Queenstown....serenity!

Queenstown was by far our favorite place to visit and if New Zealand wasn't so far away I think I would have to own a house or condo or something there! haha, in my dreams! Anyway, it was beautiful, we really enjoyed our time spent there! Also on our last day here we went on a jet boat ride up and down skippers canyon! It was a BLAST!!! Our jet boat did some sweet 360s! Woo Hoo!!!

The next day we left New Zealand and headed for home. It was a fun vacation and a fun time away for school but I am glad to be home and with my family again!

Lord of the Rings!!!

Wow, isn't Queenstown beautiful? We loved it there, and wished we would have spent more time exploring! On our second day in Queenstown we went on a Lord of the Rings safari!! It was amazing, and so much fun! Our guide (who I think was half insane) took us all around to show us the sights of where Lord of the Rings was filmed! It was really neat to see all the sights and hear the behind scenes of what really took place there. We also went off roading in the Land Rover, up the river and everything! It was so much fun and we laughed our heads off the whole time!

Christmas Eve and Christmas Day

Christmas Eve and Christmas Day were suppose to be a lot different than they turned out... First of all we left our hotel in Roturua and went to their little airport, stood in line and waited to get checked in. We were the second ones in line and then we hear an announcement that says our flight has been cancelled. AH!!!! So we sit at the airport and wait because there are no other flights that they can get us on so basically they say sorry and they shut down and leave because we were suppose to be the last flight out of there. We sat at the airport from 11am to 6pm. It was awful and yes of course it was Christams Eve! So my mom and dad were on the phone forever trying to figure out what to do and where we need to go to get to Queenstown. Luckily, (sort of, lucky would have been catching the right plane haha) we get a flight from Auckland to Queenstown...our ONLY option. So my dad and I went to rent us a van to drive the 3 hours back up to Auckland. Good thing that NONE of the rental car places had anything bigger than a hatch back corolla. So we had to rent two of them and drove to Auckland. They were almost the size of mini coopers! Upon arrival to Auckland we then found a hotel near the airport and stayed there. Man, was it a dive!! haha So we spent Christmas Eve in Auckland....The next morning we flew to Queenstown which was incredible! Christmas was pretty uneventful as well since everything was closed and we missed our tour because of our cancelled flight! I was bummed that we missed the tour but I was just so glad to be with my family and to be safe together!

Maori Tribal Dinner Show...Chief DEX!!

On our last night in Roturua we attended the Maori Tribal Dinner!! It was AWESOME!!! We had so much fun and laughed so hard as Dex was our chief!!! My dad elected him to be the chief for our bus. The best part about it was that in the Maori culture chiefs greet eachother by touching foreheads and then noses two times! It was the funniest thing to watch Dex touch noses with all these random people...the hardest part was then neither Dex or us could laugh because the ritual is sacred...sometimes I just couldn't help it! Great food and great fun!

Agrodome and Rainbow Springs

After the Hot Springs we went to the Agrodome and to Rainbow Springs! Rainbow Springs was kind of lame...the coolest part was the huge rainbow trout fish. Dex, my Dad and I were all wishing we had our fly rods!!! Mine has some serious lack of use... The Agrodome was very interesting. They showed us all these sheep and where they come from. Also, we witnessed the shearing of a sheep, Meg hated it! Afterwards we went up and pet the sheep and the sheep dogs!

Roturua Hot Springs!

We made our way from Auckland to Roturua! We stopped at these caves and then took an underground boat ride to see all the glow worms! If you are in to Harry Potter it reminded Dex and I of the 6th book when Harry goes with Dumbledore into that cave with the Black Lake! haha. There aren't any pictures of this event because we weren't allowed to take pictures in the cave. The next day we were in Roturua and our first stop was at these hot springs and mud pots. They were really cool, and I made friends with the kitty we found.

Sydney to Auckland!

What can I say...Dex and I take attractive pictures! HAHA! We were bored waiting for our plane from Sydney to Auckland, New Zealand to take off so we started taking pictures! We were only in Auckland for a day and then we made our way to Roturua! Oh and don't be too grossed out...its just barely chewed up bubble gum balls in our mouths! SICK!!