And just like that, graduation comes and goes. Despite the massive life event, the only thing I could look forward to was the incredible grad trip that awaited me afterwards! (Thanks Mom and Dad!!!) Having spent the last two summers in Europe, I decided I wanted to branch out from the usual eurotrip and experience a change of scenery. A whole hemisphere change to be exact.
SO with my little brother and my bestie/roomie(#whereintheworldaremariaandquinlan) (#andpablo) we found ourselves in Oceania to start a full 5 weeks of travel. And with only a 20
pound backpack. Yes, I am absolutely in shock that I managed that.
After a long flight, we landed in Auckland, New Zealand (!!!!) and immediately took off for the Bay of Islands. While we had expected colder weather over there, lemme just say that we were in no way prepared for what actually awaited us. But after a long bus ride, we got to our hostel, called The Mousetrap. Yeah no joke that's the name, but it was great. After setting our stuff down, and talking to the presumed owner of the hostel, we set off to visit a waterfall a little bit outside of the town, Paihia. While the trek there was nice, we got caught in some not so nice weather....
And when I say not so nice, I mean that it literally HAILED on us. Yeah. It happened.
Since we were basically soaking wet, we decided to call it an early night to prepare for our boat tour of the bay the next day.
The Bay of Islands consists of around 150 small islands in the tip top of New Zealand. The boat toured us around several islands, and even though it was cloudy and somewhat rainy, we enjoyed it all the same. We saw a baby dolphin, which is enough to cheer me up any day.
The sun finally broke through for a brief stop on one of the islands in the bay, which, after quite the climb to the top of these hills (tiny mountains in my opinion) provided quite the view. Even without clear skies, the landscape was breathtaking.
After a great two days in Bay of Islands we headed back to Auckland once again. Basically as a reward for our intense commuting, when we arrived in the city, we met up with my other brother (poor Quinlan) and headed towards Waiheke island. The island is known for its wineries and vineyards, which is equivalent to heaven in my eyes. We toured a couple of the wineries, for the rest of the day and essentially had one of the greatest days ever.
Calling it quits, we headed back to Auckland to end the day. We woke up bright and early the next day though, rented a car, and drove south to the greatest place in the entire world. Aka HOBBITON!!!! Dreams really do come true everyone.
After freaking out the whole 2 and a half hours there, we finally arrived in Matamata where the set is located , and I proceeded to geek out. Much to everyone's dismay. But come on, it's
The Shire so I couldn't help myself. I was going on an adventure!!!! (name that movie)
The individual hobbit holes were all so detailed I literally could have spent hours there. Hearing about all of the small additions that went in to making The Shire as realistic as possible made me so giddy I'm sure everyone else on the tour wanted to throttle me, my own travel pals included. I managed to reign myself in somewhat though, and after having a beer (or two) at the end of the tour, we headed out.
We spent the night in Rotorua, which is a town known for it's natural springs. The whole town smelled like sulfur. Since we spent so little time there, that's about all I have to say for it. (Sorry bout it)
We headed back to Auckland and spent our last day in New Zealand touring around the city. The country celebrates the Queen's birthday a little later (confused me quite a bit) so we got to see some of the festivities! We ate, got some ice cream, and walked around. All in all quite a relaxing day in preparation for our day of traveling the following day.
Despite the less than stellar weather, New Zealand was an incredible country. Having only stayed in North Island, I am dying to go to South Island to get to see more of the country's culture and meet even more amazing Kiwis!!
After a quick flight, we switched Kiwis for Aussies and couldn't wait to get on with the next part of our post grad #noneurotrip!!
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