Kersti & Billy Down Under: July 2008

So I just got back from a really fun trip through the North Island of New Zealand. My parents and brother David flew from Sarasota and met me in Auckland. Not a bad deal, they fly 20+ hours and I fly 3! Unfortunately, I had limited time I could get off work, so the trip lasted 10 days. It was really nice to see my family again, it had been a year since I had seen my parents and even longer since I had seen David. This was especially the case since I probably won't be able to make it home to Florida for a little while longer yet.

As I did lot of the planning of the trip, I made sure to pack in a lot of adventure activities. I'm not sure how pysched my mom was about that, but I really wanted to go Spelunking (Caving) and Scuba Diving. The later part of the trip was more relaxing.

Below are some pictures from the trip, as well as some text describing what we did during the trip.

We wasted no time in getting going. Upon arrival, we immediately drove to Waitomo to do the caving there. The first day, I did the "Lost World" trip, in which you repel 100 meters down a gorgeous cave. It was unlike anything I had ever done, and was surprisingly easy and relaxed, although I wouldn't recommend it if you have a fear of heights.

Picture of the 100 meter repel into the cave.

Here I am about to drop into the abyss.

Looking back up as we descend into the depths.

Look ma, no hands!

Upon landing at the bottom, we hiked through the cave for a short distance.

What a rock star.

We then had to climb a 30 meter ladder back out. The longest ladder I've ever climbed for sure!

After my journey to the center of the earth, David and I teamed up to do the "Haggis' Honking Holes" caving journey, which was much more physical. I was actually more extreme than the "Canyoning" I had previously done, not to mention that fact that it was all occurring underground! It had been raining a lot, so that it all the more exciting. We repeled down waterfalls, climbed through narrow passageways, and even did some rockclimbing up waterfalls (which I can safely say is much more difficult than a climbing wall). We were both totally exhausted by the end, but it was a ton of fun!

David repelling down a waterfall

Just hanging out.

Abseiling down a waterfall.

We survived!

We couldn't let Mom and Dad off so easily! The next day we went Blackwater Rafting with them, where we rode intertubes down a river underground. The glowworms were quite spectacular, and it was really fun to do it all together. They even had us do a jump and go down a slide. The water levels were really high, so it was very exciting and I was very impressed with my Mom's toughness!

Next, are pictures from our trip scuba diving in the "Poor Knight's Islands". This was an amazing place, by far the neatest place I had personally dived in. It was remote marine reserve near the Bay of Islands. We all took an hour boat ride out to the islands, which in themselves were spectacular. We then did two dives. The first was called the "Magic Wall" which was a 10 meter coral wall where we saw eels, coral, fish, and some spectacularly coloured "slugs". I never thought I would call slugs beautiful, but these definitely were.

The second dive was in the "Blue Mamao Arch", which was a favourite dive spot of Jacques Costeau and has been called one of the 10 best dives in the world. This was truly an amazing dive. We went through this archway, and litelarly hundreds of the blue mamao (blue fish about a foot long) were lined up against the wall. But more amazing, there was a steady line of these fish entering the archway from the open ocean. This train of fish stretched as far as the eye could see, and the fish were amazingly tame. If you sat in their train path, they would just swim right around you. There was also a stream of two-spotted fish. There was literaly thousands of fish entering the archway. I've never seen anything like it. And then the sun came out and made the blue of the mamao show up more clearly, truly a beautiful sight.

The poor knight's islands. It was a beautiful day.

The professional divers.

My dad going diving.

My mom giving scuba diving a try.

Afterwards, the skipper took us into and through some caves.

The next photos are of our time in Rotorura. Our friends Tim and Heather had lived there a couple years ago, and had given all sorts of great advice. We had a really good (and relaxing) time there. We learned about Maori culture at Te Pau, and then went to see the geysers. The whole area is geothermally active, there are steam vents everywhere. At the end of our time there, my Mom and I went to the Polynesian Spa and soaked in the hot tub and got a massage.

The geyser erupts.

We made a side trip to an alien planet.

The next pictures are of our hike in Tongariro. We started the hike in a snowstorm, we were a bit underdressed and we had to follow the footprints carefully to not lose the path. But it was beautiful with the fresh snow. We hiked to a waterfall, and on the way back it cleared up and we got scence views. Mount Ngauruhoe is an active volcano that last erupted in 1975, it was used as the basis for Mt. Doom in Mordor in the LofR movies.

Mount Ngauruhoe

The hikers after the weather cleared.

The waterfall into the ice.

Mom taking a short break

It was cold!

Next are pictures of the Bay of Islands. We stayed a the luxurious "Decks of Pahia" which had great views. We rode bikes and took a ferry to historic Russell for some good views.

Dad was fascinated with the Tui, which imitated the bellbird and made lots of strange noises.

View from our hike at Rusell.

We then headed to the Kauri forest, where there were giant trees (5 meters+ in diameter).

Is it an Ent?

The most photographed bathroom in NZ gets one more posting.

Mom and Dad on the ferry ride to Russell.

Returnign to Auckland, we didn't get to go sailing though.

We did get to go to Kelly Tarlton's Antarctic Encounter and Underwater Adventure though, which turned out to be way cooler than we expected. There was a kid's ride though the penguins, which we seemed to enjoy...

And then we hung out in the park before heading home. It was a great trip. Mom, Dad, and David, thanks for making the long trip, it was really good to see you again!

Ormond was recently in the news when a former student was trying to climb the fence and slipped and the spike of the fence went through his hand. The story is copied below.

One good thing, it diverted attention away from the latest Ormond mystery, the Great Toilet Paper Heist of 2008.

"Man impales hand on fence

Firefighters have rescued a 20-year-old man who impaled his hand on a steel picket fence in Parkville last night. The man was attempting to climb over a fence outside Ormond College about 11:00pm, when he slipped and impaled his left hand.

Firefighters had to cut the fence around the man's hand, before he was taken to hospital to have the picket removed."

Where they had to cut around to free him.