Chapter 2: Mount Maunganui

Near to Tauranga is a large hill called "The Mount" or Mount Maunganui (though that tends to refer to the area called such). One day Lucia and Ray suggested climbing to the top to watch the sunset with a picnic dinner of takeaway Indian food. Never one to argue with a great idea Renee agreed! (Moose came too)
While it had been a little cloudy and rainy lately the group was undeterred and it turned out to work in their favor because as they were hiking up they were able to see this:

The view was, of course, more stunning in real life but the picture is all that Renee was able to capture. The hike itself was harder than Renee though it would be, and Moose refused to walk at all - insisting that he be carried, lazy sod. Lucia and Ray are both a bit taller than Renee and thus have longer legs so they made it to the top much quicker. It was nice though and the view of the sunset (and the delicious food) made it totally worth it.

XP: Height of the Mount (in meters): 232 (that's like, 600+ feet! woah crazy)

Chapter 1: Tauranga

So after doing such a good job documenting my driving up the South Island I guess I decided it wasn't worth it because on my drive from Wellington to Tauranga I took exactly ZERO pictures. Oops. It was pretty but not really worth stopping for I suppose. It's strange that I have become so jaded to the INCREDIBLE scenery here, for the most part. Like, when watching the most recent installment of The Hobbit I found my self relatively un-stunned by the views because I get to see them EVERY DAY. In short, New Zealand is BEAUTIFUL. So yeah. Oops. Sorry about that. I'll be better in the future....maybe...

Upon arriving in Tauranga I promptly got lost and arrived at the hostel a full 2 hours after I had planned (even including some time for getting lost, turns out I took a "wrong" turn in Rotarua and so came to Tauranga the LONG way through Te Puke); however, this turned out to be a good thing because I checked-in 5 minutes after a lovely Dutch lady named Lucia who offered to share her dinner with me since we were staying the same room and all. As it turned out she's a vegetarian and it has be SO MUCH FUN having a friend staying in the same room :) I am also living with Ray who is from Germany and very pleasant company, he has joined Lucia and I in a dinner-making rotation so we each cook for the others and it gives us good conversation and different meals and I much prefer cooking for 3 (or 4) rather than one. Nora (also German) is the fourth in our room and she's nice but I feel like I never see her because she works long hours in the pack house but all the interactions I've had with her have been good.

One of the best things about the hostel (The Bell Lodge) is that they help find work for you. So far I've worked for a guy who owns a small farm doing odd jobs and sold fruit by the side of the road out of a van while waiting to start picking kiwifruit. Kiwi have to pass 4 tests before the massive picking can really start and the weather hasn't been super cooperative so they haven't started; however, I may be doing a different job working in a juicing factory instead, we'll see what happens. Maybe by the time this is posted I'll know. I'm going to try and do a better job of short posts (partly because if I want to do any large ones with lots of pictures I have to get to the library or pay for lots of internet) which I'm sure you like reading better anyway :P

Anyway...WOOO new adventure time!

Chapter 6: Dunedin, Cookietime, Christchurch, Ferry, Wellington!

Dunedin is an interesting city because it has lots of old buildings. It reminded Renee a lot of the East Coast in the States with the old buildings worked in with the new ones. Most of the time there was spent walking around seeing sights and appreciating not being in a car. Probably the most famous building in Dunedin is the train station which Moose insisted HE be the one to take a picture with, albeit from a strange angle

In the wandering Renee saw a sign advertising live jazz the first night and so she went and met a very nice guy named Dave who is learning to be a teacher at the university in town. She was reminded of the fun random people that can be met traveling and resolved to say yest to going to places/events more in the future.

The next day was the day of sight seeing by foot

Random old fountain which is now just a statue in a bank plaza:

Penguin friend! 

Honey and custard bun, lunch of champions: 

Eek! So many Ducks! (Botanical garden): 

The Steepest Street in the World! (or so they say) it was VERY steep though getting a picture of such was rather difficult, but this nice mural was at the top! 

The “big event” was visiting the Cadbury Chocolate Factory where they have a chocolate waterfall!! Oops, sorry, spoilers. Ahem. No cameras were allowed on the tour (and Moose was not able to sneak in) but some pictures were taken outside and where allowed

Entrance to Cadbury World: 

“Raw” Cacao Beans:

Old Milk Truck (no longer in use) 

WALL OF CHOCOLATE 

Overall quite a lovely adventure, sweetened by free samples!

The next day was another driving day, though they stopped at Timaru which was VERY cute: 

The biggest excitement was stopping just outside of Christchurch at the COOKIE TIME FACTORY!!!!!

CookieTime Mini: 

There are are no tours available, just a factory shop but it was awesome. Renee bought many cookies to bring back and share with her friends (though they didn't know she was coming).

Christchurch was much as Renee remembered it but the hostel she stayed in was quite the happening place. She met many lovely people and went to a rugby game with them! While they could have walked it would have taken too much time so they decided to drive, not realizing that parking would be SUPER CRAZY. After a couple wrong turns Max, Timo and Jenny helped Renee park the car in the craziest parking job ever. Totally worked though.

.

The rugby game was SUPER fun, especially since Max and Renee enjoyed yelling :P

In the morning Renee and her crew set out and drove north up to Picton, it was fairly rainy so next to no pictures were taken. The hostel served chocolate pudding and ice cream at 8pm which was great! Then in the afternoon Renee drove onto the ferry and took the journey across the Cook Straight and arrived in Wellington.

4 days later there was a trip to the States in which Renee surprised a few of her friends during a 10 day visit and watched her sister get married (for which she made 9 pies!) It was awesome.

XP: arbitrary 3,000 points which means LEVEL UP!!

Chapter 5: So Long, Farewell, auf Wiedersehen Good-bye!!

On March 5^th Moose, Petunia, Elgamore, Ingrid and Renee all piled into the car (with their appropriate belongings) to leave Haast for good!

Renee was surprised at the amount of stuff she had but also recognized that the “having more space to fill means I don't fill it as efficiently” theory was at play. As they drove out of the 43 person town Petunia couldn't help but giggle at the sign

Along the way south (to Queenstown) there were lots of beautiful views and a few places to get out and have a short walkabout.

Thunder Creek Falls

Fantail Falls

Blue Pools, Very Clear, Very Cold

Scary Bridge....

Lake Wanaka and the Remarkables Mountain Range

When the party arrived in Queenstown Renee took Moose out for a HOTT date at Patagonia where they shared a hot chocolate and read.

In the morning Renee had a delightful breakfast from Fergbakery of an apple danish and a cream filled doughnut.

Then MORE DRIVING! Further south towards Dunedin!

They passed Cromwell: 

Lake Dunstan (just outside Cromwell): 

Along the way is also a little town called Roxburgh that is home to the “famous Jimmy's Pies.” Having sold 4 different meat varieties at the Cafe in Haast and hearing from many people that they were exceptional Renee was quite keen to try a veggie kind and so made a point to stop off and visit the bakery.

The bakery itself is rather small, it was cramped with 3 people inside purchasing pies and has outdoor seating to the side because there are no tables inside. In the end Renee decided to try the vege pie and a fruit pie.

The vege pie was filled with a mix of mushroom, beans, corn, potato and a thick tomato sauce holding it all together. An interesting combination that was surprisingly good. The fruit pie was mostly thickened sugar which was a bit of a disappointment. Overall Renee thought it was an interesting trip and got her thinking a lot about opening up her own pie shop whence she returns stateside.

Then it was back on the road! More road kill was seen on this day then any other, most of it was possums (thankfully Renee did not actually hit any), Moose, Petunia and Elgamore were all very happy to be safely in the car. One thing that did not become road kill was cows who stopped traffic as they crossed the highway

As it turns out Renee gets tired of driving about every 2 hours so they made a stop in a little town now forgotten where Moose made a new friend!

FINALLY they arrived in Dunedin!

[Tune In Next Week for the STUNNING and COMPLETELY UNEXPECTED....well...the rest of the diving]

Interlude: Long time no post

Moose is used to having his own sign, silly penguins

*no actual penguins were seen*

Sorry for such a long absence, the short story is that I left Haast, took a week to get back to Wellington where I was for a couple days before going on a ten day whirlwind trip back home (for my sister's wedding!) and then was back in Wellington for a couple days and am now in Tauranga waiting to some sort of work around fruit. More details to follow in the blogs that come :)

~Renee