We are Here!

We have arrived safely, and have now been in this beautiful country for about 24 hours now. The plane ride was uneventful, but so incredibly long. We emerged from the plane smelling of 100+ passenger's worth of bad breath, B.O. and "sleep". I'm sure we all made quite an impression on the custom's agents - guys with their five, six and seven o'clock shadows- girls with our bangs stuck to our foreheads with all of the "night oils". I"m sure we were quite a sight!

My bags got "searched", as a dog apparently smelled bananas in my bag. Back in Detroit, Dave had asked me to carry his bananas for him, as he had no more room in his bag. Luckily, we had already eaten the bananas and my entry form for customs was filled out truthfully! Otherwise, I would have had to pay a $200 NZ fine!

We got through customs OK, and only lost (1) piece of luggage. It was Mark's "main" bag. Once we got our car rental taken care of (very small, by the way, for five people!) - Nadine & her dad took us to a mall to get some breakfast, and to get Mark some new clothes. Mark's choices were limited in the clothing department - the men's styles here are limited to 3/4 length shorts (read: capris for men) and "stubbies" (read: short short shorts). Rumor has it that there was a pair of red & black "stubbies" on the table for purchase, but Kate vetoed their purchase, regardless of their potential humor!

After breakfast, we bid farewell to Wayne, Kristin and Nadine. KT and Nadine have rented a beach house "up north" and are headed there with Nadine's best friends and mom. They'll meet up with us again tomorrow (Monday).

We then hit the road to Rotorua, NZ. It was an interesting drive, watching Dave expertly weave in & out of traffic in a right-hand-drive car, and watching Josh, Kate & Mark cuddle in the backseat (as there isn't much room). Along the drive, we saw plains that reminded us of Kansas and lakes that reminded us of Alaska. It was a beautiful drive, and we put in our NZ Music Mix that we all contributed for the trip. GREAT MEMORIES ALREADY.

Once in Rotorua, we lunched at a little place called the "Pheasant Plucker" and then headed to our hostel, the Kiwi Paka, for the MOST GLORIOUS SHOWER EVER... we had been in our same clothes for 40 hours! After showering off the stench of "Plane", we headed to Kuirau Park that you could walk through to see natural geysers. It was interesting, but very stinky. The geysers smelled of sulfur, reminding Kate of "stink bombs" and me of "well water".

Then, we were off to a little place called "The Luge". We took a gondola ride up the side of a mountain, and then took these go-cart-like things down the mountainside. Well - Kate, Dave, Mark and JoshUa did. My back was killing me, and I opted NOT to pay $5NZ to fall off the side of the mountain, thus ending my life & this trip! I got some good pictures, though, and I'll upload them when we hit our house later on tonight. The scenery was BEAUTIFUL. We had views of Lake Taupo, which was amazing. I loved my time watching "the kids" go down the mountain, breathing in fresh air and being surrounded by mountains and lakes and little country-side homes. Dave got some really good pictures, and I'll upload those later on today as well.

After "The Luge", we headed to the "Polynesian Spa" for some time to soak our sore bodies. The Polynesian Spa has all of these hot pools, naturally heated by the geysers (and, yes, smelling like sulfur). We rented a private pool for the five of us. BOY WAS IT HOT. Kate got in first, and immediately jumped out in pain because the water was so hot. She reached for me to help her, but ended up pulling me into the pool as she panicked. We were both screaming. It was very dramatic and very, very funny!!!! The guys, who thought we were overreacting, came running to get into the pool, but stopped when the water actually touched their bodies. Meanwhile - I'm baking in the pool (by choice). I discovered that as long as you didn't move, it was OK. So, we all gradually immersed ourselves and stayed very, very still. Then JoshUa, our resident brain child, found a spigot that fed cold water into the pool! It turned into a very relaxing, very enjoyable time with much laughter.

After our time in the hottest bath EVER, we headed downtown to eat dinner. We found this little place called Sirroco's, a small cafe-like bistro. When they couldn't accomodate (5) people, they ended up moving in a table from the outside and rearranging the chairs for us. It was quite nice. By this time, as you can image, we were all falling asleep. The little sleep we'd had on the plane, coupled with a long day and hot bath - we barely had the energy to eat our dinners (which were, by the way, delicious). We dragged our tired bodies back to the car and back to the hostel - where we crashed until just about an hour ago.

Now, well rested, we'll eat some breakfast and hit the road to Wellington. Today's agenda includes about six hours of driving through a mountainous region, a Maori museum and some hiking trails as we make our way to the other side of the island. For tonight's accomodations, we've rented a house.

I'll post pictures later! We are all very happy, very safe and very excited. The New Zealand people are very friendly and accomodating. The scenery is breathtaking. Can't wait to show you pics!


love you,
kendra