Zooooooorbing

Hey, blog-readers and Polich-enthusiasts! It's Shawna, posting under Sarah's header. I'd like to say that I'm coming to you, Live!, from inside my Zorb ball, but that would be a lie... In reality, I crawled out from my Zorb ball a couple days ago, but am still glowing from the experience. Enough so, that Sarah has asked me to blog about it. This task also buys her a precious few minutes of me not talking about it all of the time. I've been starting too many stories recently with the lead in: "This one time...  In my Zorb ball..."

In brief, the Zorb itself is a giant clear plastic sphere. Nested inside of it is a second smaller clear plastic sphere with a seat and harness thingy. (Stop me if I'm getting too technical with my language.) The bubble rolls down a hill, courtesy of gravity, and spins the occupant inside @ss-over-tea kettle. This 30-second euphoria will set you back $40, but you get a free Facebook pic upload and a lifetime of being able to say with authority, "Never judge a hamster until you've rolled in her ball..." So, I call it a bargain at any price.

We drove up to the Zorb track right after they opened at 9am, and we were the only car in the parking lot.
I purposely decided not to read too much into that. First off, they need to verify with a line on the wall that you are tall enough to ride the ride. I was not. Next, you hope the recent college grads running the show are willing to look the other way on regulations like that. They were. Following this safety dance, I was parted from all of my loose items and cautioned to watch my head as I got into the back of a truck to be driven up a short hill to the Zorb launch pad. (I totally did hit my head exiting the truck, but I'll be damned if I was going to show weakness now!)

You enter the contraption by squeezing through a blue opening that I've been trying very hard not to call a sphincter. Once you are strapped in, you are not given too much time to contemplate the vomit-spatter patterns that may once have decorated this chamber, and the metal gate before you is opened. One small push. A slow rotation of your head forward and your feet backwards. And away you go down the hill!

It was awesome. Less than a minute, but I laughed the entire time and hurled not once. And I had my eyes opened for most of it. I know, I know... It occurred to me too:  Zorbing sounds just like sex.

Wining and dining

New Zealand's wines are rapidly growing in popularity and stature, so of course we had to fit in some wine tasting during our journey around NZ.  One of my vacation beliefs is that vacationing anywhere in the world  in wine country is bound to be good: beautiful geography (lush, rolling hills), relaxed days drinking wine either in cute cellars or in sunny patios, and generally good food.  It's hard to go wrong.  I've had many fantastic days drinking wine in South Africa, Napa/Sonoma, Croatia, and even Southwest Michigan.

Today we headed over an unexpectedly treacherous pass to Martinborough, known primarily for its Pinot Noir grapes. Very cute little town where we had a tasty lunch before heading off to the wineries.  It's Monday here, so it was a little sleepy, but we could see how popular the town could be on a bright, sunny weekend in the summer.

At the first winery we visited, the tasting room manager plied us with wine and regaled us with stories of the folks he met as he hiked the Appalachian Trail and the fun times he has going through American customs/immigration ("yes, I live on a farm;" "yes, I take medication not approved by the FDA;" etc).  Perhaps my favorite part of that winery was the herd of sheep grazing between the vines.  Ah, New Zealand...

A few wineries later, we came across another unique wine tasting host (who was also the owner/vintner).  He had us laughing the whole time with his irreverence and clear disgust for other wineries who dared to used screw top caps instead of wine.  Erin probably liked this place the best, as the tasting room also came with a very friendly black lab friend....Oh yeah, there was some tasty wine along the way too.

After navigating our way back across the mountains to Wellington, we met up again with Alida who introduced us to Malaysian cuisine, which we all gave a big thumbs up.  We're now full, happy and sleepy, ready to hit the hay before the big Cook Straight ferry crossing tomorrow.

Wellington: coolest little capital in the world

Hello from lovely Wellington!  Wellington has been described as the "San Francisco of New Zealand" thanks to its hills, colorful houses, coffee shop variety, harbor/bay, and friendly people.  This city definitely has more charm and personality than Auckland, though I'm sure part of that has to do with the fact that we're here on a weekend rather than a work day.  Lots of people bustling about, on Cuba Street (a pedestrian street with shops, restaurants, etc), the waterfront area, at the museum, etc.

Alida showed us around town yesterday, negating our need for a map or making any decisions about what to do. Fabulous!  Had a delicious brunch, where Alida explained to us the different coffee choices here ('flat white' is the most popular option - similar to a latte but less milk and less foam).  Brunch was followed by a visit to Te Papa.  This museum is known as the crown jewel of New Zealand museums, full of artifacts, exhibits and stories of the founding, culture, and geology/biology of the country.  Fascinating stuff.  We also learned that apparently the Field Museum in Chicago has the best and largest surviving Maori meeting house that predates European explorers arriving here.  Guess I need to make a visit to the Field Museum when I get home, as the meeting house on display at Te Papa was gorgeous.

After some Kiwi culture, we meandered along the waterfront for some beautiful views of Wellington from across the harbor, and then we started hiking up - and up - and up - to the top of Mt. Victoria, where we were rewarded with 360 degree views of the city, harbors, hills, etc.  Others took a bus or drove up to the top, but we earned the views with the hike.

Ended our excellent day in Wellington with dinner at the Tasting Room where Alida scored us some amazing deals and some amazing food.  Wonderful Welly indeed.

(Wellington's nickname is apparently Windy Welly, but we lucked out with a sunny, windless day; hopefully we can keep avoiding the winds here, as they're supposed to be pretty wicked - worse than Chicago's Windy City winds)

Stinkin' it up in Rotorua

Pee-ew!  Rotorua is one stinky town.  It's one of the epicenters of geothermal activity in New Zealand, and as such has a heavily sulfuric smell.  But coming with the smell are some amazing geothermal features, and it's kind of amazing how quickly one can get used to the horrible smell of rotten eggs.

After a morning of Zorbing (more pics and details to come), we headed to the Waimangu Volcanic Valley for a beautiful hike through many volcanic/geothermal features.  We hiked through craters, next to lakes (some incredibly hot and others cold), near hot springs, around steam, and above terraces formed by silica.  The only major geothermal feature we missed was geysers, but we so thoroughly enjoyed our walk that we didn't even miss the geysers (plus the areas with the geysers are all expensive/heavily commercialized).

My favorite spot along the way was the Inferno Crater/Lake which was the most beautiful sky blue color, thanks to its turbulent nature (it rises/ebbs/overflows on a 5-7 week cycle, and as its refilling, it shakes up enough of the natural organisms living in the lake to give it the amazing blue color during a few days of the cycle).

We're now in Wellington, after a looooong afternoon/evening drive, and reunited with Erin!  Yay!  Excited to spend the day with her tomorrow, with her friend Alida showing us the native side of Wellington.

NZ culture

Enjoyed four large parts of New Zealand's culture today:

1.  Stopped by the Hobbiton movie set, though declined to spend $75NZ on the actual tour of Hobbiton.  I like Lord of the Rings, but not that much... New Zealand seems very proud of its role in the Lord of the Rings movies.

2.  Spent the afternoon in Rotorua soaking in the hot springs adjacent to Lake Rotorua.  This area of the country is very geothermal (lots of hot springs, geysers, volcanic activity, etc), and people from New Zealand have long come to this area to enjoy the restorative benefits of the hot springs. Today, the historical bath houses from the 1800s/early 1900s are a museum, but they have modern interpretations of these bath houses that are absolutely delightful. 

3.  Ended the day with dinner and a performance of traditional Maori culture.  This area of New Zealand is known for its Maori heritage (and making it accessible to tourists as a glimpse into former and current Maori culture).  Ate a traditional 'hangi' dinner (similar to a Hawaiian luau where it's cooked underground for several hours, but no pig - in NZ, it's lamb), drank wine from the first Maori-owned winery in NZ, and was treated to a performance of traditional Maori dancing, 'haka' (war chants), welcoming ceremony, etc.  Very cool and a nice insight into the Maori culture which is much more present and relevant in NZ than Native American culture is in the U.S.  There were clashes between the Maori tribes and white settlers, but apparently not to the same extent as in the US.  They found a way to coexist a lot more peacefully than they did in North America, so that the Maori culture still thrives today.

4.  Saw an elusive kiwi to finish off the night.  Took a night walk after the hangi dinner, and saw glow worms, New Zealand lizards, a kea bird (related to the parrot, and it will apparently try to eat the tires off our cars on the South Island), and the famous but difficult to see kiwi bird.  Kiwis are endangered and difficult to find the wild (mostly just in protected areas), and they're also nocturnal.  Luckily we got a great view of one of the kiwis at the Rainbow Gardens sanctuary, and saw another one hiding around in the back of her enclosure.  They're larger than I thought they'd be (the size of a small chicken), and quite fast!

Nutritional supplements

New Zealand has some unusual things in their nutritional supplements...

(We've since seen sheep placenta also used in lotions)

Hmmm...

Playing with Penguins

Another successful day in Auckland, with even the rain holding off for us (it was forecasted all day but only sprinkled very lightly for about a minute).  Wandered down to the waterfront area, which was pretty deserted on a chilly, gray winter morning, but you can tell is teeming with life and vibrancy during the summers and probably even now in the evenings.  Lots of delicious looking restaurants and fun bars, all with outdoor seating overlooking a harbor full of expensive yachts.  Auckland apparently has revitalized its waterfront areas in the last 10-15 years, and it's brought a lot of good energy back into the downtown area.  The area we're staying is also near the water but not near this trendy harbor area.  We're closer to the active working shipyards, which are also really interesting.  The Britomart area (as its known) is also in the midst of some revitalization though, with a new transportation center, mall area, and bars/restaurants/cafes.  We're going to explore a bit more tonight for dinner and drinks (and have already had a great breakfast at one of the cafes yesterday).

Walked a bunch today around town and up into the Ponsonby "suburb" (described as a suburb in the guidebooks but I'd call a neighborhood).  Cute houses (many of them well-maintained Victorian era homes), and a great main drag full of diverse restaurants, neat shops, and best of all - another Devonport Chocolate Shop.  Shawna was in absolute heaven getting her 2nd shot of hot chocolate after thoroughly enjoying her first yesterday (this hot chocolate is the most intense, thick chocolate you've ever drunk - it's really something special). 

Afterwards, fully fueled by hot chocolate, we boarded a shark bus to Kelly Tarlton's Undersea World, a ten minute drive along the coast.  Apparently this dude Kelly Tarlton was a diver, and decided he wanted to bring the diving experience to the masses.  So he built an aquarium in which the people go through it on a conveyer belt/moving sidewalk inside an acrylic tube while the fish/sharks/rays swim over and around them.  He thought it would be the closest people could get to diving without getting wet.  It was pretty darn cool, esp since they were feeding the sharks while we were there, so the sharks would swim directly above us with fish hanging out of their mouths, and the ray that was in this aquarium was ginormous.

Kelly Tarlton's also had an area about Antarctica and penguins, so we got to see both King penguins and Gentoo penguins, swimming, waddling, nesting, etc.  Pretty cool to hang out with them for awhile too.  There were a few of the king penguins that liked to waddle along the windows with us and then make faces at us.  Hee hee. 

A few random observations so far:

* Winter is not as cold here as in Chicago, but when it gets windy, it really gets blustery.  Brr.  Glad I have my winter coat!

* Auckland is expensive!  We stopped at a pharmacy yesterday to get Shawna some sunglasses, and their OPI nail polish was $25NZ (approx $20 US).  That does include their 15% sales tax, but still a mighty expensive bottle of nail polish.  Food, souvenirs, etc all seem to be expensive too.  If we'd taken a city bus back from Kelly Tarlton's instead of the free shark bus, it would have cost $3.40NZ (approx $2.90US).  Maybe it's just being in Auckland right now that things cost more, so it will be interesting to see if prices decrease as we leave the city at all. 

* There are loads and loads and loads of Asian restaurants here - eastern, south-eastern, south, middle eastern, etc.  Wow.  Apparently lots of people from Asia have decided to move to Auckland and open up restaurants with their native cuisine.  If you want indian, thai, japanese (noodles, sushi, izakaya, etc), malaysian, turkish, chinese, hong kong, etc - you're in luck.  Karaoke?  Indeed!  We've also seen a few Mexican restaurants but decided that they probably can't compare to Mexican food we can get in the US (we've yet to see any Mexican people here, but have seen tons of Asians).

* There are also loads and loads and loads of cafes.  I'd read that Wellington is known for its cafes, but it's hard to imagine more than we've seen here.  I saw 1 Starbucks so far (Beth saw a few others as we were on the shuttle from the airport), but mostly it's independent coffee shops, a few Gloria Jeans, and a zillion cafes.  Their coffee and snacks have been good so far, and we look forward to trying more.