (aptly named Mithril) out of their blue-grey sheep for the movies, and were selling it in store! I bought enough to make myself a Mithril vest - just in case there are any orcs lurking about.

Christmas Vacation Part III - Heading South

And now for Part III of our Christmas Vacation photo essay series.

I wanted to stay in Rotorua and luge all day and all night, but sadly, it was time to move on. We spent a night in Taihape and then drove down toward Wellington. It was pouring down rain, but we drove through the city in the hopes of checking out a few of New Zealand' best yarn stores.  Sadly, they were all closed for a holiday break (I think we went to 5 places and I didn't get to fondle a single skein), so we headed out to Martinborough, which turned out to be New Zealand's answer to Stars Hollow.

The rain slowed down a bit by the time we got to Martinborough, but the wind was so strong we had to sleep in the car - it would have knocked our tent over! We weathered the storm by watching a scary movie (Cabin in the Woods) on the iPad. The next morning was much clearer, and we did a biking wine tour* and managed to make it to eight different wineries before closing time. We spent one more night in the tent and then went horseback riding in the morning before heading back to Wellington to check out New Zealand's capital's craft beer scene.
*Yes this was our third wine tour in two weeks. We don't need your judgement but we appreciate your jealousy.

There was also some Lord of the Rings nerdery in there, but that is for the fourth and final photo essay of our Christmas adventures.

Finally, we headed back to Tongariro to try our hike again, but were postponed once again due to weather - this time with a possibility of snow!  We admitted defeat and headed back home for some much needed rest and a little bit of (very successful) apartment hunting.

Biking through Martinborough - can't you picture Kiwi Rory and Kiwi Lorelai walking through that town square to Kiwi Luke's?

There were nearly 20 vineyards within 5km of our campsite

In which I gladly accept my $5 PDA fine to post lots of pictures of my handsome husband because it's my blog and I'll post what I want to! If Rob ever ditches me at least he'll have a pretty sweet eHarmony profile!

Horseback riding through a sheep farm on a rainy day - including through a river! The emu was a Christmas surprise for the lady who owns the farm from her grandchildren. Rumor has it she was a little disappointed. I wonder what she was hoping for?

To the left is the road between Wellington and Martinborough - you can see how curvy it is in the distance. To the right is the seat configuration for turning it into a bed. I honked the horn with my foot at least once during the night!

Back to Wellington and sun! This is what we were doing during the first Polar Vortex.

Self-guided beer tour in Wellington. One of our bartenders was from Chicago and only 3 weeks away from the end of his work holiday visa. He didn't want to go back, and after looking at the weather, who can blame him?

We had to go to Chicago Bar even though it's notoriously terrible. Some Cubs memorabilia  made me a little weepy, but we moved to another bar where my sadness was exterminated by a bottle of Goose Island, transporting me half a world away - even if only in my head.

Christmas Vacation Part II - Driving Around

... And we're back!  We are all moved into our new place. We don't have plates or forks or a bed or anywhere to put our things, but we do have Internet - priorities!!

Now back to our regularly scheduled Christmas Vacation photo essay.

After the ladies left, we got in the car and started to drive.  And man oh man did we drive. We didn't think to check the odometer before leaving, but the two furthest points on our trip - Auckland and Wellington - are 650km apart, and we took lots and lots of detours as we wound our way down over a week and a half.

By "we drove" I mean Rob drove - obviously I was knitting

Our first stop was Tongariro National Park, where our 3-day/2-night hike was cancelled due to rain and wind. We went down thinking it would be okay, but the park ranger told us, "you can try, but you might not make it." I'm not sure what he meant by that or why he said it so casually, but we appreciated his honesty.

After our trek was canceled, we followed the sun to Hawke's Bay, which is another one of New Zealand's famous wine regions (known for its Pinot Noir and Chardonnay) and camped and did a wine tour there. Then we went up to Lake Taupo for a couple nights where we went white water rafting and rung in 2014. We celebrated our new year's day tradition of spending the entire day in bed watching an entire season of a TV show (Season 4 of Buffy the Vampire Slayer) before heading up to Rotorua to try zorbing and lugeing. Zorbing was just okay, but I am already planning my next lugeing trip - it's like real life Mario Kart!

Top: Downtown Hastings (a town in Hawke's Bay); Bottom: fun on our wine tour

Top: Some people had entire set-ups and stayed the whole week; Bottom: We were not those people

White water rafting - complete with jumping off a waterfall into 50* water!

New Year's Eve in Taupo. The McDonald's has a plane because of course it does. 

How convenient that there was a Woolen Mill right next door to the Zorbing place in Rotorua.

From top left: the gondola to take you up to the lugeing area; luge guidelines; the truest words ever printed on a helmet - once is not enough and we'll be back next month to try night lugeing!

Watch out for turtle shells and banana peels!

Christmas Vacation Part I - Our First Visitors

As promised, here is a bit more detail about our three-week Christmas break. People don't seem to love slideshows because they can't access them from mobile devices, so I'm going to break this one up into a few different photo essays.

First up we have our very first visitors from the States - Ruby and Pegah! I cannot even express how great it was to have someone from back home visit us in Auckland.  Even though they were only here for four days before heading off to bungee jump in Queenstown and then do whatever it is people do in Australia, and even though two of those days were Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, we managed to pack a lot into those four days.

We did a wine tasting on Waiheke Island, spent Christmas at a stunning beach house (the ad does not do it justice),  hiked across Auckland and went black water rafting in the Waitomo glow worm caves (which is easily one of the coolest things I've ever done).

We picked up the ladies at the airport the morning of the 24th and caught a ferry over to Waiheke Island for an afternoon of wine tasting.

Ruby and Pegah did not let jet lag keep them from having a good time.

Clockwise from top left: view from the beach house; Christmas dinner; the ladies getting caught in a Christmas morning downpour (thankfully it cleared up!); Christmas surfers; stockings

Coast to Coast walk: Before, during and after

A Coast to Coast mid-walk feast - french fries and beer.

Pre-rafting photo shoot

Inside the caves. The water was 40-45* F and by the end of our tour my hands were frozen, but it was oh-so-worth it. The glow worms lit up the caves like constellations.

Thanks again for coming to visit ladies - we miss you already!

Christmas Vacation

It is Day 20 of our 23-day break, and we are finally back home. 

On Christmas Eve, two friends from the States arrived, and we spent the next four days with them before they headed down to Queenstown to do some bungee jumping and we set off to do some tramping.

Our 3-day/2-night hike in Tongariro was delayed once due to rain (constant, heavy, downpours) and a second time due to cold and wind (with a chance of snow!). Our break plans revolved around this tramping trip, so we had to improvise, which involved a lot of eating, drinking, adventuring and Lord of the Rings nerding. It also involved lots and lots and lots of driving - we spent time in Auckland, Waiheke, Waitomo, Tongariro, Taupo, Turangi, Rotarua, Taihape, Martinborough, Wellington and Ohakune.

Below is an overview of our trip in pictures. Stay tuned for more details!