Rotorua and End of School Holidays

Yesterday my parents and I took a trip with my host mom to Rotorua, where there are tons of boiling mud pools and thermal areas. It was so cool! We went to a park where we walked around and saw the mud pools, and soaked our feet in a thermal pool. After that, we went to my host mom's brother's camp area and stayed the night. The next day we went to Lake Taupo (possibly the deepest lake in the world), Hunua Falls, and a place called Craters of the Moon. It was pretty fun, but then we had to drop my parents off at the airport so that they could go back to Indiana. It made me a little sad because I am starting to miss home a lot!

The mud pools:


Lake Taupo:


Hunua Falls:


Craters of the Moon:

West Coast Beaches

I was so excited because yesterday we got to go to the West Coast of New Zealand! The west coast beaches are completely different than others because they are black sand beaches. It was so cool! They were probably the neatest beaches that I have ever been to because of the black sand, and the huge black cliffs that were on them. I took tons of photos of them, and I will put a few of them up!

Piha Beach:


This is one of the most popular places to surf in the world!


That's my Dad standing out on the cliff!




Karekare beach:

It had even more cliffs, and darker sand!


My Dad and I taking photos!



The black sand with footprints in it:

Waiheke Island

My dad and I both like wine sampling, so we all went to Waiheke Island. We took a ferry over to the island, and then hopped on a bus. The buses take forever to wait on though, and they are very unpredictable! =) Our favorite winery was Stonyridge, which has a very pretty view, and good wine!

Here are a few photos:

My mom and I outside of the winery




The vineyards


A New Zealand version of a scarecrow!

My Parents in New Zealand

My parents are in New Zealand now, and we have been doing so many neat things! For the first 3 days, we traveled around Auckland, and did things around here. We went to the Maritime Museum, and Kelly Tarlton's Antarctic world, which is kind of like an aquarium with tons of penguins, stingrays, and sharks. The next thing that we did was go to the Coromandel peninsula which is North of Auckland. It was beautiful! There was a mix of farmland and tons of beaches that were really pretty!

A few photos of the farmland:


We hiked up a hill, and saw this great view:




One of the neat beaches that we went to was called Hot Water Beach. When you dig a deep hole in the sand on the beach, there are hot water springs underneath. If your hole is deep enough, you can lay in the hot water that's in your hole. The photo with all of the people on the beach is when they were trying to dig holes to feel the hot water!

Easter Break

So, it's now Easter break, and my last day of school was yesterday, my next day isn't until April 27th! My parents are coming in 3 days and I'm sooo excited! I can't wait to see them because I've missed them so much! My host sister is also getting married in 2 days so it's been pretty busy around here. It's hard to believe that I will be heading home in about 6 weeks, the time has been flying by pretty quickly! I'm pretty sad to be missing Easter at home though because I always get this big Easter basket filled with all kinds of chocolate, but I'll cope! =)

The New Zealand All American Soap Box Derby

I have been watching my host mom and dad help to create a soap box derby car for the New Zealand soap box derby race. My mom's year 7 and year 8 class were going to race in the derby, and this weekend was the semifinal. I went with them, and the kids were so excited when we got there! The prize for the 1st place car was two plane tickets (1 for the driver, 1 for an adult) to Ohio in the States to compete for the American Soap Box Derby Race! When the race started, we ended up getting into the top 8. We were the ones competing for the two plane tickets to compete in the states, and Parnell School ended up winning the entire soap box derby!! It was so exciting! The soap box derby in Ohio is in July, and I told the kids that I will go to watch them in it! I have pictures from the day, but they won't upload right now, so as soon as they will, I'll post them.