Road trip to Rotorua!!

Trip Start Feb 05, 2008
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Trip End Apr 29, 2008


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Saturday, February 16, 2008

Hello all!! I have made a few friends here in New Zealand. There are 2 girls living down the street from me here in Auckland in the same program as me. There is also a girl living in Hamilton, an hour and a half south of here! On Friday we rented a car and drove down to pick up Rachel in Hamilton! This meant my first time driving a car on the wrong side of the road AND with the wheel on the wrong side! Pretty tricky! We left right after work, which meant that I learned how to drive in rush hour! Bad planning on our part. Driving!
Driving!

Echo Crater
Echo Crater
 Pea Soup!
Pea Soup!
We made it safely to hamilton and explored a bit. On saturday morning we left for Rotorua. This is one strange town. The reason we went it because of the hydrothermal systems. Basically, these are collapsed craters, boiling mud pools, a cool geyser, and a bunch of other cool volcanic sights caused by magma from eruptions! The Champagne Lake
The Champagne Lake
 Cathedral Rocks
Cathedral Rocks
 This also meant about 8 miles of walking. These are very cool looking but the entire town smelled like eggs, yuck, from the sulfur. Some very cool sights though! All of us
All of us
 Overlooking Cathedral Rocks
Overlooking Cathedral Rocks

We stayed in this hilarious hostel called Cactus Jacks which had a whole western theme. It was really funny and we met some cool people from Wales, Germany,France and England.
Cactus Jacks!
Cactus Jacks!
 The Lady Knox Geyser
The Lady Knox Geyser
The next day we drove out a little bit to a beautiful lake called Blue Lake, then headed further down the road to another lake called Tarawara. It was REALLY awesome, but I found out later that it isn't recommended to drive on those roads, they were really windy but I did alright! Lake Tarawara
Lake Tarawara
 More Lake Tarawara
More Lake Tarawara

After we headed to the Kiwi Experience and saw some Kiwi Birds!! The babies are actually REALLY cute! We were lucky because the 1000th Kiwi to be hatched by conservationists in NZ had hatched there the night before, so we got to see him!! After that it was time to head back to work! Kiwi Experience!
Kiwi Experience!
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Comments

evieann
evieann on Feb 24, 2008 at 12:52AM

Love the pictures
Hi Erin,

I'm so happy to hear that you are finally settled.
You sound like you are enjoying yourself. From the pictures you have sent, Auckland is a beautiful place. I'm happy you have friends to sight-see with. I can't believe how much you have seen already.
What an experience! Hope the job is working out well...Love you, Grandma Keep the pics coming.

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