Cat and Austins Totally Awesome Travel Blog

2009-08-24T00:42:00.000-07:00

HI! It's been a while, 3 months since the last post! Hope everyone is doing well and enjoyed the summer up there. We've been pretty busy working and getting used to living life down under.

Barley and Shyster arrived on July 20th (yay!) and 30 days later were released from quarantine. The quarantine was more like a pet hotel, so they were doing pretty good in there. After about one day at the house, they were running around like happy kitties who never made the big journey.

Barley and Cat cuddlin in the quarantine.

Shyster feeling triumphant upon arrival!

Shyster and Barley sitting in the NZ sun at the house...

*****

Snowboarding season here is from about late June - early October. The first time we went up was in July to Mt. Ruepehu in the middle of the North Island - an active volcano! Although our trip was geologically uneventful, there are warning systems on the mountain for things called "Lahars" which are mud flows from when the crater overflows when it erupts. The photos below are from a later trip we took down to Mt. Hutt in the South Island. The Southern Alps are awesomely pretty and have more powder than the North!

This is a bungy platform in the summer

Beautiful!

Cat taking a photo two snowboarding wizards...

Then all these random people wanted to join in!

We went down for a friend's 30th B-day - here's the crew!

Playing in the powder!!

Austin takes a head first route down:

The birthday boy, wearing a cape on this epic day....

Kea parrots - mountain birds!
Food is scarce up here for the birds,
so the ski resort has warning signs
that these snow parrots might chew
the rubber off your door seams!
Here they are in the video, eating a hat.

Afternoon fog rolling in at the lift.

Ski patrol helicopter. This came in handy twice later on in the night. There was a "Big Air" competition with guys on dirt bikes doing flips in the air and snowboarders/skiiers going off jumps! A couple of the guys crashed but were not injured too bad.

Austin, doing a little grocery shopping in the town of Methvin at the base of Mt. Hutt.

It just so happened to be October Fest while in Methvin...

our group partook in the festivities with a little dancing of our own!

Some scenery just outside Christchurch:
The river water really was this bright blue!

No trip to the South Island is complete without getting road blocked by a herd of sheep!

*****

No photoshop here - This is from a weekend trip to Rotorua in August for Cat's birthday! We went to these geothermal sulphur spots that had bubbling mud and steam rising right out of the ground. The whole town smells like rotton eggs!

Apart from the smell... we thought it was pretty amazing!
Cat waving hello from a sulphuric cavern!

You have to keep on the path because

the ground around it is bubbling!

At first Austin was taken a bit off gaurd from the danger...

Some more bubbling green stuff...

This reactor was just down the highway... hmmm...

maybe all these "geothermal" green ponds aren't natural...?!

Some cool steaming sulphur craters: This little spot

is called Craters of the Moon in Taupo (next to Rotorua).

It was raining out and

we were the only ones out there...

....a bit eiry, but totally awesome! One of our

favorite places that we visited!
Looks a bit like a fire...

Good news! they are harnessing the energy under the

ground here at this geothermal plant.

Austin at the Huka Falls river in Rotorua!

Huka Falls still...

We completed the Rotorua weekend adventure

with some kiwi-invented road LUGING!

Check it out - it's like Mario Kart!

MISS YOU ALL!!!

2009-06-13T13:39:00.000-07:00

Driving out to the southern most tip of the North Island, NZ...

saw some person hang gliding off the cliffs

More sheep...

There was a random fishing village out in the middle of nowhere! All the boats were up on trailers with tractors attached to pull them around.

This part was so cool!! The sea was so wild and choppy against these crazy looking rocks.

These were really steep beaches. Fur Seals were swimming all around too!

These are the stairs (251 of them, we counted!) to get up to the light house at Cape Palliser.

View from the light house...

And back down, yikes!

Tons of Fur Seals loungin about!! We were about 5 feet away and they didn't seem to mind.

The drive back toward Wellington.

more.........Now with VIDEO!

2009-05-23T18:04:00.000-07:00

Hi! Here's a video someone shot of the weather we've been enjoying here in Wellington.

We have been out and about the last couple of weekends... and decided to take the train to Auckland.

Looks like a hobbit could live here, no?

"Scenic Montage" ... without music... Its a little bit long, so we suggest you sing "Eye of the Tiger" in your head while watching to make it more fun!

The train stopped at National Park and we met this cute dog, so we fed him a cheese muffin.

Sticking our heads out the train viewing platform...

Auckland Train Station.

No... this is not us in the video. We didn't have the guts to do this. But we watched some other crazy people be flung into the air next to Auckland's Sky Tower. Their Sky Tower looks a lot like the Seattle Space Needle but not as big and tall. It has a rotating restraunt in it too just like Seattle.

WAIHONE GORGE:

We went on this awesome tramp in the Waihone Gorge.

The first thing you have to do is walk over this huge suspension bridge.

It's probably about 100 ft. over the river and atleast a couple hundred feet long.

Really pretty scary if you are at all afraid of heights.

Anyway we made it over! Check the video!

This one is worth looking at High-res so you can get a better view of the trail.

The whole time you are basicly either walking in holes between the roots and rocks or on the slippery roots and rocks. Pretty fun though...and it makes you feel like you are in a jungle!

The Rivers are flowing really well and everything is super green!

UNTIL NEXT TIME!!

New Happenings

2009-05-09T02:02:00.001-07:00

We went to a Hurricanes Rugby Match! Pretty fun even though we had no clue as to what was happenig on the field. Then all of a sudden there was a flash of movement and pale skin to our left! Cat was quick with the camera and captured the streaker being tackled by security!

Well it was about time that we geeked out and went to visit the WETA cave......

It's like a little museum with some of the props from the films and stuff like that.
You can also purchase things there. like a $75NZD Weta Scarf or your own 9ct gold One Ring complete with elvish engraving for a measley $975 NZD. On a side note Weta has a sweet theatre right behind here though with shooting stars on the ceiling a la pixar.

We stopped in to say hello to Gollum!
He grabbed my butt and called me "My Precious" it was kinda weird......

I could take'em!

Cat's favourite pass-time!

What's that you ask?

Honking at other cars as they pass through the Mount Victoria tunnel!

everyone does it.........

The Mailman drives a mo-ped like motorbike to deliver the mail!

He's pretty nice guy.

Cat and I in our house mates Canoe in the Karaka Bay.

Cat was deathly afraid and made me turn back 200 feet out :(
My damn legs were too big to fit in the boat and so I just hung them on top of the canoe...

I think it made it a little top heavy!

I know our life vests are pretty nice!

Karori Wildlife Sanctuary

2009-04-26T02:14:00.000-07:00

Another large suspension bridge in the park.

A prehistoric looking marsh/swamp

Cat at the lower lake at Karori.

Lower lake at Karori.

Tramping on the Orongorongo trail to the top of Cattle ridge trail and back.

2009-04-26T01:40:00.000-07:00

Huge Tree ferns are everywhere and look like something out of jurassic park.

View from the top of Cattle Ridge down to the Orongorongo trail.

Nice streams are pretty common.

These Dr. Seuss type plants grow all over the trees via large vines.

The forest can be very dense and tropical with plant and vines and moss covering everything!

Cat on a suspension bridge! These seem to be on every large trail around here. they can span over 100+ feet and are pretty fun to walk across. They sway and bounce a lot!

2009-04-26T01:25:00.000-07:00

Out around the neighborhood.

Cat at Scorching Bay.

There's a Sweet as rope swing down the street. You have to wear a helmet though just in case you fall off! no really we were out on a bike ride and just popped in for a swing.

Here's our strange little car. It's a Mitsubishi RVR! Most people think this car is really big. But it only sit's 4 people. It's got 4 Wheel Drive and looks like a minivan somebody put into a trash compactor and squished a bit.

Sunrise from our bedroom.

2009-04-26T01:10:00.000-07:00

Cat and I moved into this house in Karaka Bay on the Miramar peninsula outside Wellington.
We share the house with the owners Marco and Ursala who are a totally awesome couple!
We have been hanging out at the house quite a bit and enjoying it on the weekends! It's on the same street that peeter Jackson lives on and in the picture you can see Barry Osbourne's house to the right ( It's the one with the curved roofline I think). Weird!

The view from the front deck as we dry our clothes. Most people don't have clothes dryer's here and opt to dry them outside!

A really cool neighborhood cat that wondered up onto our deck and right into our bedroom.

we ended up feding it and letting it hang around for a while :)

The Beach right across the road from our house :)

2009-04-26T00:46:00.000-07:00

Exploring the Wellington Harbour.

Out in Seatoun someone was parasailing! and catching huge air. This person would probably get about twelve feet in the air and 40 or so feet in distance! Amazing!

There are Penguins here...... They come for the mating season and hang around until their chicks hatch. We haven't seen any yet but we can hear them at night out in the water. They sound kind of liike a crying baby.

I climb tree.

This is what the cops drive here!

2009-04-26T00:26:00.000-07:00

The South Island as seen from the airplane as we approached Wellington.

Flying over the wellington harbour.

Feeling triumphant as we arrived in our "Sweet As" Suite at the Duxton Hotel Awesome breakfast's! ( "Sweet As" is kiwi slang for really sweet...you can add "as" to just about anything apparently. ie. "Hungry As" or "Big As" but people might think you just said they have a big ass :)

The view from our room.

Same view at sunrise the next morning.

Wellington, New Zealand

2009-04-19T15:06:00.000-07:00

Hello!!!

We arrived about 4 weeks ago. Including lay-overs the total travel time was about 20 hours from San Francisco to L.A. to Auckland to Wellington! The trans-pacific time was a little over 12 hours but we tried to sleep most of the time.

photo: flying over the North Island