NZ-Land:: A Family Adventure

So I finally did it! I got all of my NZ photos uploaded. There are a plethora of ways for you to access them if you so desire:
North Island via Facebook here.
South Island via Facebook here.
It all via Google Picasa here.




The trip was amazing! And it was a TON of fun to meet my family in New Zealand for the break! :) I think the photos give a pretty good overview of the trip. So I'm just going to do a quick "Highlights" of things I learned/liked.

ONE.
I don't so much like traveling alone. The first 10 days I was on the North Island by myself before my parents and brother were to meet me. Sometimes it wasn't so bad. It meant that I could spend as long doing the things that I wanted, and as little long not doing the things I didn't want. It also meant that I became quite adept at using the auto-shutter-release on my camera:



TWO.
If you ever do decide to travel through NZ alone, be encouraged, you don't have to be alone alone... STRAY is here to help! Stray tours are an AWESOME option for those who are traveling alone, but don't want to be completly alone, but don't want to be on a really restricting type of tour either. :)

We got to ride in a really red van-bus...


...and you have people to sand-board race against...



So to re-cap. Traveling alone + Stray Tours = Much more fun!

THREE.
NZ-landers like weird fences.


Unfortunentally this is the only one that I got a photo of. But in passing I also saw one with:
Old bikes.
Shoes.
and Shayne found one online with
Old toothbrushes.

FOUR.
Anyplace with Garden Gnomes is awesome! Thank you to the Waiheke Sculpture Walk for making my day!


FIVE.
I can jump higher than my brother the Iron Man :)


SIX.
NZ-Landers either hate Opossums or don't know how to stuff animals..... or both.

....creeeeeepy.

SEVEN.
You can still use the fun auto-shutter-release even when you're united with your traveling buddies!


EIGHT.
NZ loves their coffee with milk and sugar as much as I do! Every place we stayed offered us a mini-sized bottle of milk for our coffee in the morning :) They also provided coffee each morning for drinking :)

NINE.
Sometimes rain is NOT cool. Like when it cancels your ice climbing excursion and re-makes it into a glacier walk.


TEN.
Sometimes rain IS cool. Like when it makes millions of waterfalls all along a 5 hour drive!


ELEVEN.
NZ is beeeautiful. No matter where you go!