Wednesday, April 13, 2011

Hamilton and Rotorua

Well, clearly this blog post is a little late. But better late than never, right?
Let's rewind to March 25, 2011.
Friday morning, we got up early and piled into the vans for a trip down south to Hamilton and Rotorua. We arrived in Hamilton in time to do baptisms and take a million pictures of ourselves in front of the beautiful temple there. It was really cool! I loved that the design on the front of the temple looked like LA. It was like a baby LA temple! Totally reminded me of home. I loved it. The people there were all so friendly and nice (as are all the kiwis we've met). It was an amazing experience and I'm so grateful we go the opportunity to go there. It was so cool!
Here I am in front of the Hamilton New Zealand Temple!
Our whole group :) Aren't we lovely?
Afterward, we go to go to the visitor's center and I ran into my freshman roommate Collette's older sister Brittney who is currently serving a mission in the Hamilton Temple Visitor's Center. It was pretty cool to run into someone I knew. I talked to her for a little bit and we took a picture together. Then our whole group watched a film about Matthew Cowley, a missionary from the States who did a lot for the growth of the church in New Zealand. It was really cool and it made me want to come back to New Zealand a million times. Haha.

After the temple, we piled back in the vans and headed towards Rotorua. Once we got there, we settled into this AMAZING house owned by some super nice members who let the BYU girls stay with them every year for a week while we're in Rotorua. It was a nice relaxing evening, complete with relaxing in the natural spring hot tub in the backyard!
We met WISHBONE!
As you can tell, he's let himself go since his show went off air...
Saturday, March 26 it was a little rainy. We woke up and were supposed to go to the sheep show, which I was pretty skeptical about. We got there an hour early to get front row seats, and let me tell you. I was proven wrong about the sheep show. It was seriously so cool. Who knew a sheep show could be so exciting? I got picked as a volunteer twice! The first time I just had to stand up at the front and hold a gate shut to keep the sheep in, but the second time, I got to feed the cutest little lamb with a bottle! It totally made my day.
Me, Nicole, Nancy, and Neeley with some sheep. haha
Here I am, holding a lamb that didn't really want to be held...
Is that Nancy and Me up there?
Many, many different kinds of sheep...
Isn't this so precious?
After the sheep show, we came home to have lunch. Then we got in our togs and went zorbing! Nancy, Christine, and I were in 1 ball, and Nicole, Neeley, and Becca were in the other ball and we raced down the hill. (My team won by a long shot). It was seriously, the coolest thing every. I loved it! The whole way down, Nancy and Christine and I were rolling all over each other and laughing hysterically. It was hilarious.
Here come the balls!
You can hardly tell, but that's me on the far left. haha
Look at that lovely ball.
Here we all are! SO FUN!
After zorbing, we went home and spent the whole evening singing obnoxiously loud karaoke and then we had some delicious hamburgers with real ketchup for dinner! It was great. We finished off the evening watching Finding Neverland. It was a great day.
Karaoke time!
March 27 was nothing short of an adventure and a half. In the morning, we went to church at the ward in Rotorua. That was nice and the ward was so welcoming (as they always are). But the real adventure was riding in Dr. Jacob's van. After church, it took us a solid 20 minutes to get out of the tiny church parking lot. It was hilarious, and the missionaries were just staring at us. Haha. It's a miracle we didn't hit anything.
Falling asleep on a long ride...
After church, we drove to Lake Taupo. We were on our way back when we had to drive behind James and we had a brush with death. James slammed on his brakes at a stop sign, and we were right behind him so we had to slam on the brakes too but because of the rain, we ended up spinning out and hydroplaning all over the place. I swear we almost tipped over. It was pretty scary. Then, just a few minutes down the road, we got a flat tire! We had to pull over and change it and we were all just standing there laughing about it. It was pretty funny... I'm sure we were a spectacle.

Just LOVE these van rides...
We finally made it back to the Brons' house and we all watched "A Walk To Remember." It was probably funny to see all of us boy hungry girls just drooling over this movie. But all in all, it was a great day.

On the 28, we went to Te Puia and got to see a Maori cultural performance. It was really cool to see! Afterwards, we got a guided tour of the whole park place and it was seriously awesome. Our tour guide was pretty cool and he had the coolest tattoo on his shoulder/arm. He explained to us that every curve, line, and design had a meaning. It was really neat. He had korus that made up a sting ray and each koru represented a member of his family. I loved listening to him explain it to us. It was pretty incredible. Kinda made me want to get one...Haha. On our tour, we got to see kiwi birds, a beautiful geyser, the wood carving school (which was AMAZING) and the weaving school. It was really a great place. I'm glad we got to go.
Wood Carving School
Me and Nicole in front of the geyser
me in front of the geyser
More woodcarving school
Posing in a little Maori hut
Beautiful view of Te Puia
Nancy and Me!
After Te Puia, we came home and had lunch, and then we were off again to Blue Lake, Green Lake, and Tarawera Lake. They were just beautiful! This country really is incredible. That afternoon we walked around Rotorua city or a bit.For dinner, we went to this very weird dinner theatre put on by Sister Brons. It was super awkward and none of us knew what was going on the whole time. But the food was pretty good so that was a plus.
Me and Nicole!
We're so cute... FUTURE ROOMIES!
Yoga shot!
Nancy, Nicole, Me and Neeley at dinner
March 29 was probably the best day of the whole trip. We left the Brons' in the morning and drove out to Waitomo caves for our "Black Labyrinth" tour of the glowworm caves. There were 8 of us in the first group (Me, Whit, Katie, Becca, Jess, Heidi, Christine, and Anna). We put on our wetsuits (which were super attractive) then we got boots and helmets and hopped in the van to go down to the cave. We had to practice jumping backwards into a river with our tubes, and then we were off. Once we got to the cave, our tour guides (Elza and Brydie) gave us some safety instructions and we were on our way down to the caves.




It was a little creepy getting in at first, and it was totally dark--you couldn't see a thing! But it was so much fun! We walked through parts of the caves, then in other parts, where the water was deeper, we had to float on our tubes. But it was beautiful looking up and seeing the glowworms on the ceiling of the cave. What an incredible experience! While in the caves, we got to jump backwards off 2 waterfalls too! It was so awesome. We were underground about an hour, and then when we finally reached the end of the tour, we saw the most beautiful view of the sunlight from inside the cave. It was pretty incredible and definitely one of my favorite parts of New Zealand thus far.




We all made it out, safe and sound.
(That's me on in the yellow helmet on the far left)