More New Zealand News

We're sitting in Wellington now with plans to take the early ferry to the South Island tomorrow. We've spent the last couple days breezing through the North Island. My birthday was spent driving from Whangarei to Rotorua, a good five hour drive. We were welcomed to the city by a lovely sulfur smell associated to the strong thermal activity in the area. We booked a hotel with a spa in the city and spent the evening strolling the area and relaxing in the spa. I picked up some local mud to smear on my face (it's supposed to be good for the pores!) and some yummy gourmet pizza for dinner. It was a nice birthday evening.

Today, we drove another six hours to Wellington. The drive didn't seem quite as long as it was. The scenery changed drastically as we drove, beginning lush and green with sporadic clouds of steam rising from the ground, to baron and brown, and then back to green again. Both drives were fun with narrow winding roads (on the other side of the road!) and huge changes in elevation. I'm enjoying it.

It was a holiday today so a lot was closed. We did manage to complete some window shopping. I was hoping to pick up some short sleeved tops while we were on leave but it doesn't seem likely. It's nearing Winter here so the trend is going long sleeved. Bummer.

Tomorrow, it's bright and early to rise so we can make the crossing to the South Island. All who we've met along the way say that the South Island IS New Zealand. Thus the reason why we burned through the North Island so quickly once we completed our SCUBA certification. I think the plan is we'll spend a night in Blenheim/Nelson, continue on to Greymouth, spend the night and hit the Monteith's brewery, continue on towards Queenstown (staying somewhere in between) and then use Queenstown as a base while we visit Mt. Cook, the Sounds, and other neighboring attractions. We've met quite a few Kiwi's that insist Queenstown is the place to be AND that's where we're flying out of...so why not :)