Auckland (cont.) and Queensland down to the South Coast

Sunday, February 12: (Michelle here) Sunday we had a nice sleep in because church wasn't until one. Church was great. Really nice ward, friendly, great teachers. After church we headed home for some amazing homemade lasagna that Andrea made for dinner. Andrea is an amazing cook and she spoiled us all week long. After dinner Paul, Andrea, Clark and took a drive up to Mt. Victoria to have a nice view of the city.

It was a bit rainy and hazy so it wasn't as clear as it could have been but it was still beautiful and sweet to be able to see the city in relation to Takapuna and all the other areas of Auckland. On the way home, Paul gave us a tour of the Church Offices where he works. There were a few conference rooms he showed us where he set up a hi-tech audio-visual conference call thingy. It was very impressive and the chairs around the conference table may as well have been lazy boys, they were that comfy. When we got back home, the four of us played 5 crowns, (Clark and I have probably played a dozen games since we left Salt Lake, we love it) and finished the night with a movie called Touching the Void.

Monday, February 13: Monday Clark and I used the tickets to the Auckland Zoo that Andrea bought us (you'd think we were their own kids the way she and Paul spoiled us while we were there) and enjoyed a perfect day with the animals. It was a sweet zoo and luckily we gave in and bought the $2 piece of paper that had a map of the zoo on it, so we were able to see all of the animals. We love the zoo, no matter how many times you go, or how many you've been to, they never get old. Here are just a few photos from the zoo because unlike the zoo, photos at the zoo get very old very quickly.

I thought these guys were so cute. 

While we were looking at the awesome seals this little girl came running down the ramp and yelled to her family "OOO, OOO, OOOO. SEALS!! I'VE BEEN WAITING MY WHOLE LIFE FOR THIS MOMENT!!" It was so hilarious. 

Andrea picked us up from the zoo that afternoon (she and Paul were so nice to drive us and pick us up everywhere we went. We could have taken the bus, but they always insisted. So kind)
After Paul got home from work we helped the Bennallacks clean their church, it was their turn. It was nice to be able to do a little bit to pay back all of the many favors, rides, meals, zoo tickets, etc that the Bennallacks had given us even though we were no where near even. After we finished cleaning, we picked up Rachel and some fish and chips for dinner then headed home. The fish and chips were probably the best we'd had so far.
After dinner we had a FHE and watched 17 Miracles which neither of us had seen then off to bed.

Tuesday, February 14: (Clark) Woke up early to catch a bus in the city that would take us to Rotorua. It was called the Naked Bus. It was not as exciting as it sounds. It was much cheaper to take a big tour bus than to even drive, so we went for it. Rotorua is very popular for many reasons but it is basically a city built on top of a giant hot spring/lake. 'Geo-thermal pools' are all over the place and it can smell very eggy because of the sulfur. It was not too bad while we were there but pretty strong in some spots. There is a big mountain, or hill, depending on where you are from, where you can catch a gondola up and see the view. It was actually very pretty but honestly not as impressive as the views in Queenstown. You wouldn't say that to everyone, but we thought Q'town was sick so this just felt like second best the whole time. There is a luge track there that we had wanted to do really bad on the south island but were feeling too cheap to do, but we instantly regretted it so we didn't let another chance pass us up. It was pretty sweet. About a trillion times better than the Alpine Slide in P.C. because you have complete control of your speed and you can steer yourself. You can seriously fly down those things and anyone can do it. We saw old ladies doing it and then five year olds screaming down the tracks. Michelle actually got a little over confident and took a nice spill on the advanced track. Good views and good fun for sure. Maybe we'll just open one of those up on a mountain somewhere, run it for a couple years, then retire. On our way home we stopped at the store and picked up a box of ice cream, a couple spoons,  and took it back to the hot tubs/pools at the campground and sat on the lawn chairs watching the sun go down. That was valentines day.

On the lift to the top of the luge tracks

Thats how fast Michelle was going

Cutie

Making Luging look good since 1986

View from the top

After the day on the hill we got stopped at some of those hot spots that were just in a huge park by our campground. There were some big ones that were just full of boiling egg smelling water, and others that were bubbling mud. The mud was the coolest, easy.

These were pretty sweet. Bubbling mud pools

The clouds are the best in NZ. The Maori word for New Zealand is Aotearoa, which means 'land of the long white cloud.' It's pretty spot on.

Posing by the thermal pools

Land of the long orange clouds

Wednesday, February 15: The other thing that attracted us to Rotorua were the rumors of the Redwood forests they had and that you can mountain bike them. Because of some pretty horrible advice from the visitor center we were under the impression that they were just rumors, that you can't actually ride there, so we planned on just walking around them (we would soon find out he was dead wrong and probably missed out on some stellar riding, bummed). We packed up camp and caught a bus there. While we waited for our bus, we met a very generous man named Borneo. He started chatting with us right away and even offered us some 'hash cookies'. If we weren't on our diet, maybe we would have taken some. HA. He was strung out like some laundry! He told us all about himself, his life, and how good our american cannabis is. When we told him where we were going, he was disappointed he had to go home, otherwise he would show us where all his mushrooms were all around the forest. He even taught us how to pick your mushrooms so that they keep growing instead of just dying. Good guy, that Borneo.

Caught the bus, walked around the gorgeous forest, slightly depressed that we were not Riding around it. If it had not been raining we would have just turned around and hired some bikes for the day, but we were soaked and already enjoying the hike (so annoyed at that guy though!). The forest was awesome. We did about a 5 or 6 km hike I think, and at first it was just a typical campground, but in no time it went from a Washington looking redwood forest to a tropical jungle.

The Holiday Park we camped at

Beautiful hike through the redwood forest

After the our hike, we wandered back to town and shopped around for a little bit, made our way to the mall, felt tired so we sat down in front of the TV's and started watching some cricket. It was NZ vs Zimbabwe. After about an hour we were trapped and ended up just watching the rest of the game. Good stuff. Then we hopped on our NakedBus back to Auckland. Of course the Bennallacks picked us up and being the day before Michelle's birthday they had a couple gifts waiting for her. They bought her an authentic Maori bone necklace and some movie tickets for us. Made me feel like a dirt bag. . . But yeah, extremely nice, Michelle almost cried. My gift to Michelle was a trip to NZ. I think she liked the Bennallacks gift better.

Movie tickets and necklace with Paul and Andrea

Thursday, February 16: (Michelle) Thursday was my birthday, and it was perfect for me. I woke up to some toast that I'm pretty sure Clark made for himself but as soon as he saw me, he gave them up for me. Sweetie. Then we had second brekky when Rachel made some eggs Benedict and we used up the rest of our morning watching Modern Family. For lunch we went to Burger Fuel where we had some kumara fries and a tasty burger then headed to the movie theatre. We saw The Vow and drank a large coke which would have been a small in America. The movie was good and it was nice to relax with my honey.  It was so so nice of the Bennallacks to give me those tickets and the necklace for my birthday. They really blew me away with their kindness.

The beach was just around the corner from the movie theatre so we went for a beautiful walk along the beach, something that I've become very fond of since we've been in Australia and NZ. After enjoying the beach we headed home for a roast beef birthday dinner.

A few days ago when Andrea found out my birthday was coming up she asked what I would like for my birthday dinner. (Are you beginning to see how wonderful the Bennallacks are?) Not being able to request a dinner from our wonderful hosts who were already doing so much for us, Andrea asked if I liked roast beef, and who could turn down a roast beef dinner.

It really was so delicious. Beef, veggies, corn, and an amazing homemade ice cream cake to finish the meal off. We have been so overwhelmed by the kindness we've been shown our whole holiday, especially with the Bennallacks, and especially on my birthday.

After dinner Paul, Andrea, Clark and I went to a NBL game to watch the Auckland Breakers play the Wollongong Hawks. NBL is a little different than the NBA for a few reasons but one is that the referees let the players play to the death (either that or they were really bad refs.) The game was certainly exciting because of that, plus the Breakers won. It was good fun. 

Clark and his Rainbow Paddle Pop, one of his favorites from before

Gary Wilkinson, Utah State alumni. Also in Bennallack's ward.

We ended the great day with more ice cream cake once we got home. My birthday exceeded all of my expectations. 

Friday, February 17: Friday was our last day in Auckland so we woke, packed up, caught a bus into the city to do some last minute souvenir shopping, and then caught a very long and windy bus ride back to the Bennallack's home. 

Paul was traveling to the states that night for work so he was able to get off work early and we all went to lunch together before they dropped us at the airport. 

Clark found the Wendy's that he thought was no longer around so he had to get a shake n' dog while we were in the city 

Wonderful lunch, wonderful people, wonderful end to our wonderful time in Auckland.

We finally had our first completely smooth checkin at the Auckland airport. Plus there were beautiful women all over the airport handing out free lollies. Once we were on the flight we thought I'd lost Clark's passport for about ten minutes until I found it under my seat. 

I managed to buy this $4 bottle of L&P while clark was in the toilets before we boarded the plane. It's "World Famous in New Zealand" and we both loved it. Clark was so happy when I pulled it out of my purse. 

So we were flying to the Gold Coast airport and the Bennallack's daughter, Jade and her husband Matt Krok live in Brisbane which is about an hour north. Andrea had kindly arranged for us to stay with them for a few days however, they were going to be at a reception when we landed so wouldn't be able to pick us up at the airport (we were really glad that they didn't have to come pick us up when we realized how far they lived from that airport.)

During the flight Clark looked at me and said, "what are we going to do when we land?" I just figured we'd catch a train up north somewhere near where Jade and Matt lived so I asked the lady sitting next to me if she knew much about the train and our options for getting to Brisbane. She said she wasn't sure which station would be closest to the suburb we were heading to, but she informed us that the closest train station to the airport was about a twenty minute drive away from the airport. We were bummed when we found that out because we figured there would be a train from the airport, but Kath instantly offered us a ride to the train station. We were hesitant because we didn't want to be a burden or put her out, but she ensured us that it was on the way and insisted that we let her give us a ride. She was such a sweetie, seriously. A heart of gold. 

So Kath waited for us to get through customs and meanwhile her husband arrived in his ute to pick her up (for those of you who don't know what a ute is, it's basically a two passenger truck) so she called her son to come all the way to the airport just to give us a ride to the station. Amazing right? So her husband headed home and Kath and her son took us to the station. They saved us. We have no idea what we would have done without them. Probably would have wondered around until Matt and Jade were able to pick us up which would have been so inconvenient for them. 

Kath walked us into the station and made sure we got the tickets and instructions we needed to make it to Rochedale South. We hugged her goodbye and she wished us "all the best" in her thick kiwi accent. It's people like her that make you want to be a better human. Clark and I hope that we will have lots of opportunities in our lifetime to help others the way we've been helped out so many times on our holiday so far.

We hopped on the train and made our way to a station near the Krok's house, where we waited at a gas station for our ride. The attendant at the station asked us if we were lost and informed us that we were on the wrong side of the train tracks so to speak. Luckily the Krock's friends came and picked us up soon after and we headed over for a fun evening with Matt, Jade, their daughter Pacey, Tayce and Josh Davison, and the friends who picked us up, Kirsten and Heath. 

Adroable Pacey. 

It was really fun to meet them all and Clark enjoyed catching up.

Saturday, February 18: Turns out Jade is a lot like her mother because we woke up Saturday morning to pancakes, plus they tasted exactly like her mom's and she didn't even use her recipe. So good and so nice of Jade. After breakfast was finished and cleaned up we were all planning to go swimming at a place downtown called South Bank, but there wasn't enough room in the car for all of us to go at once, so Jade took Clark and me into the city so we could walk around the shops downtown and then went back home and the rest came a bit later. Once again, just like her parents. She was so willing to make two trips into the city just for us. 

So Clark and I walked along Queens Street where all the shops are and enjoyed some window shopping and Chocolate from Crazy Clarks. I think it's safe to say we are addicted to Chocolate.

Really bad quality because it's just a frame from a video, but you get the idea.

Crocodile Dundee  

South Bank is a man made beach/pool right on the side of the Brisbane River. Queens Street was on the opposite side of the river, so when we were done at the shops, we walked across a bridge and met the Jade, Matt, Pacey, Tayce, and Josh at South Bank. It was a really nice day and really fun swimming around with Pacey, who is going to be quite a good swimmer. She has no fear. 

South Bank

To be continued...