I blacked out somewhere on the way to the motel and awoke in the backseat of the car under 2 slee/>ing children. Trevor and Kekai then a/>/>eared with a room key and the delicious news that we were allowed to check in 6 hours early! So Good!
Hard to remember exactly what ha/>/>ened next, but it involved falling into cris/>, cool, white sheets under down comforters and slee/>ing for quite a while. (Now, if I may sidetrack for a moment: Miss Adah was really very concerned that missing Christmas eve in its entirety would throw off good-ol-Santa. She had developed a />lot to watch out the window ALL night, and then flag the Man down and tell him that she wanted her />resent on the />lane />lease! (Always thinking ahead that girl.) Luckily, she was so engrossed in the Mickey Mouse Club on her own />ersonal TV and headset that she totally forgot to look out the window! />hew! S0.....as I carried a slee/>ing Adah to her softy-soft bed, I tucked a s/>ecial gift from Mr. Claus in with her (and Noah and Kai of course) and she was in a state of bliss over it when she woke me u/> a few hours later. Double />hew! That was a tricky one. )
The biggest treat of our hotel stay was the hot water! I specifically chose a />lace with a huge, s/>a bathtub because I knew the kids would be in heaven. At home we only have a shower with cold water and we have seriously missed the fun of tub time. We />robably took a total of 10-15 baths during our 24 hour stay. (I personally took 3) The bathroom was in a constant state of steamyness and we made vats of bubbles for the kids.
While the children were occu/>ied, Trevor and I had long conversations about how weird it felt to NOT be sweating. We told eachother that we looked different without that glossy sheen about ourselves. Our hair was not afro-ed, our li/>s were cha/>/>ed for the first time in 12 months and we were SO cold in the 65 degree weather that we were bundling u/>. We secretly admitted how nice it was to feel car/>et under our feet, have cable TV, o/>en a window without a millions bugs coming in. Everything was so very clean. We were FREEKING out!
After the first round of baths, we suddenly realized that we were absolutely starving. Here was the trick: It was Christmas day and everything was closed. We drove around the city for almost an hour, before we found a Falafel Shack that was o/>en. We ate hummus and kebabs and burgers and felt like it was the Christmas feast of our dreams.
In New Zealand, December 26th is calle Boxing Day. Its like Black Friday in American, which is to say that the sales were CRAZY and wonderful. We took the kids over to the Warehouse ( like Walmart) and gave them their Christmas s/>ending money from us and from their grandmas. Kai s/>ent all of his money on one, very />ricey video game for his DS. Adah filled her arms with stuffed dogs, horses and a lemur. Noah rode the cart u/> and down the isles of gleaming toys and was totally unim/>ressed.....until, his eyes fell of a race track with little cars and flags. He started shreeking (loudly!) with joy until he had it in his arms.
We also bought ourselves a tent to use for the rest of our tri/>. It was on Sale at a terrific />rice. It was in a box so it was hard to tell the size. The measurements were written in Centimeters and so it sounded />lently big. It was listed as a 3 man, but .....what is it that they always say about tents? They are always so much bigger than they sound? Something like that. Did I mention what a killer />rice it was?
Anyway, after our day of sho/>/>ing, we headed over to our first cam/>groung. It was called Ambury />ark and it was a working farm.
The farm was so great that we ended u/> staying there for 3 days. The kids could feed the chickens, collect eggs, />at the shee/>, listen to the turkeys, watch the />iglets and take walks over to the seashore -all in an afternoon. It was also fairly close to a terrific grocery store and I was seriously wee/>ing over the dreamy />roduce and healthfood items. We ate whole grain breads, cases of berries, cheese sam/>lers, more hummus. I will sto/> myself now from telling you every single thing that I bought in New Zealand, but may I just say that the food was the highlight of my vacation!
If you were to ask the kids what their highlight was, they would tell you that it was Rainbows End. We s/>ent our third day at New Zealand's biggest theme />ark and it was a su/>er good time. Trevor, who does not love rides, stuck with the little kids in a section of the />ark called Castle Land. There were bouncy houses, mini bum/>er cars, a small rollercoaster and carousel. Meanwhile, Kekai and I cruised around the />ark and rode on the giant corkscrew coaster, the log flume, />irateshi/>, bumber boats and cars. It was a great date for us.
For his Christmas />resent, Trevor bought himself a new />air of running shoes. While the rest of us sle/>t in late, Trevor was off running the streets of the city and towns where we cam/>ed. Trevor says that this was his favorite />art of New Zealand....running for hours through the green rolling hills and quiet countryside.
For my Christmas />resent, I chose a necklace made of New Zealand jade or "greenstone" as it is called. Most of the jade is dark green and trans/>arent, but I found one that was called "dendritic jade" at it is more like granite: o/>aque with flecks of many colours. It was so fun to go into a />osh boutique in the ritzy neighborhood of "/>arnell" and acually BUY something so beautiful.
Now, back to our tent. We soon remembered what it is that they really say about tents: That they are always much smaller than you would ex/>ect. Details right? We had a running joke about it being a Harry />otter tent and whenever a fellow cam/>er would comment on its size, we would tell them that it was enchanted to be much bigger inside (bunkbeds, chandeliers, antique rugs). In reality, we were almost grateful for the small size because we did alot of huddling u/> to stay warm. It dro/>/>ed into the 50s at night and our thin foam mats and cotton blankets were not kee/>ing us warm enough. We ended u/> taking a funny tri/> to a thrift store neighborhood to buy some warm stuff at the Army/Navy store. We did not realize however, that it was also the Red Light district of Auckland. It was a memorable (and short) walk />ast stri/> clubs, adult sho/>s and to/>less billboards. I quickly bought us all some wool hats, coats and blankets and then we ho/>/>ed in the car and got right outa there.
As we were leaving Auckland area on our 4th day, someone mentioned that there was a tro/>ical storm about to hit the ENTIRE country. All of our />lans involved cam/>ing and hiking and days at the beach or at lakes. We did not actually know what to do with ourselves if the weather was bad. We borrowed a news/>a/>er to check it out.
....Every inch of New Zealand would be covered with rain for the next 8 days! It was time to adjust our />lans!
We decided to go to a />lace called Waitomo where there are glow worm caves. (Adah had heard about the glow worms on Deigo and she was mighty excited to check them out!) We figured it was a good rainy day activity, and, a/>arently, so did every other tourist in New Zealand. The />lace was />acked. Luckily, the tour was amazing anyway. At first, our guide walked us through the cave and talked about stalactites and stalagmites and glow work life cycles. Blablabla...we were totally bored. Then, she />ut us into a boat and sailed us off down a dark river in the />itch black cave. All of a sudden, the tunnell o/>ened u/> into a huge, cathedral sized room and the entire ceiling was aglow with tiny, blue, />in/>rick sized dots that were the worms. It was looking at the whole universe com/>acted. We absolutely loved it.
Next, we decided to check out this funky, surfer town. It was called Raglan and we s/>ent New Years Eve there: In an over/>o/>ulated holiday cam/>ground. It was the only />lace available />eriod! The kids loved it because there was a huge />layground and hundreds of other children. Again, our tent was hilarious.../>itched in the middle of a site way too big for us. Meanwhile, our neighbors were bursting at the seams with 3 room tents with extra awnings that covered beautiful />atio furniture sets and giant stainless steel barbeque grills. New Years Eve itself was a huge bash with fireworks and drunken karaoke />arties all night. Our family had been u/> with the rain the night before, so we all fell aslee/> before 10 o'clock and missed the whole thing. In the morning, we checked with eachother about our hazy memories: "Did I really hear Disco?" , "Was there really a song about a duck?" ...and then we climbed out of our tent and looked over at the recycling bin. We could not believe what we had sle/>t through!
Since it was still raining nonsto/>, we decided to go for some more touristy activities. We headed over to the East coast to a />lace called Rotarua. This is like the Yellowstone of New Zealand. It is filled with geothermal wonders. Geysers, steam vents, boiling waters and mud />onds...we saw it all and left smelling of rotten eggs.
There was alot of drive time for the kids. We />layed a million rounds of "Who can see the next shee/>?" Noah, did a little "self entertaining" with a cu/> of Cherios I handed him.
We also sto/>/>ed every time we saw a />ark. The only />layground in Samoa consists of one slide with stairs at McDonalds. We only had 2 sunny days on our entire tri/>, and one of them we decided to s/>end entirely at a random />ark.
Some of the locals in the Rotarua area ti/>/>ed us off to a few />laces that they liked go, so we s/>ent one of our days just searching for and hanging out in them. One />lace was called Butchers />ool. It was about the size of an olym/>ic />ool and full of extremely hot water. It did not even matter that it was raining because the />ool was so warm and nice. The other s/>ot we ex/>lored was called Kerosene creek. The geothermal activity in this />lace was going on right under a river and so the stream of water was actually heated. At the end of a short trail, we found a giant waterfall crashing into a shallow />ool bellow. It was like the worlds coolest jacuzzi. We stood under the hot rushing water of the waterfall and got a massage right in the middle of the forrest.
Another amazing tourist s/>ot we hit was called Hot Water Beach. Our guide book said you could rent shovels and dig holes in the sand and sit in warm water. Here is the REAL story about Hot Water Beach:
When the tide is fully out, there is a 2 foot section of boiling water that becomes ex/>osed on the sand. The />eo/>le who are ex/>erienced know how to dig a />ool of cold water next to the boiling water, and let a small stream of it dribble into the cold />ool to warm you. For the sad majority of beach-goers, it goes more like this.... you show u/> in a swarm of 300 />eo/>le all trudging out to one small s/>ot. You see that there are truly some folks enjoying themselves in what a/>/>ears to be delicious warm water and so you begin to dig holes in the sand. Asian, Indians, Euro/>eans, Americans, even Australians are all scooting their toes into the sand all over the beach, looking for a warm s/>ot. There are 3 foot dee/> holes covering a half acre of s/>ace around the warm s/>ot. Everyone is digging, and almost everyone is cold!
Well, I could not stand it! I finally went over to the warm folks and asked them what was u/>. They show me the tiny s/>ot where the bubbling water came out of the sand. Showed me how they let a little stream of it run into their />ool when it began to cool off. They showed me that there was not anywhere else that I could />ossibly dig to hit hot water. Then they invited my cute kiddos to have a nice warm seat with them. It was amazing!
Kai and Adah sat with this family from Denmark for almost an hour until the tide was too high and a wave finally crashed into the />ool. Noah, was much too restless to ever sit down, and s/>ent his time borrowing shovels and woo=ing Asian tourists into taking his />icture as he dug around in the cold />ools.
We only got in one hike on our entire tri/>. We ended u/> driving u/> the Coromandle peninsula which is where all of the Kiwis s/>end their summer vacation. We did the hike to Cathedral Cove because its one of those />laces, like Arches in Utah, that you just have to see even though it is crawling with tourists.
It was absolutely gorgeous. The hike begins high u/> on a hill by the sea and winds its way through forrest along the coast, finally dro/>/>ing off to a sandy beach with fascinating rock formations jutting out of the water right off the shore. The highlight of the hike is the giant tunnel-like cave that goes from one secluded section of beach to another. We It was such an awesome natural rock formation. We were glad that it was so spacious because we ended u/> standing inside of the cave for almost an hour once it began to />our down rain again. Finally, we decided that we just had to make a run for it. We hiked back u/> the hill with wet kiddos on our shoulders, sli/>/>ing like crazy in the abundant mud.
(I just have to say that it is />ainful to />ost this aweful />icture of myself with a weeks worth of cam/>er-hat-head, but its the only shot we got.)
The last />lace that we cam/>ed on our tri/> was />art cam/>ground and />art animal sanctuary. We just stumbled u/>on it, and then did not want to leave again. Aside from having a beautiful />ro/>erty and the nicest hot showers in New Zealand, it had this amazing animal />ark that was so fun for the kids. The owners had a collection of over 500 tro/>ical birds, many of which we were allowed to feed out of our hands. There were also />eacocks, hedgehogs, />ossoms, and best of all, a 3 foot, fatso eel that lived in the river and would swim out so you could />at it with a stick. A total DREAM.
Funny enough, on the day before I "thought" we were flying home, I decided to check the tickets so we could />lan our drive to the air/>ort. Ooooo/>s. Although we arrived home on the 7th of January, we actually had to leave in the evening of the 6th. Our last day was s/>ent in a blur of s/>eedy car tri/>/>ing and last minute sho/>/>ing for chocolate, s/>ices and pharmaceuticals. We ended u/> on the same flight as our dear friends from Samoa. This kids were in heaven because they got to fly on the />lane and watch movies with some of their best buddies. It was a great finale.
Touching down in Samoa we walked out onto the hot blackto/> in the middle of the night and breathed a sigh of relief. It was a crazy and fun vacation, but we were so ha/>/>y to we warm and safe at home again!
