1 April 2008
We are back from the trip we have been dreaming about since we moved here. We were in New Zealand for 10 days and could have stayed much longer. We only were able to spend time on the North Island and still don’t feel like we spent enough time. New Zealand is an unbelievably gorgeous country. I’m convinced that it is the true Garden of Eden.
We rented a 6 person campervan for the trip and drove that around and stayed in powered camping sites for the entire trip. That is a pretty common thing to do there but we still felt like we stuck out like a sore thumb with our HUGE campervan. I giggled to myself several times as I looked over and saw Creed driving this massive ‘housecar’ as Mallory called it. The boys were in heaven. It has always been their dream to travel in an RV and they got their wish. Grant listened very carefully to all the instructions when we picked up the campervan and knew how everything worked. We often asked him for assistance.
We did several things that were a once in a lifetime experiences. We Zorbed (rolled down a huge hill in a big plastic ball…invented by a Kiwi), rode a luge ride down a mountain, went horseback riding, hiking, saw glow worms, went black water rafting (going down a river in a cave on a tube, yes it’s dark!..also invented by a Kiwi), went to a Hangi (a Maori cultural evening and a traditional Maori dinner), went kayaking, went to Hobbiton, where they filmed Lord of the Rings, and saw many, many waterfalls. It was a fun-filled trip and we didn’t want to come back to Jakarta. We would love to go explore the rest of the country some time, but unfortunately, we most likely will never be this close again (even though it was still an 11 hour flight for us from here). Maybe someday we will be able to go again.
Millers in Shanghai
