WEEEEEEEEEEEE!

Last Monday, right after updating my blog, Pete and I headed to Rotorua, south of Auckland. We spent a couple of days there. On Tuesday, we went to the Skyline rides where we took a gondola up the mountain overlooking Lake Rotorua and then went down it on the luge tracks. It was only $45 for the gondola and 5 turns on the luge, which took us a few hours, so not bad at all. The luge is a tiny go-cart type seat, but only has 3 wheels and no pedals. You sit on it, putting your feet inside and pull forward on the handles to go. There were three tracks: the scenic route, intermediate and advanced. I saw a little six-year-old go on the advanced track, so I figured I could do it too and ended up running into the side at one point. It was SO steep and curvy, but no one saw. There wasn’t anything to keep you from going off the side of the mountain either. There were people from six to sixty-five on the tracks and it was funny to watch everyone’s reactions when they started going. One older lady had the biggest grin going down the hill. I think Dad would have liked it a lot.

They also had an enormous sky swing set up, but as much as I love swinging, I couldn’t bring myself to pay for it. We took the bus back part of the way to the hostel and then basically got kicked off. “This is a city bus. We don’t go there.” *Open doors*

The next day, we went to Zorb. It’s set on a big hill and you can either go down by yourself, strapped inside the ball or go down with water in the ball (hydro Zorb) not strapped to anything. The day we went there, they said we could only do the hydro Zorb because it was too windy to do the other one (which made no sense to me), so we got some Zorb clothes and jumped in a giant ball filled with warm water to roll down the hill. It was definitely an experience. I laughed the whole way down.

Across the street was the Agrodome where they have sheep shearing shows, a barn filled with pictures of shearing equipment, a café and a gift shop. Everyone had said there are more sheep in New Zealand than people and now I believe it. They were EVERYWHERE around that country.

That evening, we took a bus back to Auckland and I had a real American hot dog and milkshake at a nearby restaurant. The menu even called it “American dog.” While we were eating, two guys sitting next to us were contemplating who wrote “Eye of the Tiger” when it came on the radio. For some reason, their New Zealand accents made it funnier. There’s definitely a difference between accents there and in Australia. I like Australian ones better…they sound more English and New Zealand accents sound more Scottish to me. There’s also a big rivalry between the countries. Think Duke and Carolina.

On Thursday, we picked up a rental car to drive to Pakiri Beach (pronounced Pack-ur-ee). On the way, while we were still in Auckland, we passed a building covered in red and green vines. I wanted a picture, but never got a chance to take one. It reminded me of a book my grandmother used to read to me about an old house covered in vines that an old lady with rag dolls lived in. I think the rag dolls’ names were Ivy and Violet, but don’t quote me.

It was nice to have a car, though. The drive up to Pakiri was beautiful and we stopped along the road to take pictures. Once we got there to go horseback riding on the beach, though, it got cloudy. It actually started hailing while we were on the beach, so everyone was freezing the rest of the way when the sun wasn’t out. I grabbed a big yellow raincoat out of the equipment closet before we left, so I looked like that captain on the front of the fish fillet boxes. My horse’s name was Mora and she was stubborn and hungry. I guess we were made for each other. She kept getting out of line, though. Here are all the other horses and way over here is my horse. Plus, when it started hailing, the horses would turn against it so it wouldn’t get in their ears and my horse took off galloping a couple of times. I’m sure she was really going about two and a half miles per hour, but it always feels faster when you’re high up and your saddle is coming loose.
I don’t regret doing it, though. It was still fun and when I looked at the brochure later, I had to laugh. Our trip wasn’t exactly the sunny skies and happy horses pictured on the front. I couldn’t even dismount when we got back because my legs were frozen and my feet were numb.

That evening, we drove toward the Bay of Islands, but ended up staying overnight in Waipu. The guy who owned the place let us do laundry and we stayed up to watch Double Jeopardy while the clothes were being washed. Finally, all of my criminal justice classes came in handy.

Friday, we drove the rest of the way to the Bay of Islands. All in all, the trip from Auckland to the bay didn’t take that long…probably about 4 hours. New Zealand is very narrow and not all that big. We stayed in Paihia (pronounced Pay-he-uh) because that’s where the skydiving is, but when we got there, it was raining off and on and pretty windy. Instead, we stopped at Woolworth’s to get some groceries and made fettuccini alfredo and peas while watching Oprah.

Then, we took the ferry across to Russell and walked to Long Beach. I’m not sure if we saw it all, but it wasn’t very long. Afterwards, we headed back to the wharf and found the oldest church in New Zealand. It was established in 1836. We stopped at a fancy-looking restaurant for dinner, and I thought I would be good and get the cream of vegetable soup. I’m a little rusty, but if my memory serves me right, I’m pretty sure it tasted like baby food. Thank goodness it came with bread. It was dark by that time and cold, so we went into Sally’s to get some hot chocolate before the ferry back to Paihia came. Each cup of hot chocolate came with a flat, pink marshmallow.

In the morning (Saturday), we went back to the skydiving place around 8 to see if they were letting people jump. No one was there, which made me sad, and we had to get back to Auckland to catch our plane back to Australia. I did, however, try driving a manual for the first time. What better way than in a rental car on the opposite side? I didn’t go on the road; I stayed in the grass parking area outside the skydiving building. We’ll just say it may be for the best that I have an automatic.

Saturday afternoon, we flew to Brisbane, which is near the Gold Coast. We couldn’t find a good hostel to stay in, so we took a bus to Coolangatta. I got to walk on the beach for awhile the next day and then we took another bus to Surfers Paradise. We weren’t too impressed with the hostel we stayed at there, but the huge hotels along the coast were impressive and we again got some beach time on Sunday and Monday. Sunday night, we walked around all the shopping centers and saw an Elvis impersonator on one side and a guy playing the didgeridoo on the other. Further down, I heard Fergilicious on a radio. You can’t argue with variety. Then onto KFC for a cheap dinner so I wouldn’t feel bad for getting ice cream and finally walking on the beach.

I think as far as money, all the bus tickets and the like are getting me. I didn’t think about paying for so many tickets when I came here and food isn’t exactly cheap either. Pete and I stopped by a grocery store a few times the past week to cut down on expenses, but then there are things that pop up like a departure fee from New Zealand. For some reason, everyone has to pay $25 when leaving the country. Plus, since there’s only been two of us the past week and a half, hostels can be more expensive since the cost isn’t divided among so many people.
We’re trying to be smart about money, though. Earlier today, we took a bus from Surfers Paradise to Brisbane, which of course didn’t stop at the airport, so then we had to get a train to catch our plane to Rockhampton. Once there, we realized our bus stop was a couple of miles away, so we walked there with all of our luggage just to save $12. Then we waited about six hours to take another bus from Rockhampton to Airlie Beach to meet Nichole and Astrid.

We finally made it to Airlie Beach around six in the morning and got to see the sun come up over the beach. We hung out til 12 to get into the hostel and meet up with the other two. Then off to the lagoon to catch some rays. The next day, we boarded Ragamuffin II, the sailboat we booked for a 3 day/2 night trip. I had my doubts at first because the boat was pretty small and there were 15 of us altogether, including the two-man crew. But it was SOOOO much fun. When they first put up the sails, the boat tipped to one side and it felt like we were all going to tip off. We sailed around a bunch of the Whitsunday Islands (there are 74 in total), which are along the Great Barrier Reef, got some great pictures and got to kick back and relax. We met some people from Germany, Spain, London and another girl from Holland like Astrid. The crew cooked all our meals, which were delicious and included in our package.

We also got to snorkel! I’d never done it before and it took awhile to get used to not breathing through my nose, but the reef was really cool. I touched a fish! We had to wear “stinger suits” – which reminded me of Star Treck – any time we were in the water because there are a lot of jellyfish and some are too tiny to notice. The first night, we also stopped at Whitehaven Beach and played frisbee and ate snacks. The Whitsundays are famous for the whitest sand in the world and the sand is mostly made up of silica. Apparently you can polish silver jewelry and while we were on the beach, all the girls rubbed their nails in it to make them shiny.

The beds weren’t the most comfortable, but the stars at night blew my mind. Gorgeous. We saw the Big Dipper and it was odd because it’s in a different position on this side of the world. We saw the Southern Cross constellation as well, which is what the boat company is named after.

The second day, we snorkeled again and went to Betty Beach or something like that. OH MY GOSH. The view from the lookout was absolutely stunning. I couldn’t stop taking pictures. We hung out on the beach for a couple hours, got to swim in the crystal clear water and saw a stingray. I’m pretty sure I would be OK with living there. Then we sailed to another bay where there’s a resort and paid $5 to use their pool and showers. After taking a two-minute cold shower in the tiniest space ever on the boat, it was nice to have some room to move around. By the way, it’s really hard to use the toilet when the boat is tipped all the way to one side. There were some beautiful sunsets as well, which Astrid called “the undergoing sun.”

The next morning…let’s see…Saturday now…we went back to the resort after breakfast to go on a couple different hikes and use the pool again. Then we sailed back to Airlie Beach and all met up later to have dinner together.

The total cost of the trip was $411, including two nights in a hostel, snorkeling and all our meals. It’s been my biggest expense so far but it was definitely worth it.

Today…are you ready for it?...I SKYDOVE, I SKYDOVE, I SKYDOVE!!!!!!!!!!!!! EEEEEE!!! Loved it, loved it, loved it! It was absolutely IN-CRED-I-BLE and I would do it again in a heartbeat. I decided to do it yesterday because I saw a brochure for skydiving in Airlie Beach, so I called up and asked when I could jump. At first the girl asked me if I wanted to go right then, but I told her I just ate and booked it for today instead. I talked Astrid into jumping as well and let me tell you, that was some of the most worthwhile money I’ve spent so far. It was pretty pricey at $275, but I haven’t found it cheaper anywhere else and I’ve wanted to skydive for a long time now. SOOOOO glad I did. I wish I had money to get a video of it, but I took lots of pictures from the plane. We went up to 9,000 feet (even though we paid for 8,000) in a tiny plane, got strapped to professionals and jumped. I screamed at first because I didn’t know up from down and I was just falling out of the sky. Then I shut my mouth because there was too much wind getting into it. We had about 30 seconds of freefall time, then the guy opened the parachute and we went into a sitting position. When the parachute was first opened, we slowed down and there was a dropping feeling in the pit of my stomach, but I laughed and had a smile on my face the whole way down. We jumped over the Whitsunday Islands, so I couldn’t have asked for a more beautiful view. There’s something about sitting on the edge of a plane with the door open and seeing nothing but ocean below you spotted with islands that gets you going. It was sooooo exciting. I kept jumping up and down.

The parachute was soooo much fun too. It was like a humongous swing. We twisted right and left, over trees and boats and islands and glided to the bottom where I let out another yelp when I thought I was going to hit the ground. I didn’t, though. I’ll never be able to fully describe how much fun it was, but I will definitely be planning another jump. Astrid had fun as well and didn’t scream. The only difference was that she didn’t feel so great after eating Subway and I was hungry when we landed. I’m sure that doesn’t surprise anyone.

Now Astrid and I are sitting in an Internet café. Nichole left this morning for Rockhampton and at six, Astrid is getting on a bus to go down to Hervey Bay. Pete and I are getting on a bus a couple hours later to go to the same place. We would’ve gone on the same bus, but Astrid booked a tour for eight tomorrow morning and it takes about 12 hours to get there. We’ll be going on different tours, but we may all meet up again on Saturday before our flight back to Sydney.

I’ve taken so many pictures it’s not funny, but I’ll have to add them later when I can use my own computer. Until then, I hope no one fell asleep reading the longest blog in the world and I’ll keep you posted!