New Plymouth, Mt Egmont, and Whanganui

For Martin Luther King, Jr. day a friend and I drove up the coast to visit New Plymouth.  We stopped at Whanganui (pronounced "fan-ga-new-i") and climbed up a tower. This was the view of the Whanganui River and town.

From inside the tower.  It was pretty windy up here!

Then we stopped at Dawson Falls.  This is the pools.  SO pretty!

A good shot of the waterfall.

Another fall futher down.  This is Andrew Heath a friend that I met through church.

This is the view from the cabin we stayed at.

This is Mt Egmont which is the Lonely Mountain in "The Hobbit: An unexpected journey"

This pretty bird is the pukeko.  The family of five were our neighbors at the cabin.  We feed them and they seemed to like us! hehe..

This is Mt. Draper Falls.  There are so many beautiful waterfalls in New Zealand and I'm doing my best to see all of them! :-D

This photo is at the top of this rock that is on the sea in New Plymouth.  The climb to the top is quite steep.  I do have a bit of a fear of heights (I actually say its the crashing to the ground that I'm scared of) but I made it and it was worth it.  However, you can see just how windy it was!  My hair was standing straight up!

This is Stony River Bridge, another small little walk, which New Zealand has countless of.

Motorcycle ride and U.S. Marine Memorial

My friend Andrew took me on a motorcyle ride one Saturday that was gorgeous. 

The island that is shown here is Kapiti Island which is also an animal sanctury.

This is the U.S. Marine Memorial the commemorates the landing of the Marines as they prepared to help the Allies during World War II.

Up on the hill with Kapiti in the background.

Sitting on the motorcyle.  Don't worry mom, I don't want one! ;-)

Mindy's visit continued

So for some reason Blogger wouldn't let me upload photos the last couple of weeks so I hadn't been able to update, but finally...success!

 

This was the trip of unexpected journies and waterfalls! :-)

The first of many waterfalls.  The water is a beautiful turquoise color!

Then off to Rotorua and the burried village.  This village was covered in volcanic mud when the nearby volcano erupted in the late 1800s.  It would've buried me!  As you can see by how tall the mud is.

The next of the waterfalls.

 

We visited Hobbiton.

Me at the Green Dragon.  It was SO awesome! :-)

The next of the many waterfalls, I can't remember all their names but they are dotted all across the country!

This is us before we went blackwater rafting through a cave!  I NEVER thought I'd do something like this, but I even jumped off 2 waterfalls, BACKWARDS! :-D  It was SO cool, I was the first to jump off.  And there were glow-worms in the caves, an awesome experience!

This was Bridal Veils Falls.  Yes, there is one here!  Actually there are more than one called Bridal Veils Falls.

We stopped by to see the temple lights.  So pretty!

We got to see a few Botanical Gardens.  The rose gardens in the Hamilton Botanical Gardens were SO beautiful!

Another beautiful waterfall.  This one is cool with the built in picture frame.

Then Mindy and I flew to Queenstown and had an AMAZING burger at Fergberger.  SO yummy!

In the meadow on the way to Milford Sound.

Gorgeous waterfalls all the way to the Milford Sound.  This is where they filmed the waterfalls for Rivendell in the Lord of the Rings trilogy.

Another waterfall in the Milford Sound.  The captain took us all the way into the waterfall but didn't warn us.  I was outside to get pictures and I got SOAKED!

This is a picture of the lake in Queenstown.  Mindy and I climbed up to the top of Queenstown Hill and this was the view.  BEAUTIFUL!

When we got back to Wellington and came through the airport, I had to take a picture of Gollum that they have in the airport.

Then we went overnight tramping.  My pack was only about 30 lbs and we only stayed overnight.  It was a 5 hour walk, literally up and down hills.  There were many times when I was climbing up and down, literally holding on to roots!  It was crazy but a lot of fun.

 

It was really nice to have Mindy visit during Christmas.  It brought a little bit of Arizona to me since I couldn't go home for Christmas.  She's a wonderful, wonderful friend!

Mindy's Christmas visit

My good friend Mindy came to visit me for Christmas.  We got to spend time in Wellington as well as traveled the country.

Our first thing once Mindy showered was visit the Wellington Botanic Gardens where Mindy climbed a tree where you can climb to the top and sit on top of the tree.

Getting ready for Christmas

I love Christmas.  Getting the lights up, the tree all decorated...and the almost innumberable holiday treats!  I made ginger snaps for a cookie exchange and ended up making A LOT!  So took some into work.  Everyone loved them.
Then there is the traditional carmel popcorn balls.  I've been kind of busy so I didn't get them done very early.  I gave some away today at church and decided to try something different.  This year I added white and dark chocolate on top.  So yummy!

You can see the part where some is missing...because I COULDN'T resist! :-)

Kaitoke Regional Park

We ended up leaving town later than planned, so we didn't get to the park until 10...only to find out that the gate closes at 9 pm! :-(  So we grabbed a few of the things that we'd need for the night and started walking.  We found a decent spot (in the dark! haha) and put up the tent.  Maggie had never put up a tent before so it was a fun adventure. :-)

Here is Maggie and Gillian the next morning.  We realized that we were at the wrong part of the park!  So we took down the tent and drove to the right entrance.  To find out that gate closes at 8 pm, good to know for the next time!  Haha...

So Maggie and I drove back to town (it is only about 30 minutes away) grabbed the bigger tent, my other shoes (because the grass was wet and my shoes got soaked!) and bug repellent and headed back out.  Here is a picture of Maggie putting in a stake.

After we got everything set-up and had some lunch, we went for a walk.  We camped right next to the river, behind some trees, it is the best spot there!  My friend Jamie showed me where it was.  :-)

The three of us on the bridge over the water.  Don't look down!  Lol, actually this one isn't as high as Waihine Gorge, so it's not too bad.

This is where they filmed "Rivendell" in the Lord of the Rings triology.  So they put up some markers and we took our photos. :-)

This was cool, it showed the heights of the various characters in the books.  As you can see, I'm jsut shorter than a wizard...I'll take that! :-)

Going camping this weekend :-)

Some friends and I are going camping this weekend.  Pray for sunshine!  Lol.  My friends Maggie, Gillian and JC are coming with me camping this weekend.  We will be camping in the place where they filmed Rivendell in the Lord of the Rings trilogies.  Although it has been returned to it's natural look, it is still cool to think that I'll be camping in such a cool and beautiful place.
But we will have fun regardless of the weather!