New Zealand (Days 7-9)

Day 7 (Fri. April 29^th)

On Friday, Camille and I split up for the morning.  I wanted to go on a Lord of the Rings tour and she wanted to sleep in and just walk around the city.  I had to be at my tour early, but woke up even before my alarm went off.  I got ready much quicker than I’d planned and so I had some time to grab breakfast.  I wandered around a bit and then found a precious bakery and got a pie.  This may sound deceptive – a pie in Australia and New Zealand is an individual potpie with mostly “meal” fillings.  Some examples: steak and cheese, chicken, mince, sausage, bacon and egg, etc.  I got the bacon and egg pie and it was delicious!  After I ate, I made my way to the information center to catch my bus for the tour.  There were three of us, plus the driver so he had us all introduce ourselves before we left.  The other couple started, “I’m Neil, and I’m Kate, and we’re actually visiting from the States”.  I replied, “oh me too!  Where are you from?”  They replied “St. Louis”.  They had just graduated from St. Louis University.  I told them that my brother was about to graduate from Washington University in St. Louis – I was actually wearing my Wash U sweatshirt that day!  It was pretty funny.  They were really nice and fun to get to know.  The Lord of the Rings tour was pretty cool.  I’m not a huge fan (I’ve seen each of the movies once), but it was awesome to see how they transformed areas around Wellington to make it “Middle Earth”.  At each stop we made, the tour guide took us to the place where they shot a scene or a set of scenes and helped us visualize where the set was and then showed us pictures of the movie to overlap what we were seeing in real life.  For example, he took us to a park and said, “Now here is where they created the road that Aragorn rides through… and right over there would have been the castle.”  And then he showed us a picture of the scene from the movie and pointed out a tree in the picture and then pointed it out in real life.  It was so cool to know that where I was standing was actually in the movie.  On the tour, we went to Rivendell, which is a beautiful park and where the Elves’ scenes were filmed for the movie.  We had soda and muffins as a part of the tour – delicious!  And it was sunny out – it was a beautiful day!  After the tour, I met up with Camille again.  She got some lunch and I bought some cookies to try.  Kate (from the tour) had been on exchange in New Zealand before and had gotten addicted to “Mallow Puffs”.  They are essentially a s’more cookie.  They have a graham cracker bottom, marshmallow filling and then are completely covered in chocolate.  She told me I had to try themJ.  They were pretty good, but I like tim tams better.  We ate our lunch at the waterfront and then made our way back to the information center to catch our bus for our afternoon seal tour!  We found our tour guide and loaded into the back of an old 4WD vehicle and set off for the south coast. He took us up this huge hill to the highest point in Wellington.  The views were incredible!  Then we went down the backside of the mountain and past a farm tucked into the hillside.  There were deer – multiple deer – in a pen.  They were being raised domestically.  It was so strange!  Further along the road, we came to a huge valley we could look into and see about 20 wild horses!  I’ve never seen wild horses before – that was cool.  We finally made it down the backside of this huge mountain and onto the coast.  The driver put on the 4WD and we were off.  It was REALLY bumpy, but once again, we were driving on the sandJ.  We finally made it to the leaning lighthouse and the huge seal colony!!  They were incredible.  It was so cool to see them and watch them waddle around and play in the water.  They were precious.  While at the colony, our driver gave us muffins and a New Zealand style tea – both DELICIOUS!  After watching the seals for a while, we made our way back to Wellington.  Camille and I decided to walk along the water as the sun set and ended up at a restaurant called The Fisherman’s Table for dinner.  It was good – seafoodJ.  By this point in the trip, I was really starting to notice how much closer Camille and I had become and it was awesome!  I really enjoyed getting to spend so much quality time with her.  We made it back to the hostel, showered, and called it a night. 

Day 8 (Sat. April 30^th)

On Saturday, we woke up fairly early again, got ready, checked some emails, and then made our way to “Wholly Bagel” for breakfast.  Camille had spotted it when she was walking around the city the day before and wanted to go back.  We have both been disappointed in Australia’s lack of bagel shops and couldn’t wait to eat a fresh, legitimate bagel.  They were quite tastyJ.  Afterwards, we went to the Frank Kitts Markets on the waterfront and wandered through the booths.  It was a small market, but they had lots of really cool crafts and merchandise on display.  I enjoyed just looking through it all.  Also, there was a crepe stand, so naturally I indulged in a delicious crepe.  After the market, we wandered down Lambton Quay (the upscale shopping district) and ended up at the Parliament.  Wellington is the capitol of New Zealand and they are well known for their ugly parliament building.  It is definitely ugly, but it was cool to see where the country does business.  We had just missed the start of a tour and didn’t want to wait for an hour, so we kept walking and made our way up the huge hill to the Botanic Gardens and the Carter Observatory.  We made it to the observatory just in time for their show.  It was really interesting and, like in a planetarium, the docent pointed out a bunch of stars to look for at night and helped us find some constellations.  Once we finished at the observatory, we took the cable car back down the hill and walked through Cuba street again and then made our way through Courtney Place (an area with lots of bars, restaurants, theaters, etc.).  We made our way to the waterfront and then decided to hike to the top of Mt. Victoria.  We had planned to take the bus to the top, but neither of us had checked the timetable and they didn’t run a Saturday bus to the top.  It was a great hike, though.  It was similar to hiking the Ridge in Ellensburg.  We made it to the top close to sunset and the sun was beautiful!  It was cold and windy at the top, but clear and beautiful as well.  We stayed up at the lookout for a little while before making our way back down.  Once we hit the city again, we went back to the hostel for a little while and then found dinner.  I got a sandwich from a grocery store and it was potentially the best sandwich I’ve ever hadJ.  After dinner, we decided to go star gaze and see if we could find some of the constellations we had learned about at the planetarium.  It was a clear night and I did find one – the Southern Cross!  It was cool.  After we’d star gazed for a while, Camille and I found the playground on the waterfront and decided to playJ.  We went down the slide and then we went on the swings and just talked for a while.  It was a really great night.  We decided to head back to the hostel and get packed up and then went to bed early, as we had to be up EARLY for our flight the next morning. 

Day 9 (Sun. May 1^st)

On Sunday morning, we woke up at 2:45am and caught a taxi at 3:15am to get to the airport.  We were dropped off at 3:30am and found that the doors were locked – the airport didn’t even open until 4am!  So, we stood in the cold for a half hour and then got ourselves checked in, through security and to our gate in plenty of time.  The plane ride was really quick again.  I watched a documentary on stress – very interesting! – then watched No Strings AttachedJ.  On the way back, we fly first to Sydney and then to Melbourne.  Our layover was quick and our flight from Sydney to Melbourne was quick as well.  When we got off the plane in Melbourne, a throng of middle school girls all dressed up in purple and holding signs greeted us.  They were waiting for Justin Beiber!  Apparently he was flying from Sydney to Melbourne that day so they were wandering the airport, gate to gate, as planes came in, waiting for him.  It was crazy!  Camille and I got our bags and then caught the shuttle and tram back home.  It took awhile to get back as it was a Saturday afternoon and the tram stopped a lot, but we finally made it!  I got unpacked, went to the grocery store and then got myself ready for a big week.  It was an incredible trip!  I want to go back to New Zealand the first chance I get – I LOVED it there.