The one with Peter Jackson's home town

I've heard rumor that Sir Peter Jackson has a replica of Bilbo Baggin's hobbit hole in his Wellington backyard for his guests to stay in so I tried to contact him and asked if we could stay there but never received any reply :( womp womp. Since that never panned out, we found another family to couch surf with who lived in Upper Hutt, which is about 30 minutes north of Wellington. Our plan was to stay two nights there and then take the ferry to Picton in the South Island but we quickly realized that we were grossly unprepared to pack all of our possessions (which were strewn all over the rental car we had gotten in Auckland, I might add) back into our bags, try to see Wellington and surrounding areas all while trying to get ferry tickets, and make accommodation and transportation plans for Picton/South Island etc. So...we decided to stay a couple extra days in Wellington just to do some planning and logistical stuff.

Back to the cool stuff, like what we saw and did while in Wellington...

Our first afternoon there, we walked through the Wellington Botanical Gardens before we went to the top of Mount Victoria to see the beautiful panoramic views of the city. We both love seeing gardens in the different cities and towns that we visit, even back in the US, so since we've been in New Zealand, we've tried to visit every garden that we could find.

Some adorable ducklings that we saw in the botanical garden

It's springtime in New Zealand!

A field of poppies...I was in heaven

View of Wellington harbor from the top of Mount Victoria 

Starry, starry night

Our last night in Whanganui Don shot some amazing photos of the night sky that I forgot to share in the last post. There was barely any light pollution because we were so far out of the town and once our eyes adjusted to the darkness, it was insane how many stars we saw.

Breathtaking view of the Milky Way over the farmhouse we stayed in in Whanganui

Don Dauphinee is an absolutely phenomenal photographer!

Whanganui...where dreams come true - part 3

Day 3 in Whanganui. Woke up to birds singing again!...oh and there was as lamb 'baaaaah'ing at the window. It was precious. We spent the majority of our morning planning more of our trip and cleaning up the house that we had been staying in, nothing too exciting. In the afternoon, we went with the Todd family to this huge cable swing that swings out over the Whanganui River i.e coolest swing ever.

At the beach, we played on the huge (!!!!) playground and went on the small zip-line (which they call a flying fox here). Don and I pretended we were children again and it was lovely. I've always known that I love playgrounds even as an adult but in New Zealand, they have all kinds of cool contraptions and things that we don't have on any playgrounds I've ever been to in the United States.

Here's some pretty cool pictures from the day...

It was hard to capture the range of the swing over the river.

It was so much fun. I was scared at first but then I wanted to stay there and just swing forever.

Don on the flying fox zipline

Playgrounds are the best...nothing quite like revisiting your childhood on a swing set.

We got a photo with the wonderful Todd family! The sun was so bright that Caleb couldn't open his eyes - ha.

Whanganui...where dreams come true - Part 1

After Waitomo, we journeyed to Whanganui as a stopping point on our way to Wellington. When we arrived at the couch surfing host home, we really had no idea what to expect. The host, David, came out of his house and asked to get in our car so he could show us the place we would be staying. A bit confused, we continued down the long driveway. We had figured we would be staying with him, but instead he brought us to the five-bedroom farmhouse that he had grown up in. Apparently, when he is in between tenants, he uses it as a place to put up travelers and couch surfers for the night. He leaves it set up to be lived in...beds, linens, dishes, appliances. It was wonderful. It was so peaceful and quiet as we were probably about a kilometer from the closest road which was hardly ever used anyways.

Our first night, I cooked dinner for David and Don and we spent the evening talking with David and exchanging stories about our lives and experiences. From just a few minutes talking with him, it was clear that David was one of the most kind and hospitable people we had ever met. He was a Hospice Chaplin and you could tell that he cared about people so much. We made arrangements to meet him in town the next morning so he could tell us more of the history of the community. Before dinner, the neighbors (also tenants of David) came over and invited us to come over later that evening, which we took them up on. They were also wonderful people: Linda and Kane Todd and their children Caleb, 10, and Alesha, 9. First, Kane asked us to show the kids where Rhode Island was on Google Earth. They even wanted a street view of our respective homes! Kane had all sorts of questions about the United States, mostly stemming from what he had seen on TV about the USA and Americans.

So, for this part of the post, you may think I'm a little ridiculous because I might get gushy. Let me just tell you, and Don will vouch for this, during our travels driving through the rolling hills filled with cows and sheep and lambs, I had mentioned that one of my goals during this trip was to hug a lamb...little did I know that in Whanganui, I would get to hug, feed, hold, and fall in love with a 12-day old lamb named Dinner. A hour or so into our time with the Todd's, an adorable little lamb comes running in the room from outside, and I almost started to cry! I was having a Kristen Bell/Sloth moment like the clip from Ellen. If you haven't seen it, here you go. Watch it and you'll know how I felt when I saw the lamb.

They asked me if I wanted to hold and feed the lamb and of course I said yes! Don captured a few moments of glee...I could have cried the whole time I hugged and held the adorable fuzzy sweetheart lamb. 

My look of pure delight when Dinner 'baaaaah'-ed in my arms 

I love you, sweet lamb who has captured my heart. I hope you stay little forever. I wish I could fit you in my bag and carry you with me everywhere.

So yeah. That was one of the highlights of the trip so far for me. I fell in love with a lamb. 

Over a few (large) glasses of delicious white wine, we stayed up till midnight chatting with Linda and Kane after the kids (and the lamb) went to bed. It was a great night and ended with them inviting us over for a BBQ the next night. We went to bed that first night happy, content, and excited for whatever else Whanganui might have in store for us. 

I forgot to mention something...Couch Surfing!

Forgot to mention that the night before we headed to Rotorua, we discovered the joys, comforts, warm beds, and happy stomachs of couch surfing! I was getting tired of trying to find a place for us to sleep every afternoon, so I decided to start looking for a host through couch surfing, just so we could sleep in real beds for once. Also, we both wanted to get to know locals and see the country through their eyes. We knew that we would learn more about what to do and see from a local than we ever would from our guidebooks.

So, our very first couch surfing host was a couple who lived in Katikati, about an hour from Rotorua. They fed us a lovely dinner, which we weren't expecting at all. They were letting us stay in their home for free and also feeding us for free?! It was a wonderful experience to say the least. They also were more than willing to share their breakfast foods with us.

After that night, I started making way more couch requests in hopes that we could find free places to stay each night. More on that in a little bit...

Winter Gardens

Our last couple days in Auckland were spent wandering around Auckland Domain in the Winter Gardens and climbing Mount Eden to get view of the city from higher up.

Rainbow Swiss Chard

Posing at the Mount Eden crater

Later in the day it started sprinkling and we holed up in adorable coffee shop called Remedy Coffee in the heart of Auckland CBD where I had my first experience with drinking chocolate, which is chocolate, ice cream, and cream...delicious. Don had his first iced coffee, which, here in New Zealand means that it has ice cream and cream in it as well. Much more indulgent and fattening than iced coffee back home but also much tastier :)

While in Remedy Coffee we planned out much of our journey through the rest of the North Island, deciding that we needed to rent a car.