Thursday, February 11, 2010

Whanau in Rotorua

Upon our departure out of LAX we met a friendly basketball coach from New Zealand who recommended that we stay at his sister's house as she was a couch surfing host. Sot thats how we met and stayed with the Courtney- Strachen family for a week while Corissa and I worked and studied. Throughout the week we had some amazing food and great experiences being accepted into the whanau. The most popular adventure was probably a visit to the local heritage farm aka a petting zoo and ufo simulator where I fed an ostrich pellets and grabbed a bull by the horns. The experience at the petting zoo makes it to our top ten man wagon adventures so far along with a visit to Whakarewarewa Village on Waitangi Day where we ate raw sea urchin (kina) and saw several maori cultural performances. The family was also kind enough to loan us their mountain bikes so we could rip it up in the Redwood Forest Park mountain biking mecca. We tried to repay our gratitude with an all american dinner of sloppy joes and corn on the cob. Its been a great week with an amazing family.

Afterward, we also managed to find our way to the beach in the wine country of Hawkes Bay - NO FREEDOM CAMPING ALLOWED! This means since the man wagon doesn't have a septic system in place (yet?) we had to get outta town. So we did some wine tasting, and left for the surf beach for a rainy days end.

HOPE YOU ENJOY THE PICS below...
will and corissa

3 comments:

  1. wow wow wow! is all i can say. it looks and sounds like you guys are having an amazing time! love the pics. keep on having fun!

    love,
    martha

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  2. Hello! Fun fun! NZ is amazing!!!!! I like the pics and the commentary along with it! Makes it sorta like a live slideshow or something!! You guys are too funny! Anyways, hope all is well! Corissa-I will be living in MN this summer!!! You guys will have to come visit!!!!

    Keep having fun!

    Take care,

    Morgan

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  3. whoa, i totally forgot about words like rototangi and watoroui and stuff. too bad you went back to the least fun country. i'd still shove a street full of handsy indian men to get there to ya though. i miss you. you're photos confirm that south dakota has not made any significant changes to your travel photo persona. same old corissa. ny awaits. big hugs for you too buss-town.

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