Land of Redwoods, thermal parks and ZORB

Rotorua- still can't pronounce it right! If there is anything you could imagine activities wise, it's here!
Rafting, sky diving, bungee jumping, trekking, mountain biking, horseback riding, sky lining (luge ride down a mountain), hot thermal baths, Maori villages, swimming/boating in one of many lakes, ZORB'n, etc, etc-it's all here. Slightly overwhelming? That's the New Zealand way! YeeeeAh

What Rotorua is most well known for is it's smell. You see, the town is directly located in one of the most geothermal active regions in the world. Rotorua smells like one big rotten egg, but the steam coming up from the ground everywhere you look is pretty cool. You can see why it get so touristy here. It's pretty funny when hotels and holiday parks advertise "smell free" in their descriptions.
Choosing activities while we were here for just two short days took a bit of planning but we managed to fit in some pretty fun (and active!) adventures. Here's a snapshot of a few...

The Redwoods of Rotorua.

Towering 200ft plus overhead, these California Redwoods were truly amazing!

...and the mushrooms were pretty neat too;)

 Our 2hr hike provided some great shelter from the rainy day; and some spectacular views.

Reforestation after logging devastation

View point overlooking Rotorua. 

Our next adventure...

Artist Palette-overflowing water from the Champagne Pool

 Hot, steamy and bubbly-Champagne Pool

Shawn the daredevil-always testing the boundries (literally!)

Grow up? What fun would that be?!

She's gonna blow! Lady Knox Geyser blows off her steam every morning at 10:15 rain or shine.

How many tourists can you spot?

Good thing we got here early for front row seats!

This was by far the coolest part. Boiling mud!

(Watch for video posting our videos tab)

Forest meets jungle

Road trip!
Two days in Auckland catching up on sleep, tying up lose ends at home and trying to rent the last free rental vehicle left in New Zealand...why do we always seem be the last to know that it's a holiday? Needless to say, after all our messing about, we finally managed to rent a car and get out of Auckland. So glad we did 'cause here's some pretty cool places we've been and seen;)
On the North Island...

 The Coromandel peninsula. Home to some of the largest & oldest Kauri trees on NZ. The Square Kauri Walk took us to the 15th largest kauri estimated to be just 1200 yr old! (Left). Only 187 to the top.

Kauri grove tree lovers walk. That's me! lol

The drive to the forest from the coast was stunning. The diversity of plants and trees like nothing 

we've seen before. Safe to say that if you mixed a forest and jungle together, that's what the NZ forests in Coromandel look like. Palms and pines growing together-amazing.

Reading for tree lovers like myself;)

A decent 1hr trek to Cathedral Cove lead us to this amazing beach and natural rock formation. In time, the rock will collapse due to natural forces. Not this day, thank goodness:)

Cathedral Cove

...in time, this arch will collapse due to natural forces...

I'm a lime smuggler!

In the land of kiwis, I'm a lime smuggler....
On our arrival from Tahiti into Auckland airport, there were numerous signs posted about claiming your fruits, veg, meat, and camping/hiking gear or face some hefty fines. Of course this didn't apply to us because we weren't travelling with any of these goods nor had we been to a farm or brought our camping gear on this leg...or so I thought:(
New Zealanders are pretty serious about keeping diseases and foreign pests out of their country that they introduced a law stating that anyone who brings in such items (know or unknown) will pay fines from $400-$10,000 NZD (about the same CND).
And so the story goes...
We claimed no to all of the above, told the officer we had nothing to declare and proceeded to the X-ray line to double (no triple) check that this was true. Even when the lady grabbed my carry on pack off the belt and said "who's bag is this?" I didn't realize what was in store. It wasn't until she was searching my bag and asking if I had any food (no) still not realizing the lime stuffed quickly in the side of my pack from Tahiti (which was for the drinks-we never used, terribly expensive and might I add, worse lime I've ever paid for!!) did I then panic: s@$T, I totally forgot about the lime! As the lady pulled the lime out of my bag and told me the about the penalty, I felt a rush of adrenalin pumping through me and totally panicked. "I'm soooo sorry- I totally forgot I put it there!" She was quite nice about it but still passed me on the the next officer and told me to explain my story to him. HE was not so impressed. He read me my rights and handed me a sheet of paper to read over. I broke down in tears-still apologizing like all good Canadians do, while Shawn read what I couldn't. The officer said, "read this carefully, take your time, I'll come back to ask how you want to handle this." The paper said (in a nut shell).
Dear FRUIT SMUGGLER (just kidding)
You have been found guilty of bringing items into New Zealand that have the potential to harm, infest, blah blah blah. Regardless that you were unaware, forgetful, blah blah blah.
Your options are as follows; (I shortened this part)
1) Pay fine of $400 NZD immediately
2) Pay fine within 14 days
3) Claim appeal and go to court within 28 days
4) Do nothing. May face persecution (or something like that)
As I sat there crying and fretting that this already ruined my NZ experience, Mr big shot came back over with another piece of paper. He handed to me and said, "This is your warning. Next time make sure you check all your bags. Have a nice trip."
What?!?!?!!!!
I thought FOR SURE I'd have to hid and lay low while I "#4 did nothing" and left the country before they caught up to me. Feeeuw!
Shawn and I both agree from now on to double check each others bags before anymore flights into foreign countries!
Welcome to New Zealand!

Warning letter  - notice they even weighed my lime!

This deserves a cheers:)

Tahiti Treat

Ok, so you haven't heard from us for some time...
That's what Tahiti will do to you! It's not that we didn't want to spend the $25 to use the internet (not!). We were just busy watching the our giant, private aquarium:) One word: AMAZING!
We'll let the pictures tell the rest...

Off our private swimming deck. 

We had to be careful not to step right on the coral (or the fish!) so mostly we jumped off.

It's safe to say we spent more time peering over the edge at our private, giant aquarium lol

Probably explains the sunburns:(

What's more, we saw a shark swim by just 5 feet from our patio and only 10 min after Shawn exited the water from snorkelling!!! How big? Oh, 4 feet or so...yikes!

Water so warm, it was like floating in a giant bathtub...with fish!

Our favourite activities morning and evening

Total relaxation

Panorama from our patio

Infinity pool-pretty cool

Sunrise and sunset from our overwater bungalow

1980s called and wants their phone/channel changer back.

Time to leave Tahiti and head to Auckland, New Zealand.

Let the adventures begin!

Snow to sunshine

Part two of the World Trip begins!

We flew out of Buffalo airport Tues Jan 28 in verrrrry cold and windy weather and flew into sunny, warm Los Angeles, California. We spend two days and nights in LA before we fly out to the islands of Tahiti. What should we do with our time in LA? Price is Right!!! Come on down!

Our plane at Buffalo Airport in minus 33 wind chills. 

California sunshine

Come on down! Spent all day at CBS studio for our chance to win a car...

Our vacation at home

What an amazing "vacation" we had at...home? The five weeks we spent with family and friends was something Shawn and I have never experienced before. As many of you know, the holidays are rushed and time spent with family & friends is short. In the past, 2 days would be all that we had to rush from one family dinner to another, and as much as we enjoyed all the food in a short time, we always felt we couldn't give the time everyone deserved. So these past 5 weeks (although still short and we still couldn't fit everyone in) was amazing! Thanks mom/Minke for allowing us to share your warm home and comfy spare bed with us:)
Here is a photo diary of some of the highlights but we can't go without mentioning some of these highlights first!
1) Our new niece was born Dec 31st just 3 hrs shy of midnight. Mia is the first baby for the family so we were all pretty pumped for her arrival. She is beautiful and healthy-we love you Mia!
2) Spending time with all the nieces and nephews (esp Monster Trucks!!!) was amazing! A truly  unforgettable experience.
3) Spending time with Arla - our best friend. We miss you already but know you are in good hands with grandma, grandpa and Uncle Clifford;)

Oma & Harrison (left)   Christmas dinner #1 (middle)   Uncle Shawn & Harrison (right)

Henderson Christmas dinner

Our new niece Mia 

Serving community breakfest to Brantford residents at Brant Community Chrurch

Shawn's dream come true. Taking the kids to Monster Trucks (and big kids too!)

Pit party at Monster Jam 

Spending quality time with our best friend Arla