Flight of the Leeses

After somewhat adjusting to the Australian winter chill, we have now arrived in New Zealand where the temps are even lower and people are still inexplicably strolling around in T-shirts! Clearly we are wimps, but I'm hoping we'll adjust soon enough as well. New Zealand is everything I've heard about - even from the plane, I couldn't believe how gorgeous the coastline and green hills were. Every view is spectacular and the towns all appear to be quite charming and full of hardy, outdoorsy, very friendly people. It has been a warm welcome, despite the weather! Unfortunately, our time in the North Island was very brief, as we (fortunately!) have my new in-laws awaiting us in Christchurch on the South Island, where we'll spend a few wonderful weeks being pampered and spending a lot of Internet time trying to arrange our lives back in New York. We did make the most of our North Island experience, though, by renting a tiny car and driving the length of it - again , with me driving on the left side, and this time I only pulled out into traffic on the right side of the road once!

We flew into Auckland and only spent one night there, as while it's a pleasant enough capital city, there isn't really much to see or do there when there's such gorgeous scenery throughout the rest of the country. We did however stay about a block off Parnell Road, which is lined with really cute restaurants, boutiques, and old Victorian houses turned into tea shops. Bright and early the next morning, we set out for Rotorua, well known for the lake that dominates the middle of the town (where I saw black swans for the first time!) and the crazy geothermal activity throughout the rest of it.

The town itself is pretty quiet, but the geothermal sights are amazing. We spent an afternoon walking through steaming lakes of bubbling mud and a cemetery filled with spooky tendrils of rotten-egg scented vapor - a great setting for a horror movie. Just outside of town is a sort of geothermal theme park, Wai-O-Tapu, with a large and very punctual geyser, visually stunning formations, and mineral-filled lakes and waterfalls. The whole area has that sulfur smell, but it doesn't matter when you're looking at springs naturally colored electric green and brilliant orange.

Rotorua is also known for its large indigenous Maori population, so we went to a "traditional" Maori village for an evening of traditionally cooked food (prepared in a hangi, an underground stone oven) and eye-rolling, tongue-waggling entertainment. The Maori were a very warlike, intimidating people, as appropriated by the national All Blacks rugby team - how would you like to oppose this on the playing field?:


and we learned about their war dances and weapons from the Maoris themselves. The whole evening was really fun and not nearly as menacing as it looks.

After our brief stay in Rotorua, we hit the road once again and headed for Taupo, also known for its huge lake. Rather than hot springs, Taupo instead features trout fishing, so we decided to give it a go. Unfortunately, once we got our fishing license and rented the equipment, Ben cast the spinner about 3 times before the rod separated into two pieces, the line broke, and we ended up with a 2-foot pole and only one lure left. The whole cheap endeavor resulted in our buying the shop a new rod and no fresh fish for our dinner, but we did have a great time on the gorgeous river.

Our last day on the North Island was dedicated to our driving straight down to Wellington to return the car and catch our flight to Christchurch, but the scenery along the drive was well worth the trip. For a solid hour, the most spectacular rainbow either of us had ever scene lingered just ahead of us, begging us to find the pot of gold - it occurred to us that such a find would preclude our having to look for jobs in New York, but we drove on instead. We passed over beautiful rolling green hills, by countless sheep, and under a sparkling sky.

I can't believe we have so much time to enjoy this country, especially from the comforts of a family home. The next few blog posts will probably be on the shorter side and involve lots of references to bottles of wine and sleeping in, but we do intend to explore the South Island and keep the updates going. Also, rumor has it a guest blogger may make an appearance, so stay tuned!