last photo album for a bit...

here's the link, just copy and paste it into the address bar.

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2972517&id=2038092&l=bb76ad81a6

2 more picture albums and another to come in a bit

Again, even though they are facebook albums, anyone can view them. Just copy and paste the link into the address bar.

Enjoy!

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2972336&id=2038092&l=70b4c6f42e

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2972334&id=2038092&l=03be54fba4

Sand flies...EVERYWHERE!!!!

1-24-10

After staying at the campground at Bark Bay, we headed back on the kayak. Since we explored the islands the previous day we decided to stay along the coast and stop at a few beaches on the way back. We had taken along the ipod dock and speakers which ended up being so awesome. We would just kayak down the coast, listening to music and singing along. We were making really good time which allowed us to relax, take a nap on the beach, and I got to do a little snorkeling. We took our little break, met another random German traveler (lots of Germans over here!) and headed towards the kayak pickup spot. The tide was really high when we landed, making things much easier. We got our stuff back to the kayak company and headed back to their base camp for complimentary showers and free internet. It was nice to check in and say hi since we had been out of communication for a couple of days. Nicole had developed the most awesome raccoon eyes tan, which I think will take quite a while to go away...and...I'm about to throw her shoes into the nearest rubbish bin. The smell coming from those Chaco's is nothing short of extraordinary.

We left the kayak company and decided to pay for a legit meal in town. Both of us were craving pizza and we found a great little pizza joint in town. Pizza with bbq sauce, bacon, pepperoni, and cheese really hit the spot. We finally got on the road to head south, where we found New Zealands largest swingbridge. We pulled into the parking lot to check it out and I guess they don't lock the place up after hours because the gate was wide open, and of course we couldn't understand the signs reading "do not enter without paid ticket". We got some great pictures on the bridge, it was super high off of the water and bouncing all over the place.

As it was getting dark, we did our usual search of the closest DOC (Department of Conservation) campsites. We stayed at the Lyell campsite with views up the valley that looked like it came straight out of a king kong jungle movie. We woke up in the morning to our first bad experience with sandflies...if only we would have known how much worse they could get.

1-25-10

Today was a drive day. We made our way to Pancake Rock. It was so beautiful. It is this place where the waves will come up and hit these rocks (that look like pancakes all stacked ontop of one another...thus the name) and there will be a huge blow hole effect. Unfortunately, we hit pankcake rock at low tide...wamp wamp! But it was still very pretty. We also hiked out to a seal conony. I love those darn little guys, they are just so cute! We watched the seals for a while and then made our way back to the car. All the while I am having a REAL hard time enjoying myself in New Zealand knowing that the Saints are playing the Vicking for the Superbowl and I am not near a TV! Eventually, we drive through this little town and there is a bar, so I run in and what do you know? The game is already on! HOORAY! It was the 4th quarter, 28 all! NAIL BITER! ha I am the ONLY Saints fan in the room. Fair enough, I cheer my boys on and...oh yes, sweet victory! Made my day! Brian was REAL glad they won because he knew that I'd made a read bad traveling budding if they didn't!

We arrive to Franz Josef Glacier and took a little hike, enjoyed the city and bit and off we went agian to find a place to sleep...and we did. We found this sweet beach. Pitched a tent and made a fire on the beach. It was so great. We took some picture and listened to Bob Marly around the fire. Not too bad of a night.

1-26-10

So we have this great night on the beach with waves and what not, and we're totally psyched to hit the trail! We've heard nothing but great things about this trail. WAIT...and by "we" I mean Brian. I know NOTHING about this trail or the fact that it's TWELVE FREAKIN' MILES ONE WAY!!!!! But I'm game. Let's do this! First things first. Get there. BOOM! Accomplished. Next thing...find where the trail starts...hmmm a bit more challenging. This joker was not laid out quite as obvious as good ol' Rocky Mountain National Park. There are no signs as to where we are to start this trail. Brain takes a picture of the map (that is in the parking lot and says, "looks like we're just suppose to follow the river." Good grief. We followed the river. jumping from rock to rock. It was a little bit frusturating not knowing where we were going and knowing. BUT we pressed on until we found the trail. The trail was a butt-busting 12 miles long, with our packs (mine: 20ish lbs, Brians: 27ish lbs), in the sun, and in sandles (yes, in sandles, I did the whole trail in my Chacos and Brians did the tail in his Reefs). As hard as the trail got and as tired as we were, we kept in mind the hot-tub. Up at the top there was a great "natural hot tub" so we were pretty excitd to make it to camp.

After crossing some of the sketchiest bridges...(with signs that say, "max load: 1 peron"); having hardly any food and maybe a melt down or 12 by Nicole we made it to the top!!! YAY! go us. OH and that 76 year old and her 98 year old husband YAY for them flippin' too!!! Nothing like feeling great about yourself after hitting the peak only to meet old people up there too!

SO the HOT SPINGS! Here we come. Well, we change and head off to find just the right pool...I put one foot in and sink about 3-4 inches in this gross green very fine mud. I needed to have a little pep-talk with myself "Whatever, just get over it, you've made it to the top now just forget about your mud in your pants petpeev and enjoy the day." SO I SIT down in the mud-tub, I mean, hot pool. Sinking into the mud was one thing--even worse than sinking into the stinkin' mud was the sand-flys. They are little Satans, put on this earth to eat flesh and make all of man kind miserable. SO now any part of your body that was not under the water (by the way, the spring was only about 2 feet deep), was being feasted on by the millions of swarming sand-flys. I HAD ENOUGH! I'm getting out. I was a little ticked. I don't know if it was being so tired, my body hurting so badly, the mud ALL OVER ME, or the sand-flys that would not stop eatting me--or maybe just a combo of it all, but all I wanted was a shower and and bed. So I get out in search of the hose and rise off with my clothes on in the freezing cold water, I put the hose all over me and get as much of the mud off as I can. I rinse my hair. I'm feeling a little bit better, freezing, but better. I head back to the changing room place and pull off my pants to discover that my panties are FULL OF GREEN MUD! 2nd pep-talk to myself "Nicole, don't freak out! This is ok. All you have to do is get BACK under the freezing water and rise off again, don't kill Brian, don't cry, don't hate New Zealand...it's ok!" So I head back to the hose for cold shower #2. I am laughing about it now...and just remember those very panties are wadded up in my backpack...hummm...I better take them out and let them get some fresh air.

Anyway, it was a heck of a day, but we pitched tent in this great meddow surrounded by mountains. It was beautiful. It was such a nice night we didn't even put the rain-fly on. The stars were brillant and it was a nice night's sleep. Good times had by all. :)

Pupu!!! the springs I mean

1-20-10

So we're off to take a hike. We have our bread and Nutella ready to go for when we hit the summit. DEAR GOD! What a hike. There is no such thing as switch-backs here...just straight up the mountain! So after we realize we are so out of shape we make it to the top. We're sitting there just hanging out, when a mom and daughter walk up. YAY they made it. SO we start chatting with them about New Zealand and about us..yadda yadda yadda....well Nicole starts to get hungry. "humm" she thinks to herself..."some Nutella sounds good right about now." so as she is going for the stuff to make the sandwich, Brian looks at her and says, "there is no knife"....Well now that presented a problem: she was hungry and wanted a sandwich. So, what does she do? Yes, she sticks her finger into the Nutella and starts to spread it all over the bread...by this point she is getting it all over her hand. *classy* When a voice comes outta the blue: "I have a knife if you'd like to use it?" So, yes, we both used the knife. It was pretty funny.

On our way back we were sweaty and needed to shower up before we arrived at Brian's friend's house. SO...naturally we brought the soap down to the river...it was freezing! But, we put soap all over us and our clothes and hopped in and out of the water. Called it a shower. It was refreshing and we were now presentable.

We hung our wet clothes out the window and drove off to Wellington. The GPS took us through some beautiful twisty road, driving through the country is just stunning! The sights are so beautiful. About an hour later we arrived at the Sheehan's beautiful home. When we got there no one was home. Brian got close enough to the house to pick up some open wifi--why not surf the web while we wait right? So, he decides to Skype his dad. "HI DAD...." Brian sits on the concrete decorative bench outside in the front yard...BOOM! Brians falls to the floor throwing the laptop up into the air, causing it to land in the bushes...Nicole: BUSTS OUT LAUGHING! "What happened?" while STILL LAUGHING! Brian gets up, "OH NO! OH NO! OH NO!" while rubbing his butt...THE BENCH CRUMBLED INTO PIECES!!! Seriously, not even 2 mins later, the lady who we are staying with pulls up. Brians now has to introduce himself AND appoligize for busting their bench.

The family was so great. They were cool with what happened. Invited us in, gave us a bed for the night and cooked us an amazing meal. After dinner they had a great dessert. It was some pie thing and icecream....so good! Brian, being the nice guy that he is, decided to clean out his bowl...he puts the bowl under the sink faucet, turns the water on FULL BLAST and it was like a freakin' rocket blast. Water flies everywhere...wets the mom, wets the floor, wets the countertop. Nicole: BUSTS OUT LAUGHING!! Poor Brian. They had to get the mop out to clean it up. At this point we were friends enough to laugh at it and they didn't make Brian go sit in the car...they just asked him not to touch the cat! just kidding. haha

It was a great night, we were able to get on the internet, make some calls via Skype, sleep in a bed and take a real shower.

1-21-10

1-21-10

Today was a lazy day. We hung out at the Sheehans, watched TV, Skyped, and took it easy. It was a much needed lazy day. The days are so long here (b/c of daylight savings it does not get dark until 945pm), so we are on the go until its dark and by that time we've done so much and are exhausted.

We left the house about 5:30 and set out to go see teh Te Papa Museum. It is a science museum and contained a lot of New Zealand history as well. We hung out in there for a while, it was a cool place to be and it was FREE!

After the museum, we ventured off to shop around and see what Wellington had to offer. NOTHING was opened! It is the strangest thing...everything closes at 5:00 around here. Brian and I were so frusterated. We eventually found this place to eat, it was a middle eastern restuant. We split some garlic bread and this awesome lamb/chicken Turkish pizza. It was $14.00 NZD. we are so good at being cheap! After that we watched some American street performer. He was kinda lame. But it was a free entertainment. After the the show we walked around some more. You see the one thing I fotgot to mention was that we were waiting to board the ferry this night. We didn't leave Wellingtion until 3AM though. So we had to fill our night with something to do. And we did. We found a hostel wondered in. Watched a movie that some German backpacker paid for (The Simpson's Movie--such a lame choice, but it was free!). So lame in fact we both feel asleep. I woke up as the movie was ending and realized that Brian was alseep too. OH NO! WHAT TIME IS IT!? shew it was only 1130PM. Brian and I took off and went to the car, got to the ferry line and boarded when we could. We had a nice little nap on the ferry and woke up on the beautiful south island.

SO: in a nut shell, we:

surfed the internet

went to a sweet museum (it was a pay to park lot to-$6.00)

had a great dinner

saw some street entertainer

watched a free movie

hung out in a hostel

got our car --parking ended up being free :)

boarded the ferry and slept for free

Pretty much the whole night cost us 14.00 New Zealand bucks! Not too bad!

1-22-10

1-22-10

We got off the ferry around 6:15 AM and started heading towards Tasman. About 40 minutes into the drive, Nicole fell asleep and I was feeling super tired from the short nap we got on the ferry. I decided to pull off in this park along a river, and we ended up waking up almost 4 hours later, I guess we needed the sleep. We got back on the road and continued on into Motueka where we found a pretty awesome deal on a double kayak for 2 days, with no guide, and a night stay in the Abel Tasman National forest. Since it was already around 1pm, we would have to wait until the next day to pick up the kayak and leave, so we decided to check out the end of the road (and the south island). We stopped at a place called Pupu springs (we still think this needs renaming). Pupu springs is the largest spring in Australia and New Zealand and has the clearest freshwater in the entire world. Unfortunately, because of the dangers of bacteria and pest intrusion, you aren't allowed to touch or come in contact with the springs in any way. It was raining so we hiked quickly, but it was beautiful to look into the crystal clear water and see where the water exited the spring. Back on the road, we headed north to Farewell Spit. Farewell spit is this huge sand area that stretches east from the northernmost point of the South Island. It continues to grow every year as sand is carried towards it by the wind and water currents that flow in the area. We hiked out about 2 miles on the inside coast and then hiked up a sand dune and crossed to the unprotected outer side. It was really cool to see the sand dunes and birds that were out there, and there really weren't any other people. I had carried the bodyboard out there in hopes of finding some decent waves, but the current was moving too fast for my comfort. We hiked back to the car as a nasty storm was heading towards us, and ended up walking in the rain for 45 minutes. After the spit, we headed back towards where we would have to catch the kayaks the next day, and found a great little spot to camp for the night. Nicole made her famous lasagna (noodles, 3 slices of kraft singlesish cheese, spaghetti sauce, and all-purpose seasoning) which ended up being pretty good! After being attacked by the largest flying insect either one of us had ever seen, we decided to call it an early night and get to the safety of the tent.

1-23-10

1-23-10

YAY! Kayaking in Abel Tasman was a BLAST! We kayaked about 10 miles to our campsite. It was amazing. The water was this crystal clear green and absolutly beautiful. There were seal colonies that intregued me TONS! Brian was kinda board with the seals (he says they are annoying in WA), but he was a good sport about me loving them! :) The water was so clear and there were these great little islands we'd paddle by and the islands were full of think, green rainforest trees--truely on of the most beutiful places I think I've ever been. We were kayaking along and then we'd see a seal in the water by the huge rocks that covered the coast.

There was this cool river that we could kayaked to. With it being high tide, we were able to able to kayak up the river. brian go word that there was a bridge that we could jump off. SO...we were off to find the bridge. BBOM! we found it. HOLY MOLY! it was soooo high. We stuck the paddle in as far as we could and it did not touch the bottom, gues it's deep enough?! Yeah right! I was not going to jump...but Brian...well, I dropped him off on the shore and wished him good luck and kindly requiested that he would wear his life jacket. That joker trecked up the mountain/rainforest bush stuff, and walked out to the middle of the bridge (with people watching--I think they thought he was CRAZY!), he JUMPED! I got one lousy action shot. And then the best part...HE CAME BACK UP! I'm not kidding this bridge was probaby 45 feet up and he jumped into FREEZING river water. Good job Brian!

After that we make it to Bark Bay (our campsite) and we pulled the Kayak up and set up camp. It was perfect. We found this great little spot to set up our tent AND it just so happened to have 3 perfect trees to set up two hammocks. :)

So we took it! It was mid-afternoon and we had our tent up and the hammocks up--took a little nap and relaxed the rest of the day.

Later that night we tried to start a fire (failed). BUT, we started talking with this family from Christchurch. They were totally cool. The next morning they gave us their contact informaion for while we're in That night we decided to sleep in the hammocks. Popped two Tynol PM's and hit the hommock! It was a chilly night, but a rather glorious nights sleep for me...not so much for Brian. The best part was we stayed dry the entire night. The tent was up with the rain fly on...just in case we had to hop to the tent in the middle of the night.

uploaded pictures

we were able to upload some pictures from our trip so far, here is the link. (you can still view it even if you aren't on facebook)

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2968092&id=2038092&l=4db354c72b

baaaaahhhh....so many sheep!

1-17-10 continued

Well, the hike to the Pinnacles ended up not working out. We didn't realize that the only enterance to the trailhead was on the west coast of the peninsula. Instead, we decided to cover some ground and make it down to Rotorua. The drive was nice, and once we got into Rotorua we checked out the information center of the city. We found a hostel fairly close and were able to get internet for a short time. At the hostel they had a board of free things to do locally. We decided to check out the local thermal hot pools just outside of town. The whole town smelled like sulfur from all of the thermal activity going on, and there were several steam plumes coming from random places. Once outside of the city we found the park with a small stream running through it, and a cove where the stream hit the hot springs. This was nice because the water from the springs was at least 100 or 105 degrees, but where the two mixed it was very comfortable to relax. Also, the mud from the sides of the spring is supposed to be good for your skin, unfortunately it left me smelling of sulfur for the next couple of days. We ended up talking to a few Maori natives there who were carving pieces of rock. They explained some of their heritage and culture, in exchange for some insight on where they should visit if they come to the USA.

After the sulfur bath, we headed back into Rotorua so Nicole could have a shower at the hostel. After paying $5, she had a shower and we left town. It was just getting dark and we were having a tough time trying to find a place to camp for the night. Several journeys on smaller roads up toward lakes ended in dead ends, both literally and figuratively. We were pretty sketched out at staying in a place completely alone and in the middle of nowhere. We ended up finding a place to sleep, about 1.5 hrs outside of Rotorua where we decided we should take some tylenol pm and go to sleep in the car. Me:"Nicole, pass the tylenol pm....nicole?....nicole??" nicole: "@#$^@^." Me: "Oh great...what?" Nicole: "Brian, I THINK I may have left my wallet in the shower"

So we searched the car, high and low, but no luck. We tried finding the hostel's phone number on the gps, but no luck. So back to Rotorua we charged, into the rain, and darkness...it was a silent ride. I think we both prayed the whole time we were driving that the wallet would be there, safe and sound. Thank God, when we got to the hostel, Nicole found her wallet, on the same hook in the bathroom where she had left it. Someone had even used the shower after she did, and either didn't see it or was nice enough to leave it alone. Whew! Nicole paid for gas, and we ended up making it further than we had before towards Gisborne. We "camped" in the car on the side of the road, it was sketchy.

Disclaimer from Nicole: It was not just as simple as leaving my wallet, it was a complicated matter with many other things going on, I'm sure you would have all done the same. Plus, this is my signature move, I had to lose something significant, this is an international trip right?

1-18-10

So why Gisborne you ask? Well b/c there is this AWESOME all natural rock slide gig. Thanks to our trusty GPS we took the road less traveled...FOR TWO HOURS! It was a one lane dirt road with more sheep and cows than people at Mardi Gras. That actually made the drive so much more entertaining. One beep of the horn and they were scared to death. It was so funny. They'd run so fast b/c they were so scared of us. Nicole was maybe even singing out the window to them...? That scared them too. So we're cruisin down the one laner, when out of no where a semitruck comes blasting into sight. AHHHHHHHHH! Brian swerved off into some shouldery, grassy, not suppose to be driven on side of the road. Good grief...it scared us both pretty bad. BUT...we pressed on.

HOORAY we made it to our final destination! Brian was psyched and ready to charge the chilly water--I mean this is on the 101 things you must do in NZ...cold water was not going to stop him...(Nicole on the other hand was going to take pictures). BUT, when we got to the top of the rockslide we looked down into the pool in which you'd be sliding into...GROSS! There was this white foam on the surface and it just looked like was breeding bacteria! So...we took a picture of the rockslide, talked about how fun it would be, took a picture of Clyde with some cow (yes, there were more cows), and got back in the car and headed off to our next stop.

We made it to the actual town of Gisborne (it's such a lame town)! We found a little spot on the beach and put up our tent, took a little nap and then headed into town to discover just how lame of a town it is. We were chatting with a lady who ran a book store and she told us of this neat cove and the longest wharf in the southern hemisphere at Talago Bay, about 45 mins away. BOOM! we're on it. So we took off to go see Captains Cook's Cove.

The wharf was pretty neat to see. We took some pics and headed off to find the cove. It was 5.8K hike roundtrip. It was about dusk-ish and we set off. So the craziest thing...we're hiking and there are cows and sheep ALL over the trail. It was unbelievablely funny!! There was no one to collect money, there was no one there to tell us to sign off saying we would not sue them, there was nothing there except this trail and cows and sheep. Good thing they are scared of us. It was a little scary at first until we realized they were willing to jump off cliffs to get away from us. WE HAD THE POWER!!! and we might have taken advantage of it. We were chasing them up the hill, off cliffs and everywhere inbetween. SO after chasing cows, scaring sheep off cliffs, and hopping over 3 barbwired fences (at this point we thought the bookstore lady was back at home, laughing about the tourists she just sent to slaughter) ,we made it to the top of the mountain overlooking the wharf and Captain Cook's Cove. IT WAS BEAUTIFUL! We made some Nutella sandwiches and called it dinner--hiked back down, scared more animals...maybe even did the Chicken Dance for them and made it back to the car.

Needed showers badly, we saw a campsite across the way. Nicole's way of thinking: if we act like we know what we're doing...we can do just about anything. Let's go shower at that campsite. All it takes is confidence! HA! So we drive thru the campsite and everyone is looking at us. No biggy, just park and walk to the showers, act cool, stay calm! As we are sitting there, some man on a bike rides up and taps on the window. Pretty much told us we had to leave, he didn't like us and that we were not wanted there!" Ok ok ok so maybe we needed a little more than confidence for that shower. Needless to say, we went to bed nasty! BUT we were on the beach and it was an awesome sleep!

1-19-10

We woke up to a beautiful sunny day and decided to make some breakfast on the beach. Being American, we had to make a healthy breakfast fattier, more sugary, and much more awesome. We discovered that Nutella can pretty much be added to any food item, just like bacon...or ranch dressing. Nutella goes pretty awesomely in oatmeal, with a bit of brown sugar also. After packing up camp, we headed back into Gisborne to once again realize how lame the town was and stock our food supplies with more bread, eggs, and you guessed it...Nutella. We checked out a couple sweet thrift stores and found some nice beach chairs for only $5 each! Also found a bag of diapers called crawler nappies over here...strange.

Fully loaded and ready to leave, we headed towards the beach town of Napier. A couple hours later we pulled into town, and I was dying to find some fish and chips. Pretty much every beach town we have been to has had seemingly hundreds of take-away (take out as us Amuuuricans like to call it) fish and chips joints. I was craving a hot lunch, and guess what, no fish and chips to be found. We drove up and down the beach, through town, and eventually found a nasty looking place called "Continental Chinese food - And fish and chips too". I figured it was worth a shot and went inside. Right before ordering, a spitfire of a woman walked in to pick up a call-in order. After finding out they had forgotten to cook her food, the f-bombs started flying, and Nicole and I got out of there as quickly as possible. The gps took us to two other fish and chips places...closed, my luck was running out, but I finally found an open take-away place. I ordered the $10 pack, which strangely enough was pretty standard for the places I checked, and contained 2 pieces of fish, french fries, a corn dog (called a hot dog here), and 2 fried pieces of crabmeat. We headed back towards the beach and Nicole hit the library for some internet while I devoured my food. We went to the beach after and found that instead of sand, the beach consisted of really smooth black rocks. Nicole being the world class gymnast that she is did a few handstands in the surf.

We left Napier and headed towards a small Department of Conservation (DOC) campsite a couple hours south. New Zealand has a bunch of these government run spots that range from fully staffed and serviced pay sites to ones like where we are staying now, which are a small clearing near a lake or stream that have a fire pit and room for 10 tents. Most of these basic sites have an outhouse and source of water, and are 100% free. The site we are at now has a clearing for tents and a parking lot for a trail to a backcountry hut, some 5-6 hrs hike away. We noted a truck in the lot, and figured they were off to the huts for the night. Since we arrived around 8 pm, we quickly cooked dinner and headed to the stream to clean the dishes before it got dark. As we are bent over the stream cleaning, I catch some movement out of the corner of my eye and am startled to see a rather large man, in full camo gear and a pretty large caliber rifle over his shoulder. This may have startled us, just a bit. He emerges, from the woods and nonchalantly comments, "just out for a walk mate"...(Nicole and I are thinking "Sure you are, where'd your buddy go?") He ended up being friendly, and left in the truck fairly quickly. We were the only ones here at the site, but as it got dark several other cars of French tourists showed up and set up camp. We spent a lot of time in the car today, and are looking forward to a nice long hike or something outdoors tomorrow.

Can we get some ice for our chilly bin?

Well, we have had a tough time finding internet over here. It seems wifi isn't as popular, and if they have it, it's 8-10$/hr. We have written a few blog entries during the travels so far, so they will just be uploaded as one. We are having a blast though, and can't wait to find more reliable internet so we can upload some pictures. It's GORGEOUS here!

btw, these are from both Nicole and I

1-15-10

Well, we've made it to The Land Down Under! We had a 12 hour lay over in Australia which made us decide to wander around Brisbane! After some research,we found out that it was going to cost us about $30.00 round-trip from the airport into the city and back. So...first mode of transpertation: a landy named Val and her friend Larry. ha. Val sat next to us on the way to Aus. She was a Brandy drinkin' kind of-a-granny!after her Brandy and Diet Coke, she talked about about The Hangover, and her New Year's Eve party. She and Larry dropped us off downtown Brisbane.

It's a bit hot here...but for the most part the weather has been really nice.

They dropped us off right outside the gates to the Brisbane botanical gardens. The gardens were right along the Brisbane river and made for a nice walk through some well manicured flower gardens. From there we headed into the city towards the Queen Street mall. The mall is pretty nice, with all the stores being accessible from a pedestrian only street that runs through the middle. We have found that pretty much every girl here wears ugly gladiator sandels, with equally as hideous high waisted skirts and monstrous belts. After dodging the gladiators for a couple hours in the mall we decided to cross the Brisbane river and walk aroudn the center of performing arts. That's where we are now, writing as we watch boats go up and down the river, and yes...more gadiators.

We will take the train back to the airport soon to catch our 6:30pm flight to Auckland, where we will wait for another 6 hours or so until we can pick up our rental car on Saturday morning at 8am. I can't wait to get to NZ and start exploring the beautiful scenery!

1-16-10

Well, we just arrived in Auckland. I was an idiot and had to mention that the tent wasn't brand new. New Zealand has some strict rules on soil and biological contamination so this resulted in the tent being further inspected. Luckily, it passed their standards and we were free to go. Nicole was a little worried about us being kicked out of the airport for sleeping overnight here, but our worries were put to rest rather quickly when we turned the corner and found at least 15-20 other backpackers in the same type of situation as us. Pretty much every couch, bench, and floor space with any darkness around was taken; most occupied by people in mummy sleeping bags, awaiting their next adventure. We found a place to camp out in here and are assessing our shower prospects. Who would have thought the airport would have shower facilities?

It has been a long couple days of traveling, but we are stoked to get our car in the morning and start touring the islands.

We got our car this morning, a 1997 Nissan Sunny. It's not pretty or luxurious, but it's going to get us around great. Driving on the opposite side of the road has been entertaining a few times already, hopefully there will be no issues.

1-17-10

1.17.10

WOW! TOday was amamzing. We drove to the Coromandel Peninsula. The drive was a twisty road full of cliffs overlooking beaches with lush, deep forest.

The drive was so beautiful!

After we reached Hahei we needed

a place to stay. Wilderness camping on the North Island is not as easy as we thought, so we stopped in at a camp site...they wanted 65 bucks for us to stay there. If you know anything about Brian and I--it's that we're CHEAP! Thanks but no thanks. We figured out that each campsite charges per person! so...after a few people told us "no, we could not camp in their yard" we went to the next campsite Hot Beach Holiday Park. We wanted to only pay for one of us. I mean, why did we have to pay 40 to put our tent there for a night? $20 seemed so much nicer. Well the plan was for me to walk away and Brian was going to get a "one man site". A few moments later...Brian comes out to where I was, "I can't do it! I get all figity." SO...plan B. I went in and got a site for one! Typical! I also jacked the salt and pepper, zip-lock bags from security in the Auk airport,and ketchup from McDonalds! I've got to live up to the Ruggiano name!!

We set up camp. Hung out with our neighbors (Justine and Marious--from Norway and Michigan!), went to a near by beach and made it to bed by 1020pm.

This morning we went to Cathedral Cove. So amazing! We got soaked and Brian almost lost his skater shoes and sunglasses. We are driving down the raod again and we have Brian's shoes tied to the side mirror and some clothes hanging out of the window drying! haha. We are so awesome!

We are going to go hike the Pinnacles now. Hopefully Brian's shoes will be a little bit Things are going excellent. We are having a great time. Still so surreal. Keep praying for us. :)

I'm dying to see the SAINTS score!!!

GEAUX SAINTS!!!!