The road less traveled...

Party at the dump, Party in the tree, Party at the Pub

jillchavet — Wed, 11 Mar 2009 07:44:24 +0000

Only in Fox Glacier would someone decided to throw a party at the dump and for it to be a HUGE success. The only requirements were that you had to wear trash bags in order to get in. Unfortunately we had limited time after we finished the late shift and this was the best we could do.

Matty and Me at the Dump

Pre-dump party....

Twas a great night…the only downfall was the smell of our clothes the next morning. It was not a yummy smell.

Party in the Tree, I think there were 7 of us at one point. It only took me about 3 tries to get up there....getting down was worse....only one concussion that we know of, next time we will be wearing safety helmets.

Matty showing us his Possum Pose.

And last but not least, the party at the Pub. After the holidays we had numerous ‘going away’ parties as a few key members of the Plat staff were heading back to school and we were going to miss them dearly….so we partied it up.

The Plat Crew....game on.

Backdraft #1

Backdraft #2

backdraft #3

Backdraft #4

and then some shots....weee

After Toby saved me from dancing with the scary gypsy guy....he was my hero for a good 60 seconds.

Dean and Jonno

The crew...after the backdrafts.

Um...no caption necessary.

Roadtrip to Hokitika….

jillchavet — Sun, 01 Mar 2009 03:20:29 +0000

A trip to “town”….is by far one of the best days ever. Even though I was loaded down with shopping lists from others and errands for the motel and I was privileged enough to drive the beast of a work van that we have…..it is still one of the best days ever. So Roshni had the day off as well and we set off for hokitika to stock up and shop and do whatever the day had in store for us.

After getting all of our errands finished we decided to go to Greymouth…which is another 30 minutes north of Hoki and probably half the size of Fremont, NE. But the main highlight of Greymouth is it has a $2 store and also a Warehouse, which is very similar to a Kmart, Shopko, etc.

We meandered around town and I saw a flier to buy a car and at the end of the day I ended up calling the guy up, test driving the car….thinking about it for a few hours….and then buying a car. We also made a pit stop at a chinese restaurant, went for a swim in the Greymouth Pool, and bought heaps of KFC chicken for the Plateau boys.

Photo Montage…..GO

My New car!! Yet to be named...but she's a beauty!

Having a Chinese-food picnic at the gold course on my brand new yellow chair discussing the pros n cons of my new car....

Playing in the Greymouth pool...I think the slide was just for kids...but we didn't care.

90 Pieces of KFC chicken - which I got to smell for 2.5 hours back to Fox...only 88 pieces made it that far.

Sunset at Bruce Bay....no where near Hokitika....I said this was a photo montage.

and….Happy New Year

jillchavet — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 03:49:50 +0000

For the first time in the 4 months that I had been in Fox, I had multiple days off in a row, including new years eve…..and you know what that means!!

I DRANK….alot. =)

Last year for New Years I was hanging out with a bunch of 2-5 year olds until 1:30am and was definitely 100% sober. So this year I decided to go all out and have a night on the town with one of my best friends over here. We got all spruced up and went to dinner and had a 4 course meal with a bottle of wine and finished off the night at the local pub where the entire TOWN was celebrating. I do not really remember much of the night after midnight except that there was a surplus of Jello-shots. The day after was a friends birthday so the celebrating continued with an outing to Lake Paringa where I attempted to kneeboard for the first time in my life. The biggest problem at this point of the day was that I was NOT sober enough to attempt such a difficult first-time feat. Therefore, after about 5 painful wipeouts….I opted to just ride in the boat the rest of the day and have a cat-nap in the sun. Thankfully I have no pictures of such an embarrassing endeavor.

Lorna and Me having New Years dinner at the Plateau

The only other photo I took on New Years....maybe its best the rest of the night was NOT documented....

Merry Christmas

jillchavet — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 03:32:55 +0000

Yes. I do realize that this may be a little delayed, and I have no decent excuses…so you will just have to deal with it. I do apologize to those of you who actually DO check this blog on a normal basis – time flies when you are having fun….and I have been having LOADS!

First of all, I cannot believe that it is already the end of February. I have purchased my flights home and have started to consider what else I want to get done here in NZ before I have to leave. There is a long list….I hope I can accomplish most of it

So the Christmas holiday was not as enjoyable as last year in Hawaii when I was dressed up like an elf all day and hanging out with Santa.But there were still some good moments. Because of the large amount of ‘backpackers’ like myself that are away from home on the holidays, we all decided to spend Christmas day together. I had to work for most of the day, but still had a few hours where I could partake in the activities of lawn volleyball, a fantastic feast of yummy food, and of course nana-nap time in the grass.

My christmas tree....found on the beach...its awesome!

Me and Sarah having some party popper fun!

All of the orphans at Christmas...having a grand 'ol day.

Happy Christmas from the Fox Glacier Orphans!!

Will's new shoes. Best x-mas gift ever.

So that was mostly my Christmas day….after work I was too exhausted to start drinking again…I was pathetic and went to sleep.

And the rest of these photos are from our Christmas Party at the Plateau:

Christmas Pyramid at the Plat...only took a few dozen tries...

Hard-boiled egg eating competition...Matt got his ass kicked.

Jonno and I

Roshni, Tash, and I - Afterparty drinks at the Cook.

Seal poop…and other stuff.

jillchavet — Mon, 24 Nov 2008 00:37:02 +0000

I went to the beach the other day and smelled some fresh seal poop for the first time. =) I had a nice little walk through some intense muddy conditions, but I made it to the seal colony on the other side and scared all of the seals into the water. I wasn’t even sure that I was at the seal colony until I smelled their crap and saw them all start waking up and popping their little heads up.

Galway beach

Seals. Yup...they are fleeing.

So i think that one of the highlights of our daily lives is seeing the courier truck pull through our driveway and drop off the packages. Usually its all stuff for the business, but we all still race to the office to see what they have left for us.

Well, the other day we were having a fairly frantic day with all the units needing to be cleaned and around noon we saw the truck and tom and I went racing to the office. What did we see? One big box. Whose name was on it? MINE!!!

So my birthday package had finally arrived from Texas and it was filled with all types of goodies that thoroughly made my day. And everyone else was extremely jealous that I got fun mail! So thanks for the birthday gifts family! And all the other extra stuff…I am hiding those Starburst jellybeans for a rainy day…oh hey, its raining right now!

The newest edition to our family...mr. potato head....and his family. Also lovin the Husker Gear. Thanks Dad. We have the potato head family right next to our TV so that we can play whenever we are watching movies. It's ace!

My birthday shot of Tequila, sent all the way from the great state of TX. It's 5 o'clock somewhere.

Other things going on with me – I just started an additional job a few nights a week at a local cafe/restaurant. Its a really fun place to work and I really love the people and the atmosphere. The food is freakin’ delicious and it’s nice getting a good meal and a drink at the end of the night. Mostly I am just waitressing, but I have also been helping out in the kitchen on some nights. Gotta love scrubbin’ those pots!!

I did have an American moment the other day when I opened the cash register and completely blanked. I guess I am still getting used to the NZ currency.

So that’s the update! I told ya’ll I was gonna get better at this bloggin’ thing.

PS – Happy Thanksgiving!! Hope you all enjoy the holidays with the family or whatever else you may be doing. And I really hope that none of you will be staying somewhere like the hillcrest motel…that would be a bummer. =)

The blog neglection has ceased!!

jillchavet — Fri, 07 Nov 2008 06:32:09 +0000

Time flies when you’re having fun, and I have been having tons of it!

I can’t believe that I have been in New Zealand as long as I have and all of the amazing things I have been able to do. My roommates and I decided to purchase a car together, which has allowed us to explore even more on our days off. For those of you who do not know (like Alysha), new zealanders drive on the left side of the road. Which means the driver’s seat in the car is on the right. I’ve been driving for quite a while and I can honestly say that I am quite used to it. The main slip-ups are when I try to turn my blinker on and suddenly the windshield wipers are going. My car is also a stick shift, so it was interesting getting used to shifting with my left hand instead of my right. Another thing I tend to have problems with is going over the bridges. There are quite a lot of bridges around here and they are only one lane, so whenever I drive over the bridge I automatically start swerving to the right side of the road instead of the left, and I probably look like some crazy person on the road who’s had too much to drink. But I am quite used to it by now and really enjoy driving to unknown destinations on my days off.

Our new car. Its name is Roger....but I am not sure why.

My awesome stereo system...you NCL people know what I'm talkin' about.

I was given a pretty nice guilt trip from one of the glacier guides that I hadn’t been on the glacier yet, so after a few months of being in town, I finally hiked Fox Glacier. I only managed to do a half-day hike, but it was free so I wasn’t going to complain. I can honestly say that I enjoyed the hike better then the Franz Josef glacier, but the day was lacking Kat and it just wasn’t the same. I even got stuck in a group with the ONE guide in town that I was warned about, and now I know why. But all-in-all it was a good day on the ice and now when guests ask about the glacier I don’t have to lie and pretend that I know all about it. Now I can sorta tell the truth.

Our "special" tour guide telling us about something spectacular

On the glacier....wishing that Kat was taking my picture and not some crazy Asian.

View of Fox Glacier from the trail we had to hike to get there.

The Glacier Valley

There is a lot of hunting that goes on here, especially venison. I have some friends who go out in a chopper and shoot 10-20 deer a day from the chopper. I was able to go out with them one day and check it out. So I was sitting in the middle of nowhere in a truck and heard the chopper coming around the mountain, and when it came into sight it was carrying a load of about 8 deer. I ticked that off my list of “things I never thought I would see in my lifetime”. A helicopter with a load of deer dangling beneath it by a rope, definitely a new one. But it was also an awesome experience, one of these days I’ll get some pictures of it.

I’ve also made it out to the beach a few times on some really nice days. One night in particular was simply gorgeous and I didn’t have my camera with me at all. I felt like I was in heaven. We were quad-biking on the beach around sunset and the day was so clear that we could see the mountains and both glaciers coming down the valley, and the evening ended with an awesome B&B (bonfire & beverages).

Since work doesn’t really get busy til about now, we were all able to have a few days off and I decided to take a random road trip up the coast. It was nice getting away on my own and even better driving up the coast on a sunny afternoon. I ended up stopping in Punakaiki which is famous for its’ pancake rocks. The rocks were neat, but not as impressive as I thought they would be. I still managed to do some exploring on my own and chillin’ on the beaches. I stayed at a cosy hostel right on the beach and had a whole evening of relaxation and later fell asleep to the sounds of the ocean.

Pancake Rocks

The next day I went off venturing into the bush on my own. I hiked up the fox river and made it all the way to dilemma creek. They call it this for a reason, because you can either cross it, or you can’t. I tried quite a few different times but the river was just too high, and the water was too COLD. I gave up. I did hike up to some caves and explored them instead, almost slipping and severely injuring myself a dozen or so times, but I survived.

Exploring the beaches by Punakaiki

On the way home I stopped off in Greymouth (which is the big city for us) and stocked up on supplies and did some grocery shopping for everyone else I work with too. I very seldom get to go to Greymouth that I found myself idly wandering the stores in a daze of wonder. The Warehouse is a lot like a Kmart or Alco, and I spent a lot of time in the toy section of the store and finally walked away with a couple of puzzles. However, the highlight of my afternoon was devouring a delicious Meatball sub from SUBWAY! Oh how I miss fast food places. Next time it’s gonna be KFC!! If only this country believed in Taco Bell….then I would be set.

My new flat mates are awesome, don’t know if I have mentioned them much. Tom and Jess are from England and are really easy-going and great to live with. We all get along great and every now and then enjoy some meals together and most recently have instigated pasta mondays and taco tuesdays!! The only problem so far has been the competitive rivalries whilst playing Mario-Kart on the Nintendo 64. We do quite a bit of trash-talking that has brought about the need of a swear jar. Every word=$1. There’s at least $20 in there already, and none of them are mine. =) In other words, I am kicking butt at Mario-Kart.

Me and Jess decided to feed the horses in our backyard some icky carrots. And they loved them!

Tom doing some "quality control" on our BBQ.

I have met quite a handful of new people around town and every now and then we find time to meet up and hang out. On Halloween I spoke with a few people about my extreme disappointment in the holiday celebrations. There wasn’t even anything going on at the pub. So we decided that we would go trick-or-treating. Considering I was the American in the group I was threatened that my costume had better be awesome, and I think I did pretty good. It was an extremely last-minute costume, as were my roommates.

Our Halloween Costumes!! And yes...we were doing the Ben Stiller face....or at least trying to.

We started out with just four of us, and by the time we headed to the pub to finish our night we had recruited 3 people to join us. Not exactly sure on their costume choices, but we thought it was a successful evening. We managed to get a few candies, beer, 1 scone, 1 sandwich and 1 orange. We were the only adults that dressed up for the occasion and even at the pub, there were people who had no idea that it was halloween….this country is totally missing out on a great holiday! I did my best to represent….I hope that you are all proud of me!

Enjoying our loot of goodies....and a beer. Happy Halloween!!

For the most part the weather has started to get warmer since we are heading into the summer season. We have had a few afternoons basking in the sun in the backyard which has been lovely. I say for the most part because yesterday it was SNOWING!! Not only in the mountains…but where we were too. Not enough for it to remain on the ground, but I was still driving home the other day through a snowstorm….I was not thinking happy thoughts.

On a sadder note, there was a helicopter crash a few days ago and a well-known pilot was killed. I didn’t know him well at all, but my friends here and in Haast did. Its a very somber environment at the moment as they are still determining if they will be able to find the body in the lake and also wanting to know what went wrong. He was only 31. It’s one of those things that makes you wanna take a good look at your life and realize that it could be over in an instant.

So that’s the news from the south island. My apologies for slacking in the blogging department, but I guess I have been completely submerging myself with work and play, and not enough time to document it all. I will try to do better. Cheers!

Other random pics:

Jeremy's puppy, Tess. She likes to make a mess in my house...but I still lover her!

Me (obviously)...at Knights Point. I stopped there to pee....and it was pretty! (the view, not my urine)

This is what our shower looks like. I thought dad would like this pic. The guy who fixed it said he would send a faceplate to cover the giant hole in the wall....and that was 2 months ago. I guess we are just pleased that the shower works. We were a smelly bunch for a few days!!

Just a small town girl…

jillchavet — Mon, 15 Sep 2008 04:09:25 +0000

After leaving the town of Plainview, Nebraska – Population 1500 – I was determined to never live in a community that small ever again. Well, I failed. I am now living in Fox Glacier – Population 250-300ish.

Here are some maps so you know where Fox Glacier is:

South Island Map - I live on the West Coast, Just south of Franz Josef

Fox Glacier

The journey here was an interesting one. I changed flights in Christchurch and ended up on a tiny, tiny plane crossing the mountains to the West coast to Hokitika. I think there were only 15 or 16 seats on the plane and the airport was the size of a house! Definitely a change from DFW.

But guess what! I still managed to arrive without my bags! I have such good luck with that. No worries though, they were on the next flight 3 hours later. So I ended up spending some quality time with the owners of the Motel who picked me up. After that it was a scenic 2-hour drive to Fox Glacier.

So here I am. Once again enjoying the simple luxuries of life that I didn’t realize how much I missed until I got them back. Having my own room, a fridge, a bathroom that isn’t shared with total strangers, and even a backyard with a view! Its gorgeous!

This is where I live – Be jealous. =)

The view from Lake Matheson. The lake is right down the road from where I live and I usually go running out there.

Me at the lake...I have to prove that I actually took that picture. It looks so fake! This is one of the most photographed lakes in the world!

This is the view from my back porch. There is a rugby field right behind the house and a pasture with horses next to that. It makes for some pretty amazing sunsets.

Just down the road from my house where I usually go running, you can see Mt. Cook in the distance, it looks just as awesome at night under the stars.

This picture is especially for Erin who has hounded me from day ONE for all the pictures of the sheep. There are plenty of them around!

Basically this is the view no matter what direction you look. Not too Shabby eh?

So my job is fairly simple and consists of cleaning (which everyone knows I am excellent at) and simple office work at the motel. Its tedious sometimes, but it’s paying off my credit card bills all the same as any other job. And the stress level is not even close to what I was dealing with on the Aloha. So hooray for Jill.

I know that many of you have been waiting to hear about all of my exciting adventures since I have been here (especially you Carlson sisters). It seems like so much has been going on, I will have to break it down for you.

A – My birthday

So pretty much the day after I arrived here, it was my birthday. And I knew NOBODY in town. Which considering how eventful my birthday was last year…maybe it was a good idea that I was surrounded by strangers. (for those of you who were there (giggles and avalanche), you know exactly what I am talking about)

My birthday was actually my 1st day of work and we had an incredibly intense ginger cake with our morning tea (dropped off by a local who I had yet to meet but had heard many stories about) and for lunch my managers bought a pizza which was greasy and cheesy and delicious!

That night I decided I wasn’t going to sit at home alone on my birthday so I wandered up to the local pub for “one beer” and ended up staying until at least 2am, maybe later. I met a good bunch of locals along with a couple of crazy tourists and some even crazier Aussie ice-climbers. But all-in-all it was good times and I really enjoyed my birthday with complete strangers!

On a side note: My first piece of mail was received and it was the funniest birthday card I may have ever received, and the most artistic! Thanks Kathryn!

I also received an amazing b-day package from Alysha that had such wonderful American items in it! Twas a lifesaver! I am drinking more coffee then ever before now with a gigantore mug! Muchas Gracias! (and Ihave cleaner ears….)

B – Possums

So one day, it was raining and I didn’t have to work and I somehow ended up in a truck with 5 guys driving around to check out all the flooding waters etc. By the end of the day we ended up at a pub 2 hours from Fox Glacier and I was the only girl there out of 20-30 guys. Somewhere along the trip we stopped at someones place and I witnessed my first possum skinning. Not something that was EVER on my list of things to do – but now I can add it to the list and check it off. I will say that it is one of the most disgusting things I think I have ever seen in my life. There’s heaps of possums in NZ and the furs are actually worth some money so a lot of people trap them. But I will never be one of them.

C – Whitebaiting

I didn’t know what this was when I arrived here to the South Island. But everyone around here talks about it, especially now since the season just started. So whitebait are these tiny little white fish that are really popular down here and I guess they are worth $100/kilo. People set up stands along the river and stay out there for days/weeks at a time just to catch whitebait. Luckily enough I was able to experience a whitebait outing with Ben, Jeremy, Carol and Christi. We had fantastic rainy weather which meant we had to drink our beers underneath our awesome shelter (don’t worry – I helped make it) instead of in the sunshine. So the whitebait swim upstream during high tide into the nets that are set up in the river. We had a few hours to kill before high tide so we had some good ‘ol fashioned drunken conversations and crazy word games to pass the time. Afterwards I learned all about sorting out the whitebait from the good stuff and the crappy stuff…and after another quick boat ride where I went flying off of the bucket that served as my seat every time Ben took a turn….we made it back to Ben’s WARM house and I enjoyed my first cooked whitebait. Let me tell you – it was delicious!

The beautiful day of Whitebaiting. Check out that AWESOME sunshine!

Our fabulous shelter that I think we had to fix like 6-7 times. Dang wind kept changing directions.

Me - Carol - Christi....can you tell which one looks the most sober??

Our Whitebait catch. FYI - that isn't very much at all, but it was enough for all of us to enjoy a delicious meal that evening. PS - no idea how/why the beer bottle is there.

Me and Carol enjoying the last of our time on the river. Are you loving the redneck get-up I'm sporting?

D – Helicopter

So I am not sure if I have ever been in a helicopter before. When asked, I didn’t know. Which means I probably haven’t, or if I have it must have been the least memorable heli-ride ever. So I was able to get a free ride to the top of the glacier the other day and it was awesome! We flew right past Mt Tasman and Mt Cook and landed near the top of the Glacier! My only regret was that I forgot to grab some sunglasses…it was freakin’ bright with all that damn snow.

The rainbow we flew through.

Fox Glacier

Near the top of Fox Glacier

Me chillin' at the top of the glacier. We were able to walk around for a bit - it was BRIGHT!!

Me and a Helicopter....need I say more?

Me ....IN the helicopter.

View of the base of the glacier - I think you can see the cars by the carpark down there...as a size reference, or maybe you can't see them.

The river valley and the Tasman sea in the far distance.

So that is the basic rundown on what’s been happening in my kiwi life. My new roommates just arrived yesterday and they seem like really cool people so far. It looks like it will be a fun few moths. Looking forward to working and more adventures in the area.

I will just let the photos tell the rest.

Cheers!

Jilly

Fun times in Auckland…and the surrounding Islands

jillchavet — Thu, 21 Aug 2008 02:09:14 +0000

Auckland skyline. On an actual nice day...doesn't happen often.

: Somewhere on Rongitoto island…

: The top of Rongitoto with Auckland city barely visible in the background.

And then we had some good nights out with some new friends from all over the world: England, Italy, Auckland, Canada, and even someone from Miami, Florida!!

One day Brian, Helen and I decided to venture off to Waiheke Island and rent a car and make a day of it. We saw plenty of sheep, tons of winery’s (that were sadly closed on weekdays), some big boulders, beaches galore and a crappy waterfall.

: Chillin’ on the beach – Avoiding a dog attack!

: Amazing views everywhere!!

: Me – on a big Rock. Now THAT is a nice boulder!

Back to Auckland

jillchavet — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 06:10:21 +0000

After the Geo-thermal wonderfullness…

Kat and I started another road trip towards the Coromandel Peninsula which proved to have amazing beaches and stunning views no matter where you looked. Eventually we made our way back to Auckland where my entire journey began. The reality of our adventure soon ending hit me as soon as we got into the city and Kat started to pack her bags for home. We spent the next few days hanging out now and then and had one last blast involving a large quantity of alcohol consumption on the night before her flight.

______

Kat is now gone…and is terribly missed! But I know that she is having a blast back in Missouri beating the socks off of everyone who has been challenging her to ping pong battles.

In the meantime I have had the exciting task of trying to find a job! Basically hanging out in Auckland, meeting tons of new people, enjoying the city life and some days doing nothing at all. I’ve traveled to the nearby islands surrounding Auckland, explored most of the city parks and even spent an entire afternoon in a Museum without getting bored. I got to pet a rat,too! Not something I would normally expect to do in a Museum, but apparently in Auckland, they have live rats in their museums.

—–

So good news! Got offered a job on the South Island and I took it! I will be working at a Motel in Fox Glacier as a “general assistant”. I am really excited to get down there and start working again. I leave on Monday and will keep you all filled in on what happens.

PS – 24 years ago, on August 28th, a beautiful thing happened…I was born. So I will be celebrating my birthday in a week and I know that you ALL want to send me lots of goodies so here is my new mailing address: (i’m finally going to have a home again)

Lake Matheson Motel

Cnr Cook Flat Rd & Pekanga Drive

PO Box 23

Fox Glacier

New Zealand

the beginning of the end….

jillchavet — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 05:28:34 +0000

I know its been a while since I have posted anything….so I will try to catch you up….

_________

After Wellington we headed to Tongariro National Park. We were hoping for some good weather….and we did not get it.

The park is home to 3 volcanoes that are still active and has a variety of hiking along with some good skiing for the North Islanders. We were hoping to do the hike that takes us around the volcano but mother nature intervened. Kat and I still decided to get out and do something in the park so we didn’t drive all the way there for nothing. We opted for the hike to the Tama lakes. It was supposed to be a simple 4-5 hour hike, no biggie, we’ve done worse.

HA! I don’t think so! Turns out this hike would be pretty easy to do in the summer, but in the winter months….with the snow, and the rain, and the mud…..it was not so much fun.
We couldn’t even see the trail! Thank goodness for the posts that mark the trail, we just kept looking for the next post and hoped we could reach it without sinking in a mud-hole or stepping into and ice-covered hole of water that reached up to our knees…..we succeeded only half of the time. Oh ya, did I mention that once we got to the lakes it was too cloudy to even SEE them. And then it started to rain. Not SNOW…..but rain. Which meant that it started melting the snow around us creating an even more unpleasant surrounding of mud!

Notice how happy we were at the end of this hike....

By the time we reached the car we were ready to get out of freakin’ nature and back to our warm hostel.

And of course the next morning when we had to get up and leave, we saw the sun rise….and it was GORGEOUS outside. A perfect day for hiking all over the volcanoes…..I think God was mocking us.

The gorgeous morning sunrise.....

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The next day we ended up at Rotorua. We stopped at Waiotapu for the “geo-thermal wonderland”. I saw my first geyser erupt, the Lady Knox shot up about 21 meters in the air. Then after that we walked around the steaming trees and boiling pools of mud and saw all types of crazy geo-thermal wonderful-ness. My favorite part of the geo-thermal wonderland was that everything we saw was either named after or signified something satanic…..the devil’s bath….hell’s hole…..I can’t remember them all…but they were good ones!

My very first geyser experience! Look how impressed I was!!!

Geo-thermal-ness

More geo-thermal-ness

Because of all the sulfur springs and geothermal surroundings, Rotorua has plenty of touristy things to do. Kat and I opted to check out the Blue Pools which were naturally heated from the surroundings and then we decided we needed a night out!

We splurged a little more and booked a cultural excursion called Mitai. Basically like a Hawaiian luau, but not. We learned all about the Maori culture, the food they ate, etc. It was good times! Even better since we once again doctored our drinks and started the party on the bus ride over there! We knew our trip was coming to an end and that we needed to finish up whatever other goodies we had stashed away. Now being the classy girls that you know, we took the rest of the Captain and poured it into a “TO GO” water bottle. I think that we had the BEST bus ride out of everyone else in the group. Thankfully we took plenty of photos and video so we could remember more of the night…later.

Maori warriors making an entrance in the war canoe...or waka.

Warriors performing the Haka, the Maori war dance.

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