New Zealand: Part 7

God is great and mighty. I am small and weak.

Never has that been put into perspective more than this trip to New Zealand. I have never been witness to such natural wonder and majesty than the landscapes we saw on our trip. The geothermal activity (which is still very present in Christchurch to this day) shakes the earth and it's evident everywhere you turn. The mountains and hills of the country are immense and we were all left in awe. How could anyone question the existence of our God? His hands shaped the earth and the very unique land that we saw.

One of our major trips within New Zealand was to Cape Kidnappers in Clive, New Zealand. It was part of the Hawke's Bay Reigon, but around the other side. We took a tractor tour out to the point to see a Gannett Colony. The tractor took us 15 miles out to the cape - through water and beaches - to see these birds. I don't know what I was expecting when they told me "tractor tour out to the cape" but I wore my brand new white jeans, my best Tiffany's jewelry and my leather flip flops. Thankfully it wasn't as messy as I had expected, but it was a great adventure and well worth the bumpy tractor ride with a tired baby in full sun.

The cliffs of the cape contained numerous places where earthquakes had occurred and you could point out the fault lines - where the land had separated. It was amazing (having never experienced an earthquake or seen the effects of one) to see how such huge masses of land could be moved so much.

Anyway, we saw the smelly birds, but I couldn't go up to the colony itself due to a hungry AND sleepy baby, so I sent Joey up with my camera and he took some really amazing shots. Also at the top of the cliffs, there is a world-famous golf course called.... Cape Kidnappers. Apparently it's in the top five most expensive golf courses to play. But can you get a load of this view?!

After the tour, we all had lunch at Mission Estate Winery, which is the oldest winery in New Zealand! I'm pretty sure you can buy their wine in the States, but I haven't been able to locate it yet. Wine was great and food was really good, too!

You can see the fault lines here where the arrows are pointing. Pre-earthquake (in the 1800's), the white lines used to match up. Now, not so much. The gap is huge though...look at it compared to the size of the red tractor.

I'd like to point out that at this point in the tour, we were actually IN the water (on a tractor). My feet were almost above my head so as not to tarnish my white jeans (really - what was I thinking?!), but I still had my camera going.

Ugh, gorgeous. Joey took the next few pictures.

Breathtaking, isn't it?

You can see part of the gold course in the distance closer to the water.

The colony. From what I heard, it smelled soooo bad. I guess it would if their nests are made out of dried seaweed and bird droppings!

Hey look, it's me!!

Heading back... the sky really is this blue and the water is so clear and the most lovely shade of turquoise.

New Zealand: Part 6

Well, I've been a bit behind the ball lately on blogging the pictures from our New Zealand Trip. Sorry! Here are a handful more from the middle of our trip.

One day, all the guys took a day trip up to Taupo to do manly things like mountain biking, ATV tours through the jungle and drinking beer by the lake with a healthy sampling of Fish and Chips. Since Amanda and I stayed back with the kids, we ventured out to a local petting zoo which was AWESOME. I've never been to a petting zoo before, but I'm pretty sure the US would never have anything like this. Chickens and {aggressive} ducks wandering about, baby lambs hiding out under picnic tables, Ostriches sticking their heads out of the fences to get your fingers... It was all fine, and that's what I love about other countries: people are responsible for themselves. If you don't want to get bit by an Ostrich or licked by a Llama, then stand back. Anyway, all of the boys had fun there... Andrew spent most of the time chasing the ducks and chickens around, while Ben thoroughly enjoyed feeding the animals copious amounts of corn. Camden just liked squealing with joy and kicking his legs when the animals came near him (I carried him in the Baby Bjorn).

Anyway, we spent the afternoon there, then headed back to the apartment for some lunch and a nice walk. We were both drinking wine promptly at 8:00 bedtime.

One of the next days, we all went separate ways and did our own things. Nick, Amanda and Joey took the two boys to a glow worm cave up near Rotorua while Bobby and I went back up to Taupo to hike one of the volcanos. We had intended to hike Mount Doom, but we missed the bus that took us up there. It turned out fine because Camden wanted nothing to do with being in his hiking carrier for long!

The drive to and from Taupo is incredible. I think that's why we went back so many times. It's a windy, country road with no shoulders, but the views are amazing. Like, breathtaking. The only problem is, there is nowhere to stop and take pictures! When we finally braved the road to stop, I just couldn't do the views justice with my camera. I cannot begin to tell you how beautiful this place is.

This guy was just too cute.

"Ello there. Can I taste your chin?"

This furry guy was a little intimidating. His neck was surprisingly long and nimble. I was worried he might snatch up Camden.

Feeding the Billy Goats.

"Lookin' Tasty."

Ben got to hold a guinea pig!

Seriously, these guys were vicious! Their heads could fit through the fence, so they had no problem exercising their neck length to reach your handful of corn.

Le petit vache goes "moo!" This is about the only animal name I remember in French, so I've been teaching it to Camden.

Help me, Rhonda. I almost took this baby home with me. I fed him all of my corn and he was a happy, little lamb. We even bought Cam a stuffed lamb to take home with him.

They had some strange birds, but this one was beautiful! It was hard to take pictures of them through the fence, but this one turned out the best.

It is true that sheep are everywhere in NZ. This field was across the fence from the zoo.

Ferdinand. Anyone else read that book as a kid?

This one I will never understand: New Zealand has Deer farms EVERYWHERE. I had never seen a deer up close, let alone have one run UP to me! This little "dear" was so sweet and looked just like Bambi!

Precious face.

I think the only picture of the three cousins together. Andrew took a break from chasing chickens to show Camden something. It was also sweltering hot and this was about the only shade.

Andrew chasing the little sheep. (Please note Lou Ferigno look-a-like in the background).

Back at the apartment. It's hard to believe that just 2 months ago, Cam was just starting to pull himself up on things. Now he's close to walking!

The apartment was amazing... on the top level was the kitchen and dining/living area. It was all windows that opened up to a wrap-around balcony. The fresh air felt so good blowing through. Divine.

Hiking up the volcano! I was already out of breath... but I couldn't help myself by singing "Climb Every Mountain" from Sound of Music all the way up!

Giggles... before they turned to anger.

The view! This is the same lake we took a sail on earlier in the trip.

I did such a poor job with the scale here, but do you see the sheep?!

We sang "Old Mac Donald Had A Farm" all the way down the mountain when Camden lost it at the top. It was the only thing keeping him from screaming his head off. Poor guy was just tired.

The windy road to Taupo and a few shots on the way back.

And a little video from the hike:

New Zealand: Part 5

Part way through our trip out to Kiwi Land, we took an overnight stay up to Taupo (see Part 4) and drove a bit further to Rotorua. It was an impromptu overnight stay, which was rather interesting since none of us packed for it and all we had were bathing suits and the clothes we had worn the day before. It was a good thing we went to the hot springs, because they were probably the only thing smelling worse than we were (hot springs smelled like sulphur)! Just kidding - we all took showers, but our clothes were dirty from the day before! Oh well.

This part of the trip was really cool because it was the part of New Zealand that wasn't something we could have seen on the East Coast of the states where we live. This part of NZ has lots of geothermal activity, so as we were driving, we'd see steam coming out random places in the mountains! It was so strange, and rather eery.

Our first stop was a Maori (native New Zealand tribe/people) village located right on top of a big pocket of hot springs and steam. This community actually thrived on the use of these hot springs, cooking their food in wells built over steam pockets, using the hot water for their homes, etc. It was pretty fascinating...but you have to wonder how they live in an area that smells so bad!!

Our second stop before coming home was the Waiotapu Hot Springs. This was a big tourist attraction, based on the number of people there, but it was not hard to see why. This place was so other-worldly, it was amazing. I've never seen anything like it before! It was hard to capture it in pictures, but hopefully I get the point across. We had a good time hiking around here and seeing the different pools. All of the pools were roped off because they are all above boiling temperature. The largest of the pools, called the champagne pool, was most impressive. One of the coolest things we saw in New Zealand, I think.

The edge of the champagne pool.

Why they call it the "Champagne Pool." The whole thing has tiny bubbles from boiling.

This was the most colorful of the pools... it was called the "Devil's Bath." Creepy.