elaine's strange little world

hi again! just wanted to do another excited update...david and i are in a town called rotorua (which we're leaving tomorrow, but no matter) and so far, over the last 2 days, we've visited a maori village with geysers and mud pools, seen a maori cultural show, gotten massages at a sulhpur spa thing, zorbed (rolled down a hill in a giant plastic ball), seen a sheep show with 19 breeds of sheep, and toured a working organic farm. so much fun! and the day before rotorua, we visited matamata, where the hobbiton section of lord of the rings was filmed.

tomorrow, on to tongariro national forest, which was mordor in lord of the rings. weee!!!

david and i area back in aukland for a day after spending two days on paradise island, otherwise known as waiheke island. beautiful place, sunshine and greenery and super clean beaches and vineyards and olive oil groves. basically, perfect, other than the fact that new zealand is under an ozone hole and the burn time on the beach is 7 minutes. so, of course, despite the massive amounts of sunblock i used, i still ended up closely resembling a lobster, especially on my legs and upper back. better today, after lots of aloe, but still not so happy. all my fault, really, for not re-applying often enough.

we stayed at a wonderfully adorable b&b, completely surrounded by trees and bushes. we were served breakfast in the morning and afternoon tea at 3ish, and there was a spa pool (otherwise known as a hot tub, but they don't say that) and our room had its own balcony and it was lovely. super relaxing atmosphere, very friendly owners, just wonderful. literally a two minute walk to the beach, if you're walking slowly. about 5 minutes into the village, with yummy restaraunts and cute shops. we also took a vineyard tour and sampled really yummy wines. waiheke island is one of the premier wine growing regions in new zealand, and the wine was aesome! more flavorful than a lot of california wine, actually. and then we went olive oil tasting, so yummy! so yes, good few days. neither one of us wanted to leave.

now, we're off to climb the aukland harbour bridge! excitement!