So it's taken me awhile to get to this post because New Zealand was the last place that I visited before heading back to the States. And therefore, it's the last post of this blog. And I've been putting it off because anything that makes Australia feel far away makes me sad. But since I'm back in St. Louis and classes start in a couple of days I thought that it was about time to sit down and write this beast.
So New Zealand. I traveled around the north island of New Zealand with my family, my parents and younger sister. It was really great to travel with them, first of all because I hadn't seen them in 6 months, and second of all because we DID NOT travel like backpackers, which was a welcome change after 3 weeks of backpacking. Gourmet food and amazing hotels, very very nice :P. Anyway, my mom worked really hard planning this trip so that we could see as much of the north island as possible. We started our trip in Aukland, the biggest city in the country. The first thing that we noticed when we got off the plane was the air. It just smelled cleaner and fresher. We drove through the city and got some spectacular sunset views (above), and I've got to say with the glittering bays, and the vast parklands this city feels very incorporated into nature. We were literally only in Aukland one night, and then we headed to our next stop. The Waitomo Glowworm Caves!!! This was the one thing I told my family we had to make sure we saw. My sister does not like, bugs, boats and the dark but she was a good sport and went anyway. I thought it was amazing!!!! The glowworms look like stars in the darkness and reflect into the water so it feels like you're floating through space. We also visited another set of caves with amazing limestone formations (below left). There we slaw more of the glowworms. The glow you see is actually the worms anus, and worms sit on the ceilings of the caves, they have as many as 10 silk threads that they use to "fish" for flying insects in the caves. When you shine light on them the glow can't be seen but the threads look like beads of silk (below right). It was so cool to see these amazing insects, they're only found in Australia and New Zealand so I wanted to make sure I saw them when I was Down Under!!
After the Waitomo caves we went to Lake Taurpo, where we stayed at an amazing lodge. It felt like something out of a fairytale! I don't know if you remember the black swan story I learned about in class, but swans in the southern hemisphere are black instead of white, and our first morning at the lodge we woke up to a black swan bathing in the river, there was mist everywhere and it was gorgeous (below), yet another example of the general natural beauty of this country. There is so much greenery everywhere, partly because of all the farms and partly due to the natural parks we visited. Everything looks surreal. I was actually really glad we visited in the winter because it has it's own unique beauty.
That day we headed to Tongariro National Park. We did not hike the famous mountain crossing since we were there in winter. Instead we went on a wonderful hike that gave us amazing views of the mountains, which are actually cone volcanoes. The mountain below might look familiar to you, it's Mt/ Ngauruhoe which was Mt. Doom in Lord of the Rings!! We got amazing views of it on this beautiful winter day. Some other amazing things we saw on out hike was frozen soil that froze in these interesting vertical crystals (below bottom left). Also my sister spotted a native New Zealand owl the Morpork (below bottom right)! They are rare and we came across this little guy taking a nap in a tree.
After Tarupo, we headed to Hawke's Bay and Napier. This is a famous wine region on the North Island, they're known for their reds, and I went to a wine tasting with my family. It was really fun to do that with my parents, they both love wine and I'm starting to learn more about it. There is a ton of since to making wine so it was interesting to me to learn about how weather and soil type affects the grapes, which in turn impact the wine. Besides the wine, the region itself is absolutely gorgeous (below). We stayed at another lodge and the day after the wine tour was my favorite! I went on an amazing horseback ride in the morning. First of all, I love riding. I used to do it when I was little, but rarely get to these days. The combination of riding up and down the mountains to get sweeping views of the bay, learning a new style of riding with a hackmore bridle (no bit), and just being on horseback agin put me in the best of moods. Then that afternoon I went on a small hike with my parents, where we got to see more of the property.
After Hawke's Bay, headed back inland to Rotorua. This city is set on the biggest geothermal hot springs in the country. And it's still super active!! The entire city smells like sulfur from the volcanism under the ground. When we went to the Waimangu geothermal fields we saw a ton of different interesting geothermal pools. One of them was this beautiful but deadly Inferno Crater (below top). It has an extremely low pH and is superheated. But it's so cool because it is a cyclical lake! The water level changes with a predictable cycle, this is the only known lake that does this. Besides this feature we saw many small geothermal sprouts (below left), and bubbling pools (below right). It's so interesting because while there are similarities to the other volcanically active places I've visited (Yellowstone and Hawai'i), New Zealand is still incredibly unique.
While in Rotorua, we got to spend some time with a Kiwi friend of my sister's and her family. We had such a nice time with them and it really made that part of our trip unique. Our last day we stopped in Hobbiton on our way to the airport. This is the permanent set from the Lord of the Rings movie. It was incredibly cool to see all the hobbit holes. Since they used camera angles to make the actors appear smaller than they were some of the hobbit holes were huge and some were really tiny!! It was a great way to end the trip.
We flew back in Sydney and stayed there for one more night before the long long trip back to the U.S. I was so happy that I got to end my time Down Under by spending it with my family exploring New Zealand. By the time we were heading home I felt ready to go back in a way that I didn't feel at the end of the semester. A month never sleeping in the same bed for more that 2 nights will do that to you, haha. Really though, now that I've been back in the states for about a month I'm missing Australia terribly. There is really nothing like living in another country on your own (however briefly), and experiencing a new culture, new cities, new animals and plants, and, of course, meeting heaps of amazing people. This semester taught me so much about myself, and I will always cherish the past six months. Here's hoping I make it back someday!!!!
