Holiday Travels

Hi all...i have a lot of pictures for you :)

22 Dec 2008 This is a lovely view of Mt. Taranaki on the drive up to Coromandel. It's in Mokau. I'd say this was about an hour into our trip. A lot of our drive up was along the coast, it was very pretty!

Here is another stop a couple hours later. This drive up to Coromandel through Thames is famous for it's coastline. And no, it wasn't cold out, I was just cold sitting with the wind blowing on me in the car.

Here is me squished in the back seat of the car!

Once we got closer to Papa Aroha, the scenery changed a little. Papa Aroha is a town on the Coromandel Peninsula where Jon and Jenny's friends, Peter and Anita, own a holiday park (campground). This is a little bay or a river leading out into the ocean.

23 December 2008

This is Steph, Tony's girlfriend (Tony is J&J's son). Liz, I have to thank you for the idea of drinking Jenga :) Steph and I found a jenga set at the house we were staying in while bored because the weather wasn't so great and turned it into drinking Jenga...it was quite fun...especially when we got more people to play!



24 December 2008

On Christmas Eve Day, Jon took me, Tony, and Steph to a Kauri Tree forest. Kauri trees are native to NZ and they are HUGE! and very straight. And they have really pretty wood. It was pretty cool...like a more tropical version of a redwood forest.

We also visited the Waiau Waterworks. It was this place that had all these water-powered sculptures and things, and just random stuff like zip lines and giant pigs. It was pretty fun hehe.

Here is one of the random things...hehe. It was cool to ride on, I felt like ET (sorry liz).

Christmas Eve came with a rescue story! Peter is a member of the Papa Aroha (papa-arro-ha) fire dept. and they got a call in about a woman stranded, withouth clothes, under a red tarp. and her car was also stuck on the beach, but no one knew what beach it was. Peter had an idea...so me, Steph, Tony, and Peter got in his car and went to search for her. This is the beach that we found her on...it was so sketchy! We drove down this giant hill to the beach and there is this red ford falcon and a guy who looks like he's hitting something with like a bat. We get closer and this dude is in rough shape...like he's drunk or on drugs or something and he said he was trying to get the car unstuck and that the lady (Penelope) is under that red tarp over on the beach. So...Steph and I go trudging through the marshes over to this big red tarp...we start calling out "hello!!" but get no answer...there was a person-ish looking lump and a dog sitting next to it...and as we get closer, there is still no one responding. at this point, Steph and I are like omg we're going to find a dead person!!

But, luckily...Penelope responded....she must have been high off something....she was soaking wet, had only and old ragged sweater on...no pants...and her hair was all greasy and covering her face...she was trying to light a fire using cigarettes...and her belongings included some toilet paper, booze, and an old jacket. We kindly drove her back to her shack....but have no idea what was going on down there...it was so weird...why the heck didn't she have pants?? and why didn't she just walk to her shack....and how the heck did she call the police to say she was trapped? so many unanswered questions!

25 December 2008

Christmas day proved a little more cheerful :) The day was full of eating, drinking, napping, and swimming! Here I am on the campground's beach with my Christmas drink! My day pretty much went like this...wake up, eat breakfast, open presents...eat more, start drinking....nap time! wake up for lunch which was sooo good! eat too much...nap again! wake up in time for left over nibbles and maybe a couple more drinks hehe. It was a good day!

Here is another part of the beach....parts were pretty rocky.

Yay for swimming on christmas!! i've never done that before! :) the water was warm too! That's the campground in the back...





26 December 2008

On boxing day, me, Steph, and Tony travelled to Tirau to Steph's parents' house....they usually celebrate Xmas on Boxing day. That night me, Steph, her sister Jodi, their mom all went out in a town called Tauranga...I borrowed one of Steph's shirts...and shoes :)

Steph and I getting ready to go out! hehe. (and no we're not alcoholics!). It was so much fun going out....we went to this bar that had a band playing lots of good American music! yay! and...we didn't get home til 5:30am haha. The next day was kinda quiet...

27 December 2008

On the 27th, we were all feeling a bit tired...but, Tony, Steph, and I went to Mount Monganui. It is a city/little mt. to climb. Here is a view from the top, i'm glad we went! You can see the "city" - the road closest to the beach as a little board walk and one side is all cafe's, bars, and little shops.

Here is another view of the city...it's kinda like a peninsula ending in the actual mt.

On our way back to Steph's parents we stopping in the very small town on Tirau who's claim to fame is corrugated iron. So...they have a giant corrugated iron dog as one of their buildings...

...and sheep :)





28 December 2008

On this day, Steph and I drove Tony to Taupo to meet his friend Keirs because him and Tony were going hunting for the New Year. We walked around Taupo for a little bit (there's a huge lake there) and got some lunch. (and i got a phone call during a certain hunnukah party :) it was so nice to talk to everyone!). And then Steph and I headed over to Rotorua...we stopped off at Huka falls on our way. They were cool...they were like long flat falls, rather than your typical waterfall...the water was really blue/aqua too!

Me in front of the falls.....yes, that was the real color of the water!

Me and Steph in helmets to go on the luge in Rotorua...they're like the alpine slides we have in NH and VT....so much fun! I caught some air on one of the hills :)





30 December 2008

Say hello to Taryn and her cask of Tequila sunrise. We had done a little shopping and decided to do have some sunrise on the way home :) don't worry, Jodi was our sober driver! Taryn is one of Steph's mates who is currently working in Australia, but home for the holidays...she spent new years with us - yay!

The result of drinking too much Tequila :)

Another result....you can't tell, but we were all trying to pose on one of those little razor scooters. haha.






31 December 2008-01 January 2009!!

HAPPY NEW YEARS EVERYONE!!! :) The girls all glammed up for a night on the town...from left to right, it's me, Steph's sis Jodi (our sober driver once again), Steph's sis Janelle, Taryn, and Steph in front! This is at Steph's parent's house in Tirau...we drove to Tauranga to go out which is like 45min-1 hour away.

Umm....posing for the camera!

Hi :) we stayed and played some drinking games before we went out. If you can't tell, the black part of my dress/shirt thing is sparkly!!! i love sparkles! :)

This is what Tauranga looked like on New Years....that's the bar we went out to the other night, but it was too full for us to get into on New Years, so we went to one a little down the road which also had a band and was lots of fun!

Here we all are drinking our "juice" ;)

Here we are again hehe. On our way home, we got lost and ended up in Rotorua which is like an hour out of our way!! We didn't get home until a little after 6 in the morning! ah!

New years day was pretty quiet. Steph and I took her nephew, Jacob, (once we woke up) to the hot springs in Matamata (which is like 10 min away). They were pretty cool...they were basically pools where the natrual mineral water was pumped into...they had one naturally hot one...a medium heat one, and a cooler one to swim around in.




02 January 2009

On the 2nd, Steph and I drove down to her friend's house in Wairoa (i still can't pronounce that name right). Her friend Carly lives down there, and 2 other friends, Donna and Tracy, were also visiting. The boys were done with their hunting trip, and Tony, Keirs, and Dave all came up to visit for the night before they went back to Dave's farm in Namatea (sp?) which is in like the middle of nowhere. Here are Tony, Steph, Keirs, and I demonstrating how the belt, worn high on one's waist, can have a slimming affect on one's figure :)




04 January 2009

This is a beach in Mahia...or Te Mahia....and that is Tony and Steph's dog, Ice.
I don't have any pics from the 3rd and i can't remember what we did, so it couldn't have been too important haha.

Here is more the beach in Mahia...they had some cool rock formations in the water :)

Me on the beach :)

This pic didn't really come out too well because I took it from in the car, while we were driving, with the window up. But, they had some really cool white cliffs in Mahia! Totally different landscape!




05 January 2009

On the 5th, Steph and I drove down to Masterton to where her and Tony live (well, it's really Gladstone, but Gladstone is really small). We drove past teh Tui Brewing company on our way down! If I haven't mentioned before, Tui is a New Zealand beer...it's pretty good!



07 January 2009

This....is my new suitcase :) I decided that it was a necessity for weekend trips because my other suitcase is too huge, and my backpack is too small....and i might have gone shopping a couple times and aquired some more unneeded clothing :)

So...now that you've all read my extremely long blog entry...I have some more news to share!

After this weekend I am moving down to Masterton to live with Tony and Steph for a little while :) I am really excited about it...Steph and I have lots of fun things planned. We're going to the Wellington races (horse races), where people get all really dressed up and wear fancy hats...and we're going to go hiking, and on a wine tour...and i'm pretty sure we had some more stuff planned but i can't remember haha.

I'm also going to try to find a job for a little while, whilst down there...maybe working on a vineyard. :)

anyways...i'm sure this entry is way too long...and i'm getting tired....so I hope everyone had a good holiday season and are not too cold ;)

I miss everyone!!!!!