Waterfall Road Trip!

Like I mentioned last post, this weekend we headed out on the trip I planned over Easter, but had to cancel because Sean got the flu. This time, he decided to get strep throat 3 days before we were supposed to leave. We decided that since the medicine is quite quick acting we would go anyway. The first half of the weekend had absolutely beautiful weather. As you will see in the pictures, the country glows when its sunny out.

Overall we drove 740km (460miles), saw 6 waterfalls, drove on more gravel roads than we ever care to again, and stayed in three different places. In a day and a half of driving we saw cows, (massive) bulls, sheep, emu, llama, wild turkey, goats, deer, eels, glowworms, horses, ponies, wild cats and chicken (crossing the road of course). Surprisingly enough, this was all on the side of the road (minus the eels and glowworms).

We headed out Friday after lunch and stopped for a 5 minute walk in a scenic reserve. It was basically some farmers land, but you could see for miles in every direction. The landscape is really cool because the hills are scattered with all sorts of limestone formations. The wind was so strong it blew Sean's sunglasses off his face and they were fortunately saved by a fencepost.

We then ended up at Bridal Veil Falls, which was spectacular. It was much larger than most of the waterfalls we had seen.

The wind was still so strong that it was changing the path of the water as it fell

 

We then drove on gravel roads for about an hour to get to Kawhia Harbour, our final destination for the evening. As rough as the drive was, it was absolutely gorgeous and looked over a few different harbours on the way.

A view from the road

These sheep looked really cool (and cute)

Kawhia Harbour (we stayed about 100 feet from the water's edge)

We set off Saturday morning and much to Sean's dismay encountered more gravel roads (after I mistakenly ensured him we were done with them). We saw three more amazing waterfalls and a natural limestone bridge/arch. I continued to be in awe of the scenery. When I first got to New Zealand I wasn't very impressed with this part of the country. I now am stunned at its beauty when I realize this is the "meh" part of New Zealand and its more beautiful than you will find in many parts of the world.

Marokopa Falls. This waterfall was far more massive than it looks in this picture.

Mangapohue Natural Bridge. Its hard to get a feel for the scale here, but the walkway helps.

A field filled with limestone fossils of clams

We missed our turn and got this view by accident. In the background you can see two of the mountains on North Island. This is where Sean goes snowboarding.

Waitanguru Falls

I have no idea what was floating in this pond, but it looked really cool and pink.

Omaru Falls

After a long exhausting day we finally reached the town of Waitomo where we were staying for the night. Waitomo is known for its extensive cave system. Sunday morning we went on a 5 hour cave tour. We started by abseiling 90ft into the cave, walked around a bit and then tubed down the river. Part of the tubing you do in complete darkness and get to look at all the glowworms. We got to climb through some tiny spaces and then rock climbed out. We couldn't bring a camera so I don't have any cool pictures, but it was a blast. We then took a short drive to a rockclimbing place where we stayed for the night so Sean could get a bit of rockclimbing in. The weather turned rainy and overcast, so we were lucky we spent most of the day underground.

Monday we headed back to Auckland on a very detoured route and saw a few more waterfalls. Unfortunately the weather stayed a bit ugly but the rain held off. Shortly after we left we passed a sign that said swingbridge and I made us pull over. We decided to also follow the trail to the dam and an hour later ended up back at the car. Then we headed to Wairere Falls. It was a STEEP hike that took an hour to get to the top, but we finally made it. The wind was so strong at the top that most of the water was blowing back up the waterfall instead of falling down. It was still a very impressive waterfall and well worth the detour.

Swingbridge

The Dam, which was actually just the spillway

Wairere Falls from the start of the track

View partway up the track

This is the view from the top of Wairere Falls. Its pretty much just water blowing back in your face.

 I apparently didn't record the right bit, but you get a quick snipit of how much water was coming back up.

You can see the water blowing back up the falls, which is quite impressive if you consider how much water is flowing off the falls.

About an hour from Auckland we hit traffic that reminded me too much of driving on the backroads while evacuating Houston from the hurricane. Fortunately I had another detour planned, and once we got off the motorway we shortly arrived at our last waterfall for the trip. Sadly it was the least impressive and very busy with tourists, but it was still a decent waterfall.

Hunua Falls

We got home and unpacked our bags just in time for me to pack them up again. I leave for the Tauranga Boat show on Thursday and am crossing my fingers for good weather.

Waterfalls!

The last time I wrote was just before a 3 day weekend. Sean and I both took Friday off so he could go snowboarding, and I needed a break so I was going to go with him. Unfortunately the weather at the mountain went between "severe gales" and "gales" so it was closed for the weekend. We had a few lazy days and then Sunday when the sunshine decided to poke out we drove about an hour away and did some walks that had good waterfalls.

I think overall we did three different trails and here is a collection of the best photos from each waterfall.

We returned to waterfall #1 for lunch

This was my favorite one of the day!

This is only the bottom of this waterfall

This is the waterfall in the picture above from a distance.

Next weekend is another long weekend so we are taking the trip I planned over Easter that we never got to do because Sean got the flu. It is a road trip around the middle of north island finding more waterfalls. We get back and then two days later I head to Tauranga for another boat show over Halloween weekend. I am going to have to pull a trailer down there, so I got my first practice last week. Driving forwards went great but then I tried to reverse and ended up almost stuck between two cars in the parking lot. I think i'm going to need a bit more practice in that department, but horray for learning new skills.

And on the 12th day she rested

This week (or moreso two weeks) has been absolutely exhausting. Fortunately it has flown by, but I am extremely excited to be ending what has just been an 11 day working week.

Last weekend was the boat show, and we got extremely lucky with beautiful weather. It was a great weekend to be outside for five days straight, especially now that the rain has set back in again. Wednesday we set up and it ended up being a lot more manual labour than I bargained for. I followed it up with a new upper body exercise class I am taking with one of my friends, which fortunately didn't kill me but was a blast. Thursday was a bit more manual labour but the show officially started so it was time to get my personable sales self on. From various dinners, I didn't get home until after 10pm friday and saturday night and I was not a happy camper when Daylight savings hit on Sunday. By Monday I was absolutely drained, and another bit of significant labour (we had to take down the show) later made staring at a computer difficult. Fortunately I was able to perservere, because we had our championship soccer game that night (how I still had energy, I don't know). I slept in a bit tuesday morning and I am taking tomorrow (Friday) off, so tonight is officially the weekend for me. It feels so nice to sit down and relax.

During this time of chaos, a number of things happened. Like I mentioned, Sean and I's five a side team finished second during regular season play, so we played against the number one team for the championship. We played a strong game, but unfortunately they played a stronger game and we came in second place. We were really happy with the outcome and we still got a prize. We are taking a season off because too many people had conflicts, and in the meantime I will be joined a new 7 a side team with a girl from my women's team. They play a lot of variants of soccer here and this one is called sub-football. Apparently you still get points if you miss the goal. I'm excited because it will give me a chance to meet new people.

Monday also marked 2 years from the day that Sean and I met. I have no idea where time has gone, but it has flown by. We were both commenting on how we want to like daylight savings because that is the night we met, but we also want to hate it because we lose an hour of sleep. Next week he is taking me to the revolving restaurant in sky tower for dinner to celebrate.

Tuesday I finally won a bid on the glass tabletop I was looking at and so I can now finally start getting the plans worked up. I'm excited. I started doing a makeover on one of my dressers too, so I should be finished with that in the near future.

Wednesday (last night) Sean and I went to a presentation by a National Geographic videographer, Bryan Smith, and it was a really cool event. He talked about his adventures and showed clips from his films. I really recommend you watch some of them if you can. There were some stunning images and it was interesting to hear the story from the other side of the camera.

Well thats about it from me. Keep the updates from your end coming!

Crazy Kiwis

I have never really had a "funny things about New Zealand" post before. I'll do better to add a few more of that in. Something that has come up a lot is the national team names here. The Kiwis get a good idea and sure love to run with it. For instance, the national teams here:

Rugby: All Blacks
Soccer: All Whites
Basketball: Tall Blacks
Women's Basketball: Tall Ferns
Netball (women's): Silver Ferns
Women's Soccer: Football Ferns
Women's Rugby: Black Ferns
Field Hockey: Black Sticks

Notice any trends?

Well since I last posted, I got my official grade in and I have officially graduated. My office surprised me today and called the whole company to a meeting to congratulate me and give me flowers. It was a very nice gesture and I did not expect it at all.

Sean and I also bought a new car last weekend. We are really excited about it and Sean is VERY happy to be done shopping. If you want to see Sean grumpy, take him shopping. He tried hard to be helpful and we are both very happy with our purchase. We got a 2008 Blue Ford Focus Hatchback. I'll post some photos soon, but I keep forgetting to take one before the sun sets.

In more excitement for the week we also went to cirque de soleil last night. I bought the tickets back in March as a birthday present from Sean's mom and its felt like ages waiting for it to come. The showmanship and visuals were absolutely fantastic. I was a bit disappointed there weren't that many "WOW" acts, but the ones that there were were incredible.

We are starting to get a few more days of sunshine which is nice. It will be fun when we get to do some pretty daytrips again. We discovered that there is a natural waterfall within a mile of our house, so a few weeks ago we walked to it. At a first glance Auckland is just any other city, but I am baffled at all the surprises it has hidden in it. Even for a busy city there are absolutely stunningly beautiful sights around every corner. Whenever we have a nice sunny day on the weekend we make sure to at least get out for a picnic. Mt. Eden is my favorite picnic spot. Its a massive volcanic crater right in the heart of the city and you have a 360 degree view of the city at the top. You can actually see both coasts. Even better, you can drive right to the top!

The waterfall by our house

This map gave us super powers! We were in two places at once!

Work has been super busy. We are going to the Auckland Boat Show at the end of the month and there is a lot to prepare for. We have also had a large number of inquiries and a massive project on. I sold my first boat all on my own so I am excited that I am finally getting a hang of things.

The weather hasn't been very good so Sean hasn't gotten to go snowboarding much, but he is looking forward to Canada. The cats are as cute as ever and all our flatmates are doing well. One of our flatmates moved out about a month ago, and Sean has decided not to fill the room, so we are all using it as storage. I plan to do a bit more painting and use the room for a table. I then decided to make the table I am going to use, so we will see how that project goes.

Its been great hearing from you guys and keep it up!

Ups and Downs and All Arounds

I finally finished my homework!!!! I'm still waiting on the grade (won't be until near the end of the month), but the hard part is over! I'm trying to figure out what my new hobby is going to be to fill my time but I've managed to keep myself busy so far.

We have had more car dramas than needed in the past month and so we are finally getting serious about buying a new car. We took the car in for its warrant (inspection) and had to get two new tires. Three days later, the driver's door got stuck shut. It took awhile to be able to get it back to the mechanic and once we did it took them about 5 days to fix it. The day we got it back the starter motor died on Sean when he was across town and we ended up having to tow it back home and back to the mechanic. The mechanics felt so bad for us (and probably know me too well now) that they left chocolates in the car for us when I picked it up.

A bit over two weeks ago Sean got the news that his grandfather wasn't doing well. He has recently had his one remaining leg amputated due to diabetes and was not a fan of his quality of life. He basically decided he was done and went on a food strike. All of his family went to visit him and they had a good weekend of goodbyes. He passed away the following Tuesday. The weirdest part of it was that the car that Sean and I drive was gifted to Sean by his grandfather. The car died on Sean when he found out that his grandfather had passed, so we have decided the car wanted to go with him.

Last weekend we went down to Mt. Maunganui for the funeral. The weather was stunning and Sean actually had shorts on. His grandfather didn't want a funeral, so there was just a viewing. It was a sad event, but everyone knew he wasn't suffering anymore and was where he wanted to be. It was great to meet his other side of the family and get out of Auckland for a bit. The day of the funeral his aunt on the other side of the family had a baby, so we visited them in the hospital on the way home. Its a true circle of life.

View from our hotel room

Waterfall at a pitstop on the way home

Soccer season ends this weekend and my big project at work finally wrapped up. It was an absolute disaster but we were able to complete the project and it works. I definitely learned a lot of lessons through this. I'm excited to see how my next projects work out.

My residency application is in the works and Sean and I just booked flights to go to Canada at the end of February to meet up with my family and then some friends of his who are living there for a year. We will stop in Seattle and spend a night in Hawaii as well.

That's about all the excitement over here.

Get me out of winter!!!

BRRRR. Since I last posted its pretty much done nothing but rain. It finally took a break last week, but instead we have had freezing temperatures. Now the rain has come back again, so I'm really hoping some warmth comes with it. I've said it a million times, but the biggest problem is that its colder indoors than outdoors. Very few houses or businesses have central heating so you pretty much end up bundled next to a space heater. I even went out and bought fingerless gloves because my hands were freezing at work. At least outdoors the sun warm things up a bit (if it decides to show up that day). I'm really missing my Texas summers, but from the sound of it, Texas has decided not to be hot for once.

In more exciting news than the weather, I am pretty much done with my homework. I just have to motivate myself to do the last few finishing touches and then I am DONE!!! I can't wait. Sean went snowboarding this weekend so it gave me a chance to get a lot done.

I started my permanent residency application and the first phase has been approved. The process is to basically submit an "Expression of Interest" stating what you are going to claim points for. Then, if you have enough points, they "invite you to apply" for actual residency, which is basically gathering proof for everything you have claimed. I am applying on the basis that my job is on the skills shortage list. I have four months to get my paperwork in order and then who knows how long for them to decide. I'll be excited when I have that sorted and out of the way.

Soccer is going well, minus a large number of byes and rainouts. I really like the girls and am making some good friends. Only about a month left in the season though :(

Sean's birthday was at the beginning of July and he didn't want to do anything to celebrate, so I made him play soccer with my co-ed team. For his birthday I recovered his desk chair as a surprise. I was a bit nervous because I have never upholstered anything and I only had 4 hours to do it, but I was quite pleased with the result. Kano, our cat, seems to have found a new love for this chair and we can pretty much find him there at all times now.

Before

After, but the colors are off

Well that's about all that's exciting with me. Enjoy your wonderful summer!

Another average weekend in a beautiful place

Sean and I finally got out of Auckland last weekend and headed up to his parents place a few hours north of here. They surprised me by putting up a Texas flag on their new flagpole and it gave me a bit of home comfort. It cracked me up when they said they had to google to make sure they had the right way up. The weather ended up being fantastic and we did a nice 3 hour hike along the coast on the Whananaki Coastal Walkway near their house.

My favorite picture. I couldn't help but post it.

It felt like Christmas at the beach

On the way home we went to a big cat sanctuary and saw lions, tigers, cheetahs, and leopards. It was really cool and hearing 10 lions start roaring at once was a surreal experience. They have the lion used as Aslan in the Chronicles of Narnia. Apparently his stardom has gone to his head and he grooms much better than the other lions. The white tigers were stunningly beautiful and we finished up right as it started downpouring.

I hit a little hiccup with my homework, but with the end in sight I'm getting more motivated to finish. Work is going well and I'm getting more tasks I enjoy doing. We are beginning to make the product of my first real design work, so we will see. So far every aspect of it has had problems (fortunately, only one as a result of my work) so I'm a bit nervous. The roll of fabric we are using is also the last roll of that fabric in the world and we are using 90% of it, so not much room for error.

I had my three month review this week and all went well. I am going to start applying for my residency in the next few weeks, so fingers crossed.

We have done a few exciting things recently: went to a comedy club (first row), photo exhibit at the museum, putt putt, flat pot luck dinner, and trivia night. A friend of mine is staying with us this weekend before he flies home to England next week.

One of my flatmates hurt his knee a few weeks ago and just found out he tore his ACL, so he's not too happy about that. My other flatmate just found out he has whooping cough, so its never a dull moment around here.

I also completed another of my art projects that is hanging above our couch in the living room. Now I'm trying to find a new project to tackle. I love the updates from you guys. Keep them coming.

I want my summer back

Wow, its been awhile since I posted anything. Its probably because nothing very exciting has been happening.

Our Easter trip got cancelled when Sean got the flu, so I got started on some paintings. They were small but very tedious so it took me a few weekends to finally finish them. They are finally done and hung on the wall in the kitchen and I'm quite proud of them. My next project is a wood, nails and string project I got off pinterest. It is going to go behind the couch in the living room. I have also bought a few more pieces of furniture to do up.

Soccer has been going really well. My women's team turned out to be a lot better than I expected and I really like all the people on the team. We are halfway through the season now and have more wins than losses. My 5 a side team has some new people on it as well and we have won every game so far. It feels so good to be playing again and I'm really excited that my knee hasn't bothered me at all. Don't worry, I'm still being careful.

I'm finally feeling settled at work and feel like a contributing member. I have a grasp on everything and am waiting to start being able to take the lead on more things. I learn more and more every day and am loving the industry.

Homework is going at a steady pace. Once again I will probably meet the deadline spot on, but I am only working on it a few nights a week, so I can always ramp up the work if need be. I am so ready to be done with it though.

Our lives have been pretty boring otherwise. Its now winter here, so no one is too motivated to get out and do things. Soccer eats up enough of my weekend that the rest of it is just consisting of chores. Not too exciting. Two of Sean's best friends are moving to Canada for a year next week, which will probably be the end of our weekly cards night, so that's a bit of a bummer, but it will be good to have some more free time (or homework time).

There has been a comedy festival going on for the past 3 weeks so Sean and I have been to a few of the shows. Its been a range of really great comedians to really bad ones, but overall we have really enjoyed ourselves.

Well that's about it. Don't want to bore you too much. I've been trying not to turn my computer on too much when I'm home, so I've been bad about staying in touch. Let me know what you have been up to! It would be great to hear from you.