The Flight, Auckland, Hobbiton, and Rotorua

A lot has happened since I left on the 1st. Our first hiccup happened when I got to the airport and my ticket was missing legs and they couldn't print my boarding pass. Then our flight was delayed due to a late crew member in Denver which made us late getting into LAX. When we got to LAX we had to leave security, change terminals, and get our boarding passes to go through security again. When we got to the check-in desk the flight attendant told us that there was a tram we could have taken to stay behind security and get to our gate. Glad someone told us about that option. After we got our boarding passes we entered security which was held up for a few minutes by a pair of fighting women. Once we passed security we ran to our gate and boarded the plane with about 5 minutes to spare. Not too shabby. The flight was long and boring and I sat next to two very nice women from Minnesota. Our layover in Brisbane was much more relaxed and comfortable than the one in LAX and our flight to Auckland went off without a hitch.

Looking out the window of Brisbane Airport

Brisbane Airport

Our first night in Auckland we got to our hostel and went out to eat. We went to a local place called Wisconsin Burger. We had to just because. Anyway, it was a decent burger, nothing too amazing. Afterwords we decided to walk around Auckland at 10:00. It is a very peaceful city with very few street lights. I could make out more stars a kilometer away from the city center than I can back home in MN.

This was one of the cooler bars we walked past. It had whiskey on tap.

We woke up in Auckland, got a taxi to our car rental shop and picked up our car. It is a white Nissa Tida and accelerates like a WWII veteran. We nicknamed it Helen after our first taxi driver in NZ. After we got our car we drove two hours south to Rotorua. This place is pretty cool but it smells like rotten eggs almost everywhere due to the geothermal activity. We're across the street from some hot pools and we visited three geothermal sites today. We didn't get to see a geyser but we did see boiling rivers and mud pools.

Boiling mud at Waiotapu

We went to the Redwood forests here which was awesome. Not as big as the ones in California, but still very impressive

We went on a tour of the LOTR movie set, Hobbiton. I didn't realize how big and old the trees were. Very cool stuff.

My first legal beer at the Green Dragon, it was an English stout.

Dana, Dani and I in a hobbit hole.

The Party Tree and Field from Bag's End.

We also stopped at Rotokakhi Lake, Tikitapu Lake, and Lake Tarawera. Tikitapu or Blue Lake and Rotokakhi or Green lake are side by side nestled into some valleys. Blue Lake gets it's name from it's turquoise water caused by a white pumice lake bottom. Green Lake has green waters from a shallow sandy bottom.

Me with Blue Lake in the background

The water in Blue Lake

Another view of Blue Lake

Lake Tarawera was actually the site of a large volcanic eruption in 1886 that destroyed a Maori village and broke open a hillside. You can't really tell now because it looks so beautiful.

The upper right hillside was the one that was ripped open.

Tonight we're going to the Mitai Maori village for a guided bushwalk followed by a traditional concert and a Hangi, or feast. More updates to come on that!