Been awhile since the last post.  We’ve been pretty, pretty, pretty busy.  Since last time we’ve been down to Wellington, Taupo, and Rotorua.  It has been a great road trip.  We packed up Bret’s van and headed down the coast.

First we made it down to Wellington and visited a family friend named Glenys.  She lived in a part of Wellington that I was unfamiliar with since my last trip to New Zealand two years ago.  There are a few bays in Wellington, and she lives overlooking the more residential of the bays.  The place she has is absolutely gorgeous.  It is a brand new, very modern complex, sitting right across the street from the water.  From her deck on the 6^th floor, I could get some nice shots.  Staying with her was a blast.  We enjoyed all the local breakfast and lunch spots, and she prepared us some lamb shanks for dinner one night.  It was the tastiest lamb I’ve ever had.  My compliments to the chef. 

We said our goodbyes and drove up to Taupo, which sits in the middle of the North Island overlooking a spectacular lake.  The place we stayed in didn’t have the modern elegance of Glenys’ place, but it wasn’t lacking in style.  We didn’t have a view, but what we did have was a geothermal tub, heated floors, heated towel racks, wifi, and Sky Sports to watch Manchester United’s opening game win over Newcastle.  Suffice to say, we felt pretty spoiled.

Now my brother and father are a bit to scared to go skydiving (which I wanted to do again) but we did get to enjoy the thrill of the local white water rapids in a unique way.  Only in New Zealand can you go on a jetboat through rapids, and that’s just what we did.  I’ve been white water rafting many times, but this was a whole different experience.  Charging 70kph down AND up white water rapids in a 850hp jetboat was very exhilarating.  By the end of the 45 min trip, we were all teary eyed from the wind, with a smile that seemed to stick for the rest of the day.

Next we went on to Rotorua, where we did not spend the night, but after our day activities continued back up to New Plymouth with my grandfather.  But before that treacherous drive through the mountains in the pouring rain, we enjoyed a gondola ride up the mountain in Rotorua.  I split off and explored some hiking trails with my camera bag and tripod, while my brother and father enjoyed the thrill of downhill lugging.  I got some great shots, and they had some great races; though it is hard to tell who won when you hear each side of the story. 

After that we drove just outside Rotorua to the birthplace of Zorbing.  If you don’t know, Zorbing is when you are put inside a 5ft rubber ball that is suspended by giant elastics connected to a 12ft rubber ball, and then are hurled down a giant hill.  Once again, it is like nothing you’ve ever experienced.  I snapped a few shots of my brother tumbling down the zig-zag course and being birthed from the hube Zorb with a smile stretching ear to ear.

 I’ve still got to edit quite a few of the images uploaded here, especially the overproccesed HDRs, but I just wanted to get them up on the blog for the time being. So now we’re back in New Plymouth with my grandfather about to enjoy a competitive game of Scrabble.  Hopefully another update to come soon.  :)