ALL BLACKS GAME!

ready for the game

emmas an england fan

all blacks vs england

score!

we were right on the field

I have to say I have never felt so a part of NZ as when I went to the All Blacks rugby game.   It was so exciting leaving our apartment with hordes of other students to make our way to Mt Eden stadium.  When we stepped out into the stadium we were amazed at how close our seats were!  We were only 5 rows back from the field!  Its cool here because the cheap seats are the closest because they are not undercover.  Therefore these seats become the student seats and definitely the most rowdy and fun place to sit in the crowd.  

The haka was definitely a highlight for me.  The All Blacks face the opposing team and and do a extremely intimidating traditional Maori dance and chant.  You should watch it and see what I mean: the haka

It was a pretty good game, the all blacks slowly got stronger as the game went on and they ended up beating England 37-20.  Another highlight of the game was getting to see 2 trys close up on our corner of the stands!  It was amazing! Hollin and Wade I wish you could have been there!  

I am happy to say my kiwi roommates said we did New Zealand proud that night. . . even if we are Americans :)

"In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit."

Welcome to hobbiton!

our little cottage

hobbiton at last!

our view of the "party tree" from inside Bag End

So my final trip in New Zealand was to Matamata where the Shire is located.  We took a bus and stayed in a little cottage in a locally owned Holiday park.  It was a very nice place to stay, it even had hot mineral pools we could lounge around in.  

Hobbiton is located on a working sheep farm about 6 km out of town.  It was so exciting to see the set and learn all about the process of making and using it.  Apparently it is the largest green set in history.  Basically it was almost like a real little village.  Unfortunately when we got there it was raining and it was a bit cloudy.  O well, I still enjoyed my visit anyways (even if I didnt manage to escape the group and live in a hobbit hole:).  

After the tour we found a newspaper article talking about how much business and tourists having the set in this little town has brought.  It also said that the town is excited to have New line Cinemas back in 2010 to film the upcoming hobbit movies.  Jenny and I have decided we want to come back for the filming and try to be hobbit extras.  They told us the requirements are that you have to be under 5'4'' (check), and have a roundish jolly face (check).  I even have curly hobbit hair!! I think we can do it, we'll just have to keep our eyes and ears open because filming is very secretive.

Also, I definitely wanna live in a hobbit hole some day!

 haha check this out : my future home?

Northland Roadtrip!

Hanging out at Matauri Bay

 Monument to the Rainbow Warrior; the ship that was sunk by French saboteurs in Auckland Harbour

I found an octapus!

am I still in New Zealand?

lighthouse at Cape Reinga, the northernmost tip of the north island

This Kauri tree is called the Lord of the forest.  It is about 2,000 years old!

For one of our last trips, we decided we needed to venture north.  Our first day we woke up in Paihia after driving late friday night.  It was a cute little town on the water, and along the outskirts we visited a waterfall called Haruru falls.  We headed further north and visited the beautiful Matauri Bay.  The beach was nice, andthe view of the Cavalli Islands a short distance away were incredible.  While we were there we climbed a nearby hill and visited the Rainbow Warrior Monument.  The view from the top of the hill was beautiful and we saw several rainbows because it was raining somewhere off the coast.

 

The next day we beach hopped along the east coast.  The first beach we visited early in the morning was pure white and full of little curly sea shells.  The next beach had big rocks that you could climb out on to look at tide pools and find tons of little creatures!  We saw lots of starfish, hermit crabs, and these wierd pink plant covered crabs.  The highlight tho was when I decided to wade into some shallow water and not 5 feet away drifts an octapus!  He was bright orangish pink and he hid under a rock.  then he decided to float gracefully out and sprawl across the sandy bottom changing colors to match the ground right before our eyes!  It was so amazing! Later that day, after taking a nap on yet another beautiful beach, we headed for the northern most tip of the north island called Cape Reinga.  But before we got too far on our way we ran into a town called manganui which had a world famous fish shack.  I had some freshly caught snapper, mussles and scallops. mmmmmm.   After that we stopped off at some sand dunes.  To me it seemed so random!  It doesnt fit the green sheep covered landscape at all, but there they are!  People were sledding and boarding down the huge dunes and I wished we had brought something to slide down on.  David and Jacob thought that was unecessary and pencil rolled down the huge hills solidifying their sandy state for the rest of the trip.  After the dunes we drove to Cape Reinga just in time to catch the sunset.  We climbed up a big hill to watch the bright misty sunset over the ocean.  There is also a really cool lighthouse at cape reinga that is solar powered.  The combination of  rocky cliffs, the lighthouse, and the sunset made for some great pictures.   

 

The last day we made our way down the west coast and visited Waipou Kauri Forest.  There we saw a tree they call the Lord of the Forest.  It is about 2, 000 years old, 13.8 meters wide, and 51.5 meters high.  It was huge!!After that we made our way home to Auckland.  It was definitely a great trip and I felt good that I had explored more of the island that I've been living on for 4 months.  

oooo I almost forgot their are TONS of wild hedgies up north!!  Seeing them made me really miss Ollie:(  This entry is for you my little ollie!

piha beach

a cave along the shore

this is the black sand piha beach

we also hiked out to whites beach which still had black sand?

we stayed until sunset

On sunday we decided that since it wasn't too cold we should get in a trip to the beach.  Katelyn's boyfriend has a car and they both love to surf so we decided to visit Piha.  Piha is only about 20 minutes from where we live in the center of the city.  Its so great how you can be in the middle of a bustling city one moment and then in a beautiful natural setting the next!  The beach is a black sand beach and it even has some spots with this dark navy colored sand they call iron sand.  Its really beautiful and it has really distinct rock formations.  

So while Katelyn and Reed surfed and played around in the shallows looking for pipi (kinda like mussels) for dinner.  Unfortunately I couldn't find any (they must not be around that area or they are out of season), but I had fun anyway.  Its pretty cool to be able to go to the beach in the winter time even if the water is a tad chilly.

Wellington!

view of the city from zach's back porch

civic center where we visited the art gallery 

view from the top of Mt Victoria

we saw Second Hand Wedding (an independent Kiwi film) at the Embassy Theater where they premiered Return of the King!  they have plaques on each seat showing where everyone sat and I am sitting in Elijah Woods seat!

So I decided to go visit my UMBC friend Zach who is currently living New Zealand's capitol city, Wellington.  It's an incredibly beautiful place, it reminded me a little bit of Quito (the capitol of Ecuador) because of all the houses situated on hills.  Its probably the most people friendly city I've ever been to.  There are sculptures and installations everywhere and wherever you go there are places to sit and hang out or places for kids to play.  It's pretty much like a giant playground and there are really cool fountains everywhere!

Zach was pretty happy to see a familiar face and I was excited to introduce him to my new friend Jenny( who I went on my south island trip with).  We had a really good time and even fit in a few dorky lord of the rings excursions.  Id say Wellington is definitely one of my favorite New Zealand cities.