CK, WB, & NZ in a Man Wagon

Friday, March 5, 2010

Wellington, the windy capitol city.

Alot has happened since our last update! Sorry for not staying on the bandwagon with our updates... After we last spoke we travelled south to Wellington, the windy capitol city! There we tried to find a hostel but instead found a garbage dump where we ran over some beer bottles from party central's previous night. So we decided we'd spend the week in the car down by the bay instead. This also afforded us excellent opportunities to take saunas, hot tubs, and steam rooms/showers at the local aquatic center. We also managed to get in many hours of work and studying along with visits to Te Papa (The national museum), the NZ Film Archive, and the public library. We also learned some sweet break dancing moves from a 2+ hour dance off which included several competitors under age 8 who had some seriously bad ass attitude.
We tried out some surfing at the local hot spot, Lyall Bay, complete with over 100 surfers every night... and some delicious burgers on the beach featuring the infamous 2 dogs sauce (these were not just any dogs from a hotdog van).
After about a week we finally said our goodbyes to Swellington and headed to the ferry to cross over to the South Island. Enjoy these pics of our time in welly. And look ahead for the pics of southy!
PEACE wb and ck
Enjoy these pics of some of our time in Wellington

walking to school

te papa whanganui

outside te papa whanganui

choppers!

wildlife in wellington

blending in with our surroundings

web cafe

lyall bay sunset

tugboats chilling at 6am

good bye north island

hello south island

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

Rotorua and Hawkes Bay photos

just another leisurely ride through a llama paddock
(photo by Dean Strachan)

some billy goat gruffs eaten out the hand

grab a bull by its horns

more cute little animals

ride carefully - there is pressured magma just underneath this boardwalk.

the sulphar flats of lake rotorua

this shwank place was once a hospital turned nightclub
and is now a museum royale

this is how you really roll at a bowling green

rippin it up at the redwood forests

redwoods mixed with jungles mixed with monster tall grasses
makes for one sweet riding environment.

the penny divers
will dive for spare change = the best wishing fountain ever

whakarewarewa village
after a volcanic eruption in rotorua, surviving maori sought refuge in this town where they continue to demonstrate their culture for visitors.