My Time in New Zealand

This weekend adventure started off with a migraine on Friday! So not the best way to start off my second to last weekend in NZ. Saturday we signed up for a wine tour on Waiheke island and then stayed in Auckland for the night. I am not big on drinking wine and can't tell the difference between a cheap and really expensive wine. Also I had no idea what the tour guides were talking about with the different wines, but it was still fun and got to taste a variety of wines. I have no clue what I was drinking or which one tasted better. I plan to bring some NZ wine home, so maybe someone at home can appreciate it more!

We toured 4 different places. The first was a winery where we had two tastings, a little tour and history of the winery, then sat down for an amazing lunch with a great view. To be honest, I don't think there is a bad view in NZ. Everywhere is beautiful! Our second stop was a place where they make olive oil. We had a little taste of some different types of olive oil, which were delicious and also got some background of how it is made. It was very interesting! Our third stop was another winery and also a brewery. We had a wine and beer tasting there, but not a tour of the vineyard. Our last stop was a winery with the most beautiful views and is a very popular place to have weddings! As we were leaving they were setting up for a wedding. Because it was a tour, we did not have much time at each place to really relax, but it was a warm and sunny day.

This coming weekend will be my last weekend in NZ. I am taking off teaching Friday to go to Queenstown for the weekend, should be very fun!

Me trying to be artsy

The tour bus

Tasting #1

Tasting #2

Our lunch

How to make olive oil!

Olive oil tasting

Tasting #3

Tasting #4

Tasting #5

Tasting #6

Tasting #7

The grapes I was eating while the tour guide talked

Tasting #8

Our hostel in Auckland

I have been so busy making lesson plans and teaching, I have not had time to post about my weekend. This is my fourth week teaching and I am getting very busy. I only have two more weeks of teaching after this. I also only have two more weekends left before I come home. Just enough time for two more weekend trips.

This weekend, I went to Waitomo Caves village. We stayed overnight Saturday in a hostel and came home Sunday. We went to this village to go to the glow worm caves. It is a very small village and the only thing to do there is go to the caves. When we got there Saturday, we walked to our hostel and hung out there for a couple of hours until our tour through the caves. The hostel was pretty cool to stay at. There was a swimming pool and it was a beautiful day to lay out by the pool and get a tan. Hopefully I come back really tan for graduation! Also at the hostel, there was a farm and tons of animals. They even had a pet deer that was very friendly!

Once it was time for the tour, we headed into the village. Our tour was through Cave World. Since the caves are under ground and we would be in the water, We all had to wear wetsuits, which I was thankful for because the water was cold in the cave. We also had a helmet with a light on it. After getting dressed, a van drove us to the caves. We had a short walk to reach the caves. Going down into the cave it was very dark and hard to adjust to no light. The tour guided talked to us about the cave and then we headed further into the cave where we got into the water and had inner tubes to keep as floating. Everyone hooked together to form a chain of inner tubes and we turned off our head lights. It was like being in a lazy river and looking up and seeing tiny little stars. But they were not stars we were seeing, they were glow worms!!!! They were so pretty to look at. After a while of floating through the cave and gazing up at glow worms, we came to a small waterfall, where we got out of our tubes and jumped over the waterfall! I was so scared to jump, but I had no choice and it ended up being really fun, except for getting a lot of water up my nose!

After the waterfall, we formed a chain of inner tubes again and continued going through the cave and seeing glow worms. We came to a bigger waterfall and this time there was a huge slide we got to go down! It was super fast and I wanted to do it again and again! The slide was the last bit of our tour and we were taken back to get out of our wetsuits and were given hot chocolate to get warm.

We grabbed a bite to eat in the village and then headed back to the hostel where we met four girls from the Pittsburgh area who were studying abroad in Auckland, small world! We finished the night with playing a game of tennis and some New Zealand monopoly! Overall, it was a great weekend and I am looking forward to our next two trips. Next weekend is a day long wine tasting tour, should be a blast!