Honeymoon

I would say the peak of Ilana feeling like crap was today. Debating whether to find some sort of urgent care clinic, load up on more drugs, or curse the one time Traveler’s insurance would have actually been worth it, we took it super easy today. A quick Uber down to the famous Te Papa Museum, where we saw the giant soldiers made by Weta Studios and were just told about on the previous day on our Weta tour. We aren’t huge Museum folk, but Te Papa is no ordinary museum, and it’s totally worth it. It also doesn’t hurt that it’s free. We then braved the outside for a solid minute or two, where we had to fight to stay upright against the intense… Read More »Nov 16: Te Papa

Wellington has some weird and wind-y walkways where one would need to walk in order to make their way around. Working backwards, we ended our night by traversing the many secretive and sharply-angled staircases and pathways throughout the Wellington neighborhoods from our fancy dinner at downtown’s Logan Brown back to our suburbanish AirBnB. Ilana almost traipsed right into a creepy cemetery at the edge of the local college campus, since it was too dark to tell what was two feet in front of us. I’m not sure who built these strange and random pedestrian paths throughout the city, but they must have taken inspiration from MC Escher. In any case, our 5 course dinner (plus a bonus cheese course) was divine, though the speed of… Read More »Nov 15: Weta

Driving through the rain towards Wellington, we spotted a big mysterious cat casually crossing the main road. We also saw some pretty sweet billboards, including an ad for “Owl-catraz” (a real place apparently), and a NZ Army ad stating ‘If your kids are out of line, send them to us!’ There was also a sign that we think was calling us eggs? Plus the semi-inspirational safe-driving boards. Gotta love the NZ humour. For brunch we stopped at a cafe for coffee and various meat pies to go, but then came the great disappearing meat pie debacle of 2019. Ilana swears she grabbed one for herself, Brevin claims he never saw it happen. We paid for two, but upon returning to the car we discovered that… Read More »Nov 14: The Long Drive

A trip to the other side of the world wouldn’t be complete if we didn’t meet up with someone we knew from back home. So we met up with Brevin’s coworker ARog and his traveling companion Lindsay for brunch at L’Arte Cafe. They were traveling in the opposite direction of us and on their way to Hobbiton. Turns out they stayed in the same hotel as us the previous night, in the very next room.  Despite still feeling off balance and wobbly, Ilana was so brave and went with Brevin on a 2 hour eBike ride along the Five Mile Bay (which ended up being about 16 miles total). We got some sweet mountain bikes so we could off-road on the pebbles and slightly uncut… Read More »Nov 13: Five Mile Bay

Like the true champions we are, we started the day with french toast and porridge at some cafe with some fuel-themed pun in the name. Unfortunately Ilana still had a touch of the vertigo and some lovely colored phlegm, but made the call to push onward with the day. We had already booked a half day, leisurely, child-safe, light-hearted kayaking tour to some ancient Maori carvings, only accessible by water. The thing is, on our particular journey, it turned out to be quite cold and windy, with unexpected 2.5 foot waves. While we were in our waterproof double sea kayak, Ilana took major splash damage every time we crested a wave, which was quite often. The kayak itself had a rudder that was operated with… Read More »Nov 12: Kayak Disaster

We have decided that in New Zealand you can’t tell if something is a golf course or a national park since everything is beautiful. Brevin has also noted that the average male pitch is higher than the average American male voice. We took it slowly this morning, starting at the Fat Dog for brekkie (Ilana’s mini croissants were divine), and then packed the car and made our way towards Taupo, with many stops along the way. First, Kerosene Creek — a secret hot spring accessed by a dirt road with a thousand potholes only known to travelers who take the unmarked roads. Then, the Lava Glass blowing gallery where we toured the gardens and pondered if we should spend our next 3 paychecks on a… Read More »Nov 11: Pit Stops

On spa day, we’re allowed to sleep in a bit. Not to mention the soothing sounds of torrential downpour helped our busy minds stay in restful slumber. It’s the first time we’ve had rain on our trip, but it was a warm kind of rain that you wouldn’t mind being caught in. So we strolled over to Polynesian Spa, draped in the finest plastic New Zealand branded ponchos. The downpour was immediately lessened as we stepped out the door, but the sulfuric gusts became more vigorous and lifted Ilana’s summer dress like in the movies. The soft drizzle cooled Brevin’s head whilst we tubbed in 3 of the alkaline pools and 1 acidic pool on site. The views of the bay from each pool were… Read More »Nov 10: Spa Day

Starting the day with a mince on toast and a bowl of porridge pitstop, we then strolled down to the electric bicycle depository, where Ilana grabbed a small, versatile bike named Gollum, and Brevin grabbed a large, all-seeing one named Sauron. Our 3.5 hour journey took us past the sulfuric aromas of the Geothermal hot springs to the grove of redwood trees, a friendly reminder that NZ’s flora has an identity crisis and we are the ones to benefit from the inconsistencies. Do note that large whafts of sulfer drifting into your mouth is rather unpleasant. Do also note that apparently 100 years ago any discovery of natural water, be it poison or actually clean, was considered a natural cure. Case in point: Cameron’s Laughing… Read More »Nov 9: Sweet Smell of Sulphur

A rousing rendition of the Wake Up Brevy song started our day off early! After checking out of the hotel, we walked to some breakfast, where a murder of old ladies (approximately 16+) joined at the table next to us. Brevin finally got his caramel milkshake and its thin frothiness did not disappoint. We then scooted our last scooty back and climbed into Lucy for a drive through the countryside to our next destination. We stopped at Velocity Valley for a casual ride through a water course at 100km/hr on a custom-built jet boat, also known as Agrojetting. As expected, Ilana was petrified and Brevin was thrilled. Our agro-captain has been doing this for 15 years and even helped on one of the scenes in… Read More »Nov 8: Adventuring!

After finding two award-winning sausage rolls at a local bread maker (Volare), we ventured to the Waitomo Glowworm Caves. The caves themselves were pretty dope, however the human beings that don’t understand basic “don’t be loud in a glowworm cave” instructions were infuriating. Brevin’s favorite part was the boat portion of the tour, where our tour guide pulled the 20-something of us in a boat by rope attached to the ceiling of the cave through complete darkness. The glowworms were basically like clusters of stars in the sky circa 259 BCE, before light pollution ruined the aesthetic of the stars themselves, before we as human beings destroyed everything that is beautiful on this earth. Also, there was kiwi fruit pavlova ice cream.  We then made… Read More »Nov 7: Glowworms

Rough morning as Ilana is still sick. Brevin jumped on a scooter to get meds at the pharmacy, and sausage rolls for strength. We headed to the Hamilton Gardens, a zoo for plants — better than a botanical garden, an amusement park for botanists. They had different themes of garden displays from around the world, like Chinese, Indian, sustainable kitchen, contemporary art garden, etc. Pretty spectacular as far as gardens grow. They also have super cool tall and skinny trees that are heretofore known as Plunkberry trees. They also have grass like the thneed trees in The Lorax. I would say this is one of the top gardens to ever be gardened, not just in New Zealand, but in all the lands. Ilana then passed… Read More »Nov 6: Hamilton Gardens

Brevin braved the left side of the road upon pickup of our rental car (Lucy – due to her license plate #) in Auckland. She is a silver Toyota Corolla! We drove out to Hamilton and walked (and scooted!) along the river for a bit. Then made our way to Hobbiton, via lush green surreal sheep-infested blissful tranquil saturated voluptuously green countryside, where, in all honesty, Brevin had no idea what was around the corner. We made a quick pit stop in Matamata before heading to the real Shire, where we took a special evening banquet tour and feast for about 5 hours. Worth every second. Also there’s suspiciously more cows on the side of the road than sheep, so I call false advertising. Words… Read More »Nov 5: Hobbiton

We took Swindley Jr out for a 9.2 mile ride around the coast of Auckland to the lustrous beaches of Mission Bay. Seven shell finalists were brought back to the hotel for transport home. Swindley Jr. is our newest favorite mode of transportation – an electric scooter! We both fit on one scooter, though probably aren’t supposed to, but it made for more fun riding. The sun was gloriously shining, the breeze came and went when we needed it, and we were told the weather hadn’t been this nice in weeks!  Back downtown we paid $50 USD for “the best” ice cream on the top of the Sky Tower. Brevin had plum creme fraische (it was actually pretty darn great) and Ilana had Honeycomb AKA… Read More »Nov 4: Swindley is Born

Walked for 25 mins to find a patisserie for breakfast, finally gave up and went to a regular coffee shop near Queens Wharf. Immediately after ordering we notice the French patisserie right next door. But we still acquired a Nutella brioche for later. We jumped on the ferry and had a 4WD tour on the volcanic island of Rangitoto, which means dark red sky. The neighboring island was wiped out by 3 meters of ash many moons prior. Our tour guide had South African humor that Brevin appreciated. Brevin loved loved loved the volcanic rock and botany. The road on the island was built 85 years ago by hand by Australian lesser-offense convicts. Apparently they got buckets of dusty water 4 times a day as… Read More »Nov 3: Rangitoto – Dark Red Sky