NZ - Dec. 14-15, 2013 - Thermal Wonderland, Hobbiton, Mini Golf, Last Day

As our incredible New Zealand trip came to a close, we still had a few pretty major things to see before our departure.  As usual, we were up at 6:30am for one last dip in the hot pools, packed up like a well-oiled machine, and we were out of the site by 8:45.  Just down the street was our first stop for the day: Thermal Wonderland.

Even for first thing in the morning, the place was PACKED because everyone wanted to see the Lady Knox geyser eruption.  We grabbed our front row seats by 9:30am and eagerly awaited the 10:15am eruption with hundreds of other people.  They had added some soap to the water so we could see the bubbling beginning of the eruption easier, then for about 30 seconds it shot 15m into the air.  It was tough to see through all of the steam, but the geologists among us loved it.  Me, meh, I could take it or leave it!

We spent the rest of the sweltering hot morning wandering around the rest of Thermal Wonderland.  Again, lots of neat things for the geologists, and lots of really different colours that you don't usually see anywhere else.

This picture doesn't capture how highlighter green that "water" really was.

The coolest part of the whole park was Champagne Pools.  It was beautiful, and surprisingly deep.  The steam was even a different colour!

Photo credit: Ryan P

Photo credit: Ryan P

The FUNNIEST thing happened in the parking lot as we were leaving.  The whole trip we had been seeing these Wicked camper vans everywhere, and Ryan R thought it would be great to get a picture of him posing with one with a Jackie Chan guy on it.  So he did...but as he was posing the girl who was renting the van showed up and got into the trunk.  Ryan had no idea she was there!  We all had a really good laugh over it, and we did get a fantastic picture.

Photo credit: Kat

We had one last picnic lunch in Kuirau Park (in the centre of Rotorura), then we packed up and did the 1 hour drive to Hobbiton.  We JUST made it at 4pm before they closed, and managed to get on the 4:20pm tour.  As luck would have it, we were all alone!  We got on a gigantic bus, and had a private tour of the beautiful grounds.

Our guide was a young guy named Taylor who actually played one of the baby hobbits in the movie.  He was really great, but despite his best efforts he couldn't keep the chinese tour group behind us from getting in our way.  He also showed us the last living sheep from the movie, which was really rare to see (though easy to spot, because it has a black head).  I was amazed how cool Hobbiton was, because I didn't really care about any of the movies.  I couldn't get over how beautiful and adorable the gardens were, and how they thought through every detail to make it look completely believable. 

Photo credit:Kat

Photo credit:Kat

Photo credit: Kat

Photo credit: Ryan P

Photo credit: Ryan R

Photo credit: Ryan R

Photo credit: Ryan R

The grand finale of the tour was an ale or ginger beer (for the driver...me) at the tavern.  They had really done a good job of it, especially because the inside wasn't in the movie so they just made it special for the tourists.  I really loved all of the notices they had up on the walls.  Ryan R especially loved the bathrooms and was super curious if the woman's bathroom was the same as the men's :)

Photo credit: Ryan R

And with that, our last day came to a close as we headed to Opal Hotsprings for one last night in our tents.  We cooked an easy dinner of soup and salad, drank more delicious wine, and Kat and Ryan brought out their Scotch as we played some final board games until 1am.  Turns out, Scotch, even when mixed with water, does NOT sit well with me!  Thank goodness it was our last night there, because that was way more drunk than I had been the entire trip.  

The next morning we were all a little tired, so we had a slow start and didn't get everything packed up until 11am.  Luckily it was a sunny morning so everything dried, and we cleaned off our tents as best we could for our international flights.

Back near the airport we had passed a super awesome pirate and dinosaur mini-putt, and since Ryan and I can never resist a good mini-putt that's how we killed some time before Kat and Ryan's flight.  (On our layover back to Australia Ryan and I went back there to play the dinosaur round, that's how fun it was!)

Photo credit: Ryan R

Photo credit: Ryan R

Our goodbyes weren't that sad since we were going to see Kat and Ryan again at New Years back in Canada, so we dropped them off to continue their trip on the South Island, and then we headed back to our original hotel to get all of our stuff organized.

Probably the saddest goodbye was to our trusty treasure chest that held our food the entire vacation.  Way more fun than a regular bin!

It was a bit complicated, because we ended up leaving all of our camping stuff at the hotel, flying to Canada, then coming back to the same hotel to pick it all up on our layover before heading back to Australia.  We killed more time by going to see the second Hobbit movie in theatres and wandering around the mall before a delicious dinner and a good night sleep.

We had a really awesome trip back to Canada for Christmas.  This time we mostly just saw our families, and then headed up to Sauble Beach for the annual New Years cottage party with the U of W geology crowd.  I did forget never to pull over onto the shoulder in the winter in Canada, so I managed to get the rental car stuck and had to have Jeremy pull me out of the ditch.  Ryan and I also picked parsnips under two feet of snow at my parent's house.  We had tons of fun in the snow since it was such a novelty for us again.

On our way home we were lucky to make it out of Canada because there was a huge snowstorm that closed the airport right after we left.  When we arrived in Australia after a horribly delayed flight we were exhausted and completely forgot to declare all of our camping stuff that we had picked up in New Zealand.  We got a really serious talking to by the security people, but luckily we got through without a fine.  Stupid mistake, since we're always really honest about what we declare, but at least they thoroughly cleaned our tent for us!

Well, those were some pretty epic posts that took me OVER TWO YEARS to finally write, but I'm so glad I did.  It was really fun to relive everything, and dream of our next adventure.

Home to Canada for a Visit - Part 2 (Sept. 20-Oct. 3, 2012)

After dropping my parents off at the airport I made a brief stop in Georgetown for lunch with Ryan's family, then Ryan and I headed to Waterloo for a fun-filled weekend.  It started with board games at Ryan's cousin's house, and then off to Evan and Steve's house for more fun and board games.  That evening was fairly uneventful (although really fun), but it was great to catch up with good friends I hadn't seen in a long time.

Saturday morning Ryan and I went to my old favourite place: the St. Jacob's Farmer's Market.  I used to love going there as often as possible when we lived in Waterloo, so it was a must-see on our visit.  Ryan's brother flew in from New Brunswick that morning, so we met Ryan's family at the market and enjoyed traditional apple fritters and shopping for fall produce.

That evening we had our big party at our favourite local bar, the Huether Hotel.  That was also really awesome because I got to see even more good friends.  The girls from my synchro team came, my old boss from RIM, a few people we hung out with while we lived in Waterloo, my cousin, and a few Georgetown friends too. 

The icing on the cake was that the next day I went to lunch and shopping with my old co-worker/friend Su.  It was really great to see her and catch up after a year apart.

On Monday I left Ryan and headed to Guelph to spend a few days with my sister, who is now going to school there.  We caught up on some girlie movies, did crafts, cooked, shopped, and I went to her classes with her.  I'm so glad I went because I didn't get to spend much time with her at the wedding, and we needed some serious sister time!  Other than spending time with her, the highlight was definitely Trivia Night at one of the university bars.  We didn't do very well, but there were at least questions we had a chance of getting right!

Sidenote: When my mom saw this picture, she said "Oh, is that Jill's new friend?"  Uh...no...mom, that's me!  Yes, my hair is that long.  Jill straightened it for me a few times, which was a cool change for me.

The University of Guelph campus is beautiful, but unfortunately the leaves hadn't changed at all there.  Everywhere else was brightly coloured, but it was still green in Guelph.

That Thursday I left Jill, which was bitter-sweet because I was headed to Toronto to visit my best friend Karen and her boyfriend Ben.  She recently moved there, so it was great to see her new place with an amazing view.

We didn't really have any plans for the weekend, except that I needed to finish off all of my Canadian shopping, and we were seeing a baseball game on Friday night.

Friday morning we headed to Vaughan Mills to do some outlet shopping, and I was surprised at how huge the mall was.  We got some great deals, and I loaded my suitcase up even more.  That night we met Karen's family at the SkyDome for a Jays vs. Yankees baseball game.  Lucky for us it was Fan Appreciation Day, so there was tons of free stuff up for grabs!  We got to play Plinko (some of you may recognize this game from the show The Price is Right, where you drop the ball down a wall covered in pegs, and it lands in a prize slot in the bottom), roulette, and mini golf, and we won lots of Jays swag.

We also got to see them close the Dome while we were in it (an engineering masterpiece), we caught prizes that were thrown out into the stands, AND, most importantly, we were on the Jumbotron!  Seriously, despite the game not going well, BEST GAME EVER!  It was also really great to see Karen's family again.

On Saturday we did even more shopping at the Eaton Centre, then our friend Cassie took the bus into town to meet us for dinner.  We went to the Hot House Café which was having a Garlic Festival, and the highlight of the meal (other than great company, delicious food, and wonderful conversation) was the black garlic brownie I had for dessert.  Mmm mmm!  As luck would have it, that was the same night as Nuit Blanche (a city-wide art festival), so we wandered around Toronto in pursuit of weird art and great people-watching.  It was cool because they closed down Younge Street, and it's pretty rare that you can walk down the middle of it without getting hit by a car!  The art was disappointing, but overall the night was fantastic.

My last day in Toronto, Sunday, we didn't have any plans until we randomly heard from an old friend that the Tragically Hip were playing an impromptu free concert in Kensington Market that afternoon.  It was a beautiful day so we figured we had nothing to lose by checking it out.  Turns out they were playing 15 minute sets, on the hour, for about 5 hours I think.  Sure enough, right on time, that's exactly what happened!  We watched the first set from the back (of a small crowd) and it was great, so we decided to stay for a few more.  For the next one we worked our way up to try to get autographs, but unfortunately we didn't quite get close enough.

 In between sets we wandered around Kensington Market checking out the neat stores, the food stalls, and the other random bands that were playing in the street.  Closer to Chinatown we came along an awesome band called the Intergalactic Jug Defenders.  They played kind of old timey music, and when they finished their first song we asked if they could play the jug that they had sitting on the ground.  Sure enough they used it in the next song.  They were awesome so I bought their CD.

Later that evening we went to Chinatown for dinner and Karen managed to find some green tea ice cream in a grocery store, so it was the perfect ending to a great day.

Monday morning my visit to Toronto was over and I had to say goodbye again.  I met my aunt for lunch just north of Toronto, since I didn't see her at my brother's wedding, and then headed back to Ryan's house in Georgetown to conclude our visit in Canada.  The last day we just relaxed and played board games with his family, then after what seemed like no time at all, we flew to Holland.

Thanks to everyone in Canada who made our trip awesome.  I hope I didn't forget anything!  It was definitely a wonderful vacation, and it was great to be home in Canada again.

Home to Canada for a Visit - Part 1 (Sept. 6-19, 2012)

Wow it's nice to be home.  We've lived in Australia for 15 months, which isn't really that long, but I was starting to pine for something familiar.  It's not so much the friends and family that I miss (no offense, but with technology these days it's not hard to keep in touch), but the familiar scenery, stores, and towns are all a welcome site.

Ryan and I started our first few days in Georgetown, where we couldn't believe how green everything was despite the dry summer.

On a walk near Ryan's house in Georgetown.

Our 24 hour flight was very successful, but the jet-lag hit us harder than we expected.  It took me at least a week to have a full night sleep, and even longer to not be drowsy during the day.  Despite that, we had an awesome time at my friend Cassie's wedding the first weekend we were home.  

My childhood friends, all grown up.

Then we went to a great afternoon barbeque with Ryan's extended family before I headed off to Owen Sound to see my parents.

The next few days were full of preparing for my brother's upcoming wedding.  We didn't really help with wedding stuff, but we had to plan and prepare food for the rehearsal dinner.  The best part was going to the Keady Farmer's Market and seeing all of the fall produce.

Then, before we knew it, we were headed to Belleville with two carloads full of stuff to see my brother get married.  I had forgotten that we have such huge highways in Canada.  They just don't make 'em like that in Australia!

The rehearsal and the dinner went smoothly, and after checking into the hotel and settling into bed, the hallway suddenly got very loud with Wasylyk voices.  Of course that signalled the arrival of a few more Wasylyk families - with Jell-O shots!  It was an awesome way to celebrate seeing everyone again after such a long time.

The morning of the wedding we were all quite relaxed.  I went for a swim with my cousins in the hotel pool, and everyone just relaxed until it was time to go to the church.  My brother Steven was very calm and upbeat (or at least he was pretending) and Michelle (my new sister-in-law!) was absolutely stunning.  My sister Jillian was a bridesmaid, and her and the rest of the wedding party were the icing on the cake.  I can't say enough about how beautiful the wedding was.  It was the first Wasylyk wedding, so it set the bar pretty high!

Meet the Wasylyks

The reception was also flawless.  It was awesome to hang out with all of my cousins and dance all night, and I think everyone had an amazing time.  I know Steven and Michelle did!

Now I'm back in Owen Sound enjoying a few final days at my parent's beautiful house before I bring them to the airport and start the "friend" portion of my Canada visit.  The first two weeks were mostly about family, but I still have a lot of people to see and there's a lot more fun to be had!

Oh, and I'm loving my new camera :)