Driving around New Zealand - Days 1-4

Hey guys,

So we need to back up a little and tell you about how Dan lost a lense to his glasses (oh NO!) . When we went whitewater rafting, there was a time when Farrell and Dan were able to get out of the raft and swim down the river. Dan happened to have his glasses on him for the trip and was holding them in his hand when swimming. Ok as they were floating, Farrell saw a BUG crawling up her shorts which caused her to flinch thus knocking Dan's lense out of his glasses and to the bottom of the Fiji river.

Now we are in New Zealand and it is our first morning. We wake up to go get the rental car from Hertz and drive South West to Rotorua. Since we are obviously not from NZ we were hoping that we could get a GPS from Hertz to help us best get around. Also in Fiji we talked to two Australians who said it was a must that we get one because in NZ they don't put up sign very well. So we walk into the Hertz store and start talking to the counter guy. He asks for our licenses and the conversation goes:
Guy: "Oh Boston...Go Red Sox...I from Japan!!! (Head nod) hahaha it was really funny
So the guy because he was Japanese was a red sox van and obviously loved Dice -K. So Dan told the guy that he loved him too and even had a Dice-K jersey. Then Dan asked if this would get us a discount on the car. No luck there.
As we checked out the car it turns out that Hertz's in fact did not have any GPS systems. So this guy goes "I give you map" and proceeds to hand us some hand maps.
Now Dan has no glasses, no GPS, and neither one of us has practice driving on the left side of the road - sounds like a great start to NZ. In addition the Hertz guy goes on to explain how insurance works in New Zealand and it pretty much left Dan and Farrell pretty confused. So even if you have insurance and get hit by someone that does not have insurance then you have to sue that person who does not have insurance in order to get your money. If you can not find them and are unable to sue them then you have to deal with it yourself. So we decided to buy the extended insurance policy and if anyone hit us no matter what we were in the clear.

Dan and Farrell get into there Ford Focus, and pull out of Hertz. As they approach there first right hand turn at the intersection, Dan blows a red light...bad move...which did not sit well with Farrell at all and the screaming match began. Dan couldn't see, we had only maps and Farrell hates the way Dan drives. They yelled back and forth about the light for about 3 mins and got it all out of their system. For the next 4 hours to Rotorua, it was a relatively quiet ride...yaya!

Our first adventure in Rotorua was ZORBING. A ZORB is a huge plastic ball that a human gets inside of and rolls down a big hill, just like hamsters do. Farrell and Dan signed up for the 3 trip package. One trip together and straight down. One trip alone and zig zag and then Dan was able to do a third trip where he was strapped in and went straight down. It turned out that because Farrell was not 5'2" she could not be tied in because her feet would not reach the straps .. :(. All of Farrell's trips had to have water in the ball. The two had a great time and got some awesome pictures. It was a cool rush rolling really fast down this hill inside of a ball with water and just falling all over the place.

After Zorbing Dan and Farrell got back into the car and headed to Hells Gate!!! This was a mud bath and spa place. As two entered the parking lot they pulled into a spot and there was a huge PEACOCK to greet them at their car. This huge peacock was smart. It got real close to the car and every time we tried to take a picture of it, it would duck and we couldnt get it but at the same time we could not get out of our car. For about 5-10 minutes the peacock was circling the car and not allowing us to get out. Finally the bird got out of our way and we were able to head into Hells gate. The two relaxed in a big mud bath followed by a soak in a hot water springs. The two were really enjoying the relaxation and the geothermal water was feeling so great on their skin.

The two left Hells Gate and were finally heading to the hostel for the night. We arrive at the location of the hostel to find a sign on the d0or informing us that the hostel has been closed and to go to a different address. We busted out the maps and made our way to this new hostel. Farrell wished she slept in the car because this place was so gross. We really wanted to shower the smell of the mineral water and mud off of us but were too scared of catching a disease in this shower. Needless to say we check out as early as possible and Farrell canceled the other two hostels that had been booked for the trip.

The two got in their car and headed to Waitomo for their Black water CAVING trip!! The drive was only about two and a half hours from Rotorua to Waitomo and they were able to pass through a small town on the way. The two made their way to the office of the caving trip. When they got there they were talking with the front desk and decided to change their trip from the 3 hour Labyrinth to the 5 hour Abysssss. The two went to their new hotel, dropped off their stuff and went back to the caving place for a bit to eat before their trip. They went to get suited up as "penguins" for the trip. The guide, Terry, explained that these wet suits were extremely important as the water is absolutely freezing. From the start Farrell was starting to complain since most of the wet suits were already wet (she didnt realize this was the only way to get them on). They were all suited up, got some pictures and got in a van to head to the cave entrance.
The first part of the trip is repelling down an hourglass like hole into the cave for about a minute and a half. We had a quick training session and were on our way. After repelling down, the group's next task was to zip line across a huge whole to a platform on the other side. Terry was really crazy and had us zip line in the complete dark since we had to all turn the lights on our helmets off. The cave is full with glow worms which is really cool. After the zip line then the group had to jump off a 20ft cliff, NO JOKE, with a tub on their butt into the freezing water. After we all made the jump, we headed in our tubes down the cave and stopped to hear a story about these glow worms. The story ended up ruining Farrell's childhood about glowworms (Farrell grew up with a toy glowworm which she still sleeps with). Basically these glow thingys are not actually worms, they are maggots. They don't even actually glow, it is only their poop the glows so basically every time Farrell squeezed her glowworm to glow when she was scared it was pooping!!!

It turned out that while we were in the cave someone on another trip had a seizure. So our other guide Parker (not Terry) who was not in a wet suit and was only helping us repel down had to jump in the water and help get this person out of the cave. A medical crew was down there too. As a side note after we finished out trip we ran into Parker again and he was wrapped in one of those blankets that you get when you finish a marathon because his body temperature was incredible low.

So the group had a great time making their way through the cave and chillin with the glowworms. It was incredible tiring but a tremendous experience. As we finished and came out of the cave, the guide terry told the group to go to the van but wanted Dan to stay back for a minute. Terry made it seem to Dan that they were going back in to get some stuff that was left by the medical team. Dan didn't really want to go back in but thought it was for a purpose. So he ended up climbing down some walls and up over some waterfalls. He was finally so exhausted and came out at the exact same spot the group had come out an hour earlier. He asked Terry what the point of that trip was and he said there was no point he just thought i would like it and seemed the most capable. Terry told Dan Farrell couldn't have come because she was too short for the climbing.

Dan and Farrell headed back to their hotel for the night. They got some snacks, and chilled in the room. they wanted to take a shower but had no hot water. Going on a few days now with no showers. They got up early the next morning and headed back to Auckland.

Back in Auckland they went to an eye glass place to get Dan's glasses fixed. they were able to do it on site and the glass they put in has a spot on it that they could not get out so they gave it to him for free and it is not in his field of vision. Basically i can see fine and got it for free.

We head to Australia tomorrow morning and will be hiking for 4 days. We wont be able to check in much but will hopefully post when we get to Adelaide in Australia.

We are sorry this is so long but we had to cover a lot and will explain more when we get back.

Lots of Love,

Farrell and Dan