Auckland City

Quay St. Over the railroad bridge.

Looking down into the rail yard.

The famous NZ sky tower is a little to the left of the yellow train, the tallest building in Auckland.

The railway connects to the boat shipping yard.

This awesome apartment building, I wanna live here! It has entire walls of glass and glass balconies.

The steps disappearing into DAVIEY JONES' LOCKER!

Obviously this dock has been here for a while.

Some sweet as under bridge graffiti.
All that for Jak's first tour of Auckland. Joe will be traveling to Auckland very soon from Katikati, and hopefully he will also make a post! haha. 

Kiwi picking

Kiwis grow similar to grapes, hanging downwards off the vines. They are picked while they are still unripe, so there is no need to be gentle with the fruit. we just throw it into the apron bags.

Each bin, behind Joe, is worth anywhere from 12 dollars to 16 dollars. Each 'gang' of pickers divides that money among them all. An ideal gang is 10 to 12 pickers, because they aren't getting in each others way, but they still have enough people to fill the bins quickly.

One day we picked for 9 hours and got almost 150 bins filled. Boy does that make you sore! Most of the weight of the aprons is on your shoulders and back, and reaching up to get the fruit puts even more strain on the shoulders. But nice paycheck that day!

Rotorua - Katikati

I (Jak) spend 3 weeks in Rotorua NZ, working at Spa Lodge backpackers. Rotorua is a highly active geothemeral area, with lots of boiling mud pools and steaming pools. The area is very cool, in the center of a very old volcano. A lake now fills the main crater, but pretty much anywhere in Rotorua you can see the edges of the crater all around. I attended New Heights Baptist Church in Holdens Bay, about 8 k out of Rotorua. I met several very awesome families there, and was warmly welcomed. I stayed over at an older couple's home over my last weekend, Lesley and Clyde Dominey, and I received many good recipes and lots of valuable advice about my future travels. The Dominey's son Simon and his wife Jacqui have 5 girls and 1 boy. They spend quite a bit of time with us as well, it was great fun talking about the differences between America and NZ. Also we found that we shared interests in John Piper and Mark Driscoll. :D How random is that? In the middle of NZ, I'm finding people to talk to about preachers I love to listen to.

Anyways, the time spend with their darling children was made me very homesick, I thought of my two youngest sisters, and missed them very much.

NZ backpacker meals

First day in Rotorua, Jak was eating a can of spaghetti and boiled carrots and pumpkin. Jak thought the noodles looked like worms, and they didn't taste so good either once she had that thought in her head.
Joe's meal on the other hand, was a work of art, perfectly fried potato wedges, carrot slices and slices of steak.

Jak's meal, served up with a glass of lemon Lift.

Joe's meal took a little longer, because of it's more complex deliciousness.

The perfect hearty meal for a genius chef. ;)

Jak busy on her 2nd try of making pepernoden. First time she added too much milk and they flattened like regular cookies. They were delicious, but not right, so she tried again. Jak and Joe were finally sick of them by the 3rd try.

Immediately after removal from oven, but again, a little too big when Jak formed them, so they were too big when they spread out while baking. :(

Success!!! The 3rd try, and they turned out just perfect, small, crunchy, and amazing. :)

In kiwi country, Katikati, we made sure we kept up with our fruit intake in a classy way with a pretty desert consisting of regular kiwi, golden kiwi, and mandarin oranges.

We poured an old kiwi favorite (according to the package) over the fruit, vanilla custard. mmmhhhm!

Wellington Ferry ride

On the ferry waiting for it to leave. The thing took longer to load up then an airplane!

Artsy shots by Joe of various elements of the ship.

Picton harbor - a small lovable township that connects the South Island with the North Island.

View from the otherside of the boat.

Finally we were off! The ferry was super slow though, apparently to add to the scenicness of the ride.

From the observation deck, it was very windy and rainy up top.

The Queen Charlotte Sound was very narrow and quite beautiful, though I can see it being very dangerous on a foggy day.

More artistic talent from Joe shown by pictures of the lifeboats.

Jak squinting in the wind and trying to look clever.

One of the outdoor balconies.

Joe looking thoughtful on the observation deck, the coast of the North Island is in front of him.

Windy Wellington in the distance, the rain started right on cue as Wellington came into sight.

It was pouring by the time we landed. The ferry ride lasted about 3 hours and took us over 92 k of water.

Franz Josef glacier

On the way to Franz Josef glacier, a stream heading out to the sea.

A peek of ice from a distance, the glacier looks like a huge dam break suddenly frozen in time.

A stream of melting ice flows from underneath the glacier.

Beautiful waterfall nearby the glacier.

Like a postcard, it looked so beautiful.

yes, I did go past here, the signs were just too funny to take seriously. But...there was ice fall, and it was pretty scary looking, just random and always moving ice walls.

I ran all the way to the glacier, about 10 k there and another 4 k hike to get out to the glacier. It was raining and very cold if you weren't moving, so I probably was warmer then most of the people going to see the glacier in their raincoats, rain pants, and umbrellas.

Going back. The icy cold glacier fed river runs just outside of the township of Franz Josef. These mountains, wrapped in mist, looked so beautiful in the rain.

graffiti - Dunedin

 is that not some of the coolest graffiti ever?

i love how this art morphs into the actual greenery so effortlessly. 

no I am not in Dunedin anymore, but I really wanted to post those pictures. :) so there you go.
brief update. we are in the north island now. Joe has found work packing kiwi fruit near Katikati, and Jak is working at Spa Lodge Backpackers, in Rotorua, in exchange for accommodation. Rotorua is an amazing geothermal basin in the middle of an old volcano, unfortunately because of all the geothermal activity, Rotorua is famous for it's evil eggy smell that permeates everything in the town.

(ps. Tony Roo, you wouldn't believe what movie I found at the Warehouse (the Warehouse is like Fleetfarm)...are you ready for this? Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure!)