eNZed - day 1 (15-5-5)

Arrived in NEW ZEALAND (!) early- got the sleeper van and practiced driving on the left hand side of the road for a while (I only had to be yelled at a few times). Stopped off at a new exciting place.. FOODTOWN! Full of new and exciting thing to try... like Milo, and vegemite, and the most nasty lunch meat I've ever seen. On the way to the store, one of Dave's hiking books fell off the roof and we had to quick round the block so he could run and get it!

After finding out that we couldn't got to the bank for the money exchange as it was a holiday, it was back to the airport to get some fun money... colorful and plastic (when will the US think of that as a way to recycle plastic??), just asking to be left in your pockets at all times.

Then it was off to our first stop, Waikowhai (why-ko-f-eye) Park at Waikowhai Bay. Dave found a jellyfish, but didn't bother to tell me and Angeilca..

After Waikowhai, we tooled up some long country roads that had me rather nervous about hitting other cars, since I was trying to drive while at the same time enjoying the rolling hills, cows, sheep, and interesting new trees. We stopped at Waitakere (why-ta-kee-ree) Regional Park, saw some nice views, took some pics, and picked up postcards and trail maps. A and I called home to let everybody know the plane didn't crash while Dave got antsy.Then it was off to Fairy Falls for a short tramp before we picked some place to sleep.

The trail was well groomed with gravel for most of the way (I could see why, off the trail it looked like super sticky orangey tan clay that would NOT have been that much fun to stomp through when you have 3 people sleeping in a small van).

There were maybe 4 separate falls making up fairy falls, all with little pools that would have been great to splash around in if we weren't pansy-ass kids from Hawaii and it wasn't raining off and on.

After Fairy Falls, we drove for a bit til we found a nice farming area.. Woodmill Forest. We pulled on to a dirt road and had a hell of a time getting water to boil in the rain, but eventually had a spaghetti dinner while we decided to eat out more often it the rain keeps up.

To see all the pics from Day 1 click here!