A bit of a holiday from blogging.... but I am now back in school so project updates are to come. Here's another New Zealand photo though, my dad and I both toured the South Island and Franz Joseph Glacier valley and took a picture with this same sign. Same place different times via photoshop

Rotorua Weekend - 2

More photos from the Rotorua weekend 2 weeks ago: 

Exploring Lake Okareka on Saturday afternoon, it got quite warm and I was wearing long sleeves and wool! 

Cass and I birdwatching

Old people just do the cutest things, we couldn't help but take pictures

Looking out at the Tarawera valley, those mountains in the background erupted just over 100 years ago and destroyed all the towns in the area as well as covered the Pink and White terraces, one of New Zealand's wonders of the world. 

This is what they were supposed to look like years ago. 

being natural hot pools, people used to come to bathe in them. Its crazy to think how the eruption covered so much history. They're currently trying to uncover them. 

We went to this pretty funky cafe for lunch on sunday

Plane ride back, air New Zealand just knows how to do things right. 

Another Wellington coastal picture! 

Rotorua Weekend - 1

Hello! I feel like i'm getting behind in updating this, partially because I have to re-size all my photos now because blogger is being silly, but mostly because we have actually been significantly busy at work the past 2 weeks and I've had a lot to do.

As my time her in New Zealand quickly winds down, I have to say that I am excited to get back to America, there are a lot of things and people that I miss. Also, all the Kiwi's and Europeans that I work with won't make fun of "my accent" anymore! Joy. And Mexican food. Anyways... 

This past weekend I flew up to Rotorua, the volcanic, Maori center of good ol NZ to meet up with one of Kelly's friends, Cassandra. 

"Sweet as, bro" definitely the theme of the weekend. Saw these T shirts at the airport and had they not been $50, would have totally got one.

Wellington is being transformed into Middle Earth right now for the Hobbit premiere in two weeks, right after I leave. This is a huge installation sculpture in the airport's main terminal. It was on the news here, done by the Weta Cave people and probably to welcome all the international guests flying in to see the movie here. 

Its my city! From the airplane ride, another prop plane but a steady flight. We flew right over the harbor and where I work in Petone. 

Sommes Island in the Bay

This is Porirua, where I was last weekend. 

Volcanoes from the plane, its so lovely to fly on a clear day. 

Lake Rotorua! 

After arriving and meeting Cass, we met up with her sister and went to the gondola up the mountain to do some street luge!

I felt cool like my Dad, he had done the luge when he went through Rotorua too. 

Dinosaurs along the track

Cass on the Chairlift back up

Lake Rotorua

I really liked the cafe area at the top of the gondola. They had a jellybean museum at the top of the gondola too! It was pretty cool 

???

That had to take hours. 

After that Cass took me out to a little known place, Hangarua Springs, beautiful clear lakes and tropical surrounding next to a redwood forest! 

See the gigantic trees was so humbling.

The spring, pennies have been found in there over 100 years old.

We stopped at a wildlife reserve too. 

Babies! 

Can you tell I'm really tired? haha, the advantages of having your body trained to a 10 week schedule for the past 4 years, really really tired at the end but prepared for a big push of final work before a deadline. Hopefully I can get some rest this.... Sunday and have a great final week in this beautiful country. 

Dad comes for a visit

Had a great weekend getting to see my Dad! He's in New Zealand for a couple weeks touring around and stopped over in Wellington for the weekend. It was great to receive a generous care package of American food and Oral B flossers!!! They don't have these in New Zealand and I've been missing them. Also good to swap out some clothes and get a head start on taking things back home because I fear for the impending doom of the luggage weight limit...

!! 

We wandered around Wellington Friday night and went to The Flying Buritto Brothers for dinner, the last Mexican place in town that I wanted to try. It was less bad than the others, we were both pleasantly surprised. The feijoa margaritas were delicious too.   

After dinner we wandered around Courtneay place looking for a place that serves Hokey Pokey ice cream (Ironically, Kelly and I had made some hokey pokey earlier in the week. Its a mixture of sugar, sugar syrup, and baking powder heated up and then hardened to make a sweet, crunchy candy.)

Homemade Hokey Pokey

We found ice cream! 

Saturday afternoon we went to the Te Papa museum, a completely history of New Zealand, and walked around for several hours. The wind was pretty gale outside so it was nice to be inside and still doing something fun. We headed out to the botanical gardens and took a trolley ride, but it was still a bit too windy for us so we ended up heading back to Dad's hotel for a bit then got pizza dinner at a wood fire restaurant called Heaven pizzeria. (Just down the street is Hell pizzeria, not kidding) 

flower tree at the botanical gardens

Salmon pizza and Pepperoni pizza

Dad did not like the NZ beer.

We called it an early night since Dad had to be up early to catch the ferry to Picton on Sunday. It was really great to see him though and at least be two out of place Americans with funny accents together. I had to keep reminding him which side of the sidewalk to walk on and which way to look when crossing the street, all backwards, so confusing, haha but it was a good time. 

Sunday afternoon I went out to lunch and for the afternoon with Mesha, Jaz, Ange, and Na. We went to a brunch place called Elements, known apparently for its eggs Benedict. Yes, quite yummy. 

We were all a bit sleepy after lunch but stayed out for a long afternoon, not without stopping for coffee of course. The girls were a little ridiculous, we HAD to listen to Taylor Swifts new album in the car before lunch, and there HAD to be singing along. I did not feel bubbly enough to be in their presence lol. 

Some other weekly photography include:

Wellington street performing playing a mellophone! 

  

A couple good pics of the Wellington sunset this past Tuesday on my way over to Rosie's for dinner and to write some letters.