Kiwi Experience: The North Island

Two days after my parents left, I was on a plane heading back to New Zealand, this time to do Kiwi Experience, a hop on/hop off bus tour. Normally, I would have waited till the end of my Australia trip to go back to New Zealand but seeing as I hadn’t packed for cold weather I needed to make sure I went while it was still summer. I started in Wellington, which is the southern most point of the north island as well as the capitol, and worked my way up and back around before heading down south for a second time. Since I am covering such a large portion of time (I was there for just under a month), I thought it would be easiest to keep my description to a minimum and let my many pictures speak for themselves. Enjoy!

The big green bus that took me just about everywhere there is to go in New Zealand!

One of my first stops was in Rotorua. The abundance of geothermal hot pools (geysers) made the town smell like asphalt and rotten eggs.

This is zorbing; that's me inside a big ball filled with water rolling down a hill. I imagine this is what it feels like to be inside a washing machine.

My first night in town I went to a Maori Village which re-enacts the ancient ceremonies and warrior traditions of pre- European times. There is a much stronger Maori presence on the north island than there is on the south island and I was happy to be able to learn more about the culture even if it was just for one night.

On only my second day of Kiwi Experience, I met four different sets of best friends traveling together (in other words, there is a lot of man love at this table). They started their trip in Christchurch, and were finishing up their tour just as I was starting mine, but it was nice to have so many people to hang out with my first week on the bus. Here we are enjoying our feast at the Maori Village.

I went luging with a few of the boys my second day in Rotorua. For those of you that aren't familiar with the luge, it's like go- kart racing down a steep hill. I came in last place every time.

I stopped mid- race to take a this picture (this may or may not have contributed to my many losses...)

My last few days with these boys were spent in the Bay of Islands, the most northern part of New Zealand.

Early the next morning before we headed back to Auckland, we went on a four hour boat tour. We saw heaps of wild dolphins and this well known landmark, hole in the rock.

Mercury Bay was my first stop with my new bus group, this was taken during my kayak trip.

Mt. Doom from Lord of the Rings.

While I was in Taupo, the adventure capitol of the north island, I decided it might be fun to go up 15,000 feet in the air and jump out a plane (barefoot). They encourage you to jump at 15,000 feet because that way you will get a full minute of freefall. The first 10-15 seconds you're kind of just thinking to yourself, "What in the world did I just do?!" After that, you can take in everything in and just enjoy the view.

Hi Mom!

Yup, that's the curve of the world.

I met Haz while in the Bay of Islands. She was also traveling by herself and we quickly became bus buddies! We did all of our crazy, high adrenaline activities together. Here we are dressed and ready to take on Black Water Rafting: The Abyss in Waitomo.

Abseiling down a 130 foot hole!

Our group after climbing up the three waterfalls of doom! This black water rafting trip was by far one of the most fun things I've ever done in my life.

I was in River Valley for the morning of my birthday... so why not spend it paddling down grade five rapids?

Although we got absolutely drenched during the ride, we were the only boat not to flip over. Some might say that makes white water rafting less exciting, those people would be crazy.

I spent the night of my birthday out in Wellington. This is a picture with my three closest friends I made on the trip: Laura, Haz, and Beth. Sadly, Haz stayed on the north island for a bit longer than the rest of us, but we've kept in touch and I'm hoping to visit all three of them in England sometime this year.