Wednesday, July 26, 2006

New Zealand Highlights

So, today I finally took down the New Zealand clock that I had placed at the top of this page... how sad! Most of you have probably seen the pictures from New Zealand, but I figured I'd post a few highlights of the trip here too...

We rented two awesome campervans that we drove around the North and South Islands. The back had a bed and little kitchen area. We did quite a few geocaches in New Zealand and even managed to get a few International First to Finds! This picture is of our van at the first geocache we did in New Zealand.

The lakes in New Zealand are fed by glaciers and are unbelievably blue. The first day it was a bit overcast and rainy, so the color didn't show up as much, but it was still incredible!

The second day we made our way to the ocean to see the Little Blue Penguins. New Zealand is the only place in the world where you can see them naturally. They were so cute and we wanted to bring one home to play with Pilot! We also saw Yellow-Eyed Penguins and the Great Albatross (again only place in the world to see them on the mainland).

One of the highlights of the trip was a helicopter ride that included a glacier landing! Our pilot was great and even gave us two different glacier landings although the tour only included one! It had snowed on the mountains the night before so we were able to play in fresh, waist deep snow up at 12,000 feet. It was an experience that we will never forget.

A few days later, we climbed and rappelled in a cave on the North Island for over four hours. The adventure started with a 100 foot rappel in the cave down a waterfall! It was pitch black and certainly got our adrenaline pumping. We did 4 more rappels and lots of climbing under and over rocks and through underground rivers. The trip ended with a rock climb up a waterfall as we emerged out of the cave.

We had a few other adventures including hiking, fishing (New Zealand is the trout fishing capital of the world), rabbit shearing, and soaking in the water at Hot Water Beach (it was boiling!). Kenny was also honored as a Maori chief... you have to see the video! It was a great trip and we have tons of pictures, so if you haven't checked them out feel free to look at our online albums.

Our second van
Jen's fish :)
Rabbit Shearing
New Zealand Hippies

4 comments:

Danny and Tonita said...

WOW--you guys look so hot in those pics! (Hot as in cool, I want to be like you:) Jen you always make it fun to read your stories!Talk to you soon.

Anonymous said...

I LOVE the Hippie photo! It's the first time I've seen it. If you guys come up this weekend, bring all of the photos and the video so we can finally hear the narration! Love you!

Kenny and Jen said...

Are you sure you want to sit through all the pictures??? Ask Danny & Tonita how horrible it was... The worst type of torture yet invented! Don't say we didn't warn you :)

And yes Tonita, we are cool :)

Anonymous said...

Of course we want to sit through ALL the pictures...the video too! It will be much more fun to know the reason behind you guys "rabbit shearing" ! We want to hear all of the behind the scenes info! You kept us in suspence at Hume.
Love you!