New Zealand

So after the LCI Convention, and since we were already in this part of the world, we decided to go to New Zealand to spend about a week.  It was much colder than Sydney.  Since it is their winter we couldn't do a whole lot - but it was such a great time.

Sam found an I-stay which is apartments converted into hotels.  We had a two bedroom apartment, with a washer and dryer as well as a kitchen.  The first day, Sam and I took the ferry to Davenport and did some shopping in the rain. They have such cute little shops there!

While in Auckland, we did a hop on, hop off bus tour and saw some cool sites of the city.  But we were really excited to go to Rotorua, which is about a 3.5 hour drive from Auckland.  But we heard such great things, so we rented  car and drove down.  (side note - very annoyed with Katy Perry's California Gurls song... it was constantly played).

While we were there, we went up on a skyline ride, went to Wai-O-Tapu geo-thermal park and saw a geyser and sulfur pools.  It was such a nice little town.  We all agreed we would love to go back on day, but next time during their summer.

Sam and I were going to go Zorbing, which is rolling down a hill in a big ball, which looks totally fun... but they were only offering water rides, which they put some water in the ball, but we didn't have our suits and we thought it was a little too chilly to be doing it with water.  So we went to the Agrodome to learn about sheep.  Sounds funny, but it was a really good time.  We saw a sheep show, got to pet and take pics with them.  

We also had the opportunity to use the sulfur hot tub at the hotel next door and relax it was great!

Sam left a day earlier because she was offered by her boss to fly home business class - who wouldn't turn that down on a 13 hour trip back to California.  So, Jay and I had a day to ourselves and just drove around looking for sites.  We went to this small zoo that turned out to be pretty cool and we took lots of pictures.  After we just drove around and took in the beautiful scenery.  I was happy because we found a beach so I got to walk along the water and pick up shells to take back home.   

We had such a great time... and there is sooo much more to tell, but it is so hard trying to remember everything.  All you need to know is, if you ever have the opportunity to go to New Zealand... DO IT!