All I can say is Wow!

I can't believe I am doing this. Each place we go to is even more beautiful then the next. I feel very blessed that I can do this trip with my friends. It would only be better if Ron and the kids were with me. I know Ron would love it. I do have to admit that the kids are probably a little too young to really enjoy and remember it.

So Maori day was wonderful. We did a museum tour first, went back to the room and then went to the feast night. As part of the museum tour we got to see the geyser. It was really cool. I think it was one of the best parts for me. Yes, I think I love the Geyser and the hot mud pools. It may sound weird but the nature Amazed me. I was in awe! You could feel the heat from the geyser just going near it. You could see the mud bubbling! What was interesting was seeing a cold stream running right next to the hot geyser and the vegetation living right next to the mud pit and the geyser. COOL! How does that happen? All I can say is Wow!

As for the bus ride and the "Imagine This" Hypothetical song that Brad wrote about earlier . . . I don't want to talk about it. I want to pretend it never happened. Can we leave it at that!

Today was a good day. We are in Napier now and it is even more beautiful than Rotorua. Our hotel is across the street from the beach. As I write this I can look out on the Pacific and hear the ocean waves. All I can say is Wow! One interesting thing about this beach is that there is no sand. It is all little tiny black pebbles and rocks with white sea shell pieces scattered in. Zach and I found several pieces of sea glass in 3 different colors mixed into the rock.

Tomorrow Ann Marie and I are going to go on a run next to the ocean. They have a running/walking path that follows the ocean for a few miles. I'm pretty excited about it. After that we have a walking tour of the city, followed by wine tasting.

I miss ALL of you and I hope you had a very Happy New Year.

PS - Costco Travel is awesome. Things have been going so well. I will definitely use them again for trips!

Nice day so far!

This morning I got up and went for a jog down to the lake. It was beautiful. Everything is clean, safe and green. After that we walked to a market and got some fresh fruit and coffee for breakfast. Perfect!

Today we are heading to a Maori museum and then to an interactive cultural show in the evening. It should fun. I think this will be Helen's favorite day. This evening Jennifer and I are going to try to stay up past 10 to bring in the new year at the local pub. I am going to try my best to stay up until midnight, but I think it will require a few cups of coffee this evening.

Thanks for the tip on the tie Peter! The day is even better now knowing that I beat Jennifer at scrabble!

TJ - I reexamined the toliet. It is just a powerful burst of water that goes straight now. Sorry. No swirl.

Tomorrow we get to sleep in and then pack up and head out to Napier. I don't know how much blog time we will get between now and then. If I don't talk to you until tomorrrow, have a great New Year!

Interesting facts

We are learning alot about New Zealand thanks to the excellent tour guides. Here are some facts I thought you would all be interested in.

1. New Zealand has the highest boat ownership percentage in the world. The city of Auckland has a 1 in 4 boat ownership ratio and the country has a 1 in 8 ownership ratio!
   
2. Did you know that New Zealand still has active volcanos? Several of them in fact.
   
3. New Zealand has no predatory animals. Yep! Nothing here that can kill you. In fact, New Zealand doesn't have any snakes!
   
4. So the national bird is a Kiwi bird. It is a bird without any wings! I think we are going to try to see one tomorrow. They only come out at night so they have special viewing rooms set up so the birds think it is evening.
   
5. The glow worms are actually glow "maggots"!
   
6. Did I mention Rotorua smells like sulfer? It takes some getting use to and I'm not there yet.
   
7. The Maori history in New Zealand is almost identical to the history of Indians in the US. (Broken treaties, land encroachment, bloody land wars.) Very interesting if you want to take a look.

Wow! What a couple of days!

We are now in Rotorua and have 24 hour internet access. I think this will give us enough time to catch everyone up.

We had no time to blog yesterday. When we woke up the Rosier/Giff party decided to go on the city bus tour. You know the tours where the bus takes you around to all the sites and you can get off at any one you want . . . that's what we did. It was pretty awesome. We felt like we were able to see the whole city and get more details then we would have otherwise. This was perfect for us b/c it was raining and dreary out.

The tour hit everything from the zoo, museum, harbor, two markets, rose garden, mt eden, eden park, and many others. I think there were about 14 total. It was very beautiful. One of our favorite parts were going up to the top of mt eden. You could see the whole city from that vantage point. We also got off at the museum. We checked out the Maori cultural section, and the dinosaur exhibit. The TRex named Sue was being featured so we had to go see it.

We were going to get off at other stops but we had a tour at 2:30 we needed to get to. Once we got off the bus, we freshened up and went to meet the Downes at the "Yacht" for a little sailing. Yes, we all went sailing and we each steered the boat for a while.

After sailing the harbor we went to the maritime museum. I learned more about boats then I probably needed too.

One of my favorite parts of the day were sampling the Green Muscles, a local favorite. The Muscles were HUGE! Jennifer and I shared a kilo! Helen treated herself to a lamb roast.

By the time we got home were exhausted! We had to be up early in the morning for our bus ride to Rotorua. It was BEAUTIFUL! Green rolling hills and cute little towns sprinkled in. On the way here this morning we had morning tea and then went into the caves to look at the glow worms. It was quite a day already.

We are going to be heading out to dinner soon. I will write more later and try to upload a couple pictures.

Couple quick things:
- TJ, the toilet flushes down. It doesn't swirl. I know! I was ready to see the counter clockwise swirl.
- The town we are in now smells like sulpher. It is supposed to have natural hot springs that we might check out in the morning.