The first week.

   We arrived to the hotel in Wellington at 3 am Tuesday morning.  We were all exhausted. And pretty smelly after being stuck on planes for two whole days! We all showered and went straight to bed. The next morning we woke up and decided to explore Wellington for the day. We took the cable car up to Victoria University, and it was so big and confusing! It’s a big change from Wells – right in the heart of a big city, and teeming with students. The rest of the day was spent walking around the city, and we all loved it! It is so cool in Wellington – the people, the ocean front, the bars. It’s so strange to be able to drink now!

   Wednesday, we drove to Napier. It’s a seaside city that’s near wine country. I got a chance to drive, and it was pretty terrifying! Driving on the right side of the car and the left side of the road is hard to get used to! The scenery was stunning on the drive. I can’t believe how beautiful this country is!

  Halfway to Napier was the coolest little brewery I have ever seen! It’s called Tui Brewery in Mangatainoka. They made the best beer I have ever tasted. We also got a chance to tour the brewery, which was so fun!

Don't worry, the drinking age here is 18.

  We were in for quite a surprise when we finally arrived in Napier. The hotel was overbooked, so we were put in an apartment instead. It is SO nice! We have a balcony overlooking the ocean, the biggest walk in closet I have ever seen, and a fully equipped kitchen. How are we so lucky?

   Waking up in our beautiful seaside apartment was so awesome.  Touring wine country all day Thursday was even better! We went to so many gorgeous wineries today.  The vineyards were so pretty and the wine was so good!

Gotta love gators.

   Next on our journey, we headed to Rotorua. It’s a very volcanically active part of New Zealand, right in the center of the North Island. Rotorua is situated on Lake Taupo, which is actually the top of a giant volcano, filled with water! The lake is steaming hot, and the whole town smells of the sulphur that leaches up from the underground volcano.

   Before getting to the city, we stopped at the Wai-O-Tapu Thermal Wonderland. It is basically just a whole park full of volcanic stuff! Very cool. We saw the Lady Knox geyser erupt first. We were anxiously awaiting the eruption, but we didn’t know that the park rangers put soap in it to activate it! It only lasted for about a minute, but it got up to maybe 10 feet.

   The rest of the afternoon, we walked around the park. There was so much to see, smell, and hear! Everything was bubbling because of all the boiling mud and water. The whole place smelled of sulphur, just like the city of Rotorua. It wasn't that bad though.

A big bubbly lake of mineral dense water!

   It was a lot of fun roaming around the park, and they definitely saved the best for last. Here's the Devil's Bath - a neon green lake!

It really was that color!

  After the thermal wonderland, we headed to the city and got settled in our hotel. We had checked out this mud bath spa called  Hell's Gate, and Mom and I went there for a mud bath and the hot springs. It felt sooo good! The boys thought it was weird that we sat in a tub of mud, but they missed out!

   Saturday morning we set out for Matamata, the location of the Hobbiton movie set. Adam and I toured the set, and Mom and Dad stayed behind to check out the town center. It was beyond cool. I watched the Lord of the Rings just before coming here, so it was awesome to see where they filmed it.

We can't wait!

   A tour guide led us around the grounds, but we got to wander a little bit. There were so many hobbit holes! The best view was of the whole place - the party tree, the party field, the Green Dragon, and some hobbit holes. It was such a beautiful day!

A gorgeous day at the shire.

   The tour ended at the Green Dragon pub, where we got free beer! They were specially brewed beers for the set, and they were delicious.

Hobbit ale at a hobbit-sized table.

   The tour lasted most of the afternoon, but we did get a chance to stop at the Waitomo Glowworm caves on our way to find a hotel. We caught one of the last tours of the day. We were led down to the cave entrance, and walked in a ways before getting in a boat to follow the river out. The cave itself was amazing, but sitting in a boat, in silence, looking at all the glowworms above us was surreal! If only cameras were allowed in there!

   We decided to drive a little ways after the caves, and we ended up finding a little motel in Manunui called the Mahoe. Let's just say it was not as nice as our apartment in Napier...

   Sunday was our trek back to Wellington. At our furthest, we were at least 7 hours from Wellington. Luckily we only had 4 hours to drive this day. We also got to stop in Tongariro National Park, which broke up the drive a bit. We saw active volcanoes in the park - how neat! We drove about halfway up (as far as we could go!) Mt. Ruapehu, and wandered around, taking pictures and looking at all the volcanic rocks. It was such a different landscape than we are used to!

No eruptions today.

   On our way out of the park, we walked down to a cool little waterfall. The water was such a brilliant turquoise color. This country could not get any more beautiful!

   In the evening, we arrived back in Wellington. Hallie, who also goes to Wells and is studying here, had arrived Sunday. We met up for a while. How nice to see a familiar face in a foreign country (besides my family of course)!