Rotorua

We are currently in Rotorua. It is a really cool town in a crazy geothermal setting. That means that there are pools of boiling mud and water that is bright yellow or green or orange. It has to do with the minerals in the ground. It is crazy! For Jigar's birthday yesterday, we went to Wai-O-Tapu which is a geothermal park. We saw a 30 meter geyser and lots of pools of different colored water. The ground is steaming it is so hot. It was beautiful but smelly.

In the evening, we went to a hangi. That is a traditional Maori feast. The Maori are the people who settled New Zealand before the white folks showed up. It was really interesting to see the haka (the traditional dance) and learn about the tattoos and hear some of the songs. The food wasn't bad, either, but a bit bland for our tastes. It needed a little lal marchu (that's cayenne pepper).

This morning, we relaxed at the Polynesian Spa. Our friend Vatsa told us to make sure we went there and she was right! There were 7 different pools of different temperatures. It was very relaxing. We spent 3 hours there. I haven't been this relaxed since we left Fiji :)

We have been very bad bloggers, but we'll do better in the future. We've been so busy doing things that we haven't slowed down long enough to record them. We've gone all the way up to Cape Reinga (at the tip of New Zealand), all the back to Auckland and now down to Rotorua. Our new motto is "Another Day, Another Adventure". We'll make more internet time, though, and I promise to post some photos of all of these adventures soon.

Pictures from our first week in NZ

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=25626&l=1f92a&id=813269869

Oops, I did it again!

Unfortunately, the day after Cathedral Cove turned out to be a 120 KMH wind storm. We were going to be stuck in our motel.

Butti and I decided to go for a drive in the midst of the storm, while Gin and Vatsa decided to be smart and stay indoors during the storm.

Butti and I drove for about half an hour and it was very gusty. We came across a nice lookout point where we pulled over and took some snaps. Butti forgot to turn off the lights of the car and the car wouldn't start. We tried several times, but no luck.

I was not at all nervous or worried because I was on my vacation and there was nothing that would've phased me. Had this happened in the states I would've been nervous and possibly stressed.

To our disadvantage, we had no cell phone reception, so we couldn't make any phone calls either. We left the car by the jetty and walked up to see if we can get any help. Luckily, there was a truck pulled over on the side because of the bad weather. Butti and I asked the driver, Himesh, for jump cables. Sadly, he didn't have any jump cables on him.

Himesh, the truck driver, had a different cell phone carrier so he had a reception. He called his buddy who called his buddy and got a guy to come over. While we were waiting for the other guy to come, I was wondering if this was a scam. Butti told me that it is common in New Zealand for people to just help other people out. This was a big surprise for me because in New York people go out of their way to make things difficult for you.

Anyways, a car pulled over by the truck and we directed the gentleman towards the jetty. I had my fingers crossed because if this didn't work then we were in big trouble. Fortunately, it just needed a jump start and wallah the car was on. We offered the guy some money and at first he wouldn't take it. Butti and I insisted that he took $50 we were offering him. He finally took it and we continued our adventure. Thanks to Himesh and the unnamed gentleman, we were able to get out of a pretty tight situation easily.

So we continued our journey towards the town of Coromendal. Meanwhile, I told Butti to call send a text message to Vatsa so they wouldn't worry for us. We had told the girls that we would be back in about an hour and it was already 2 hours we were gone. By the time we returned back to the motel, it was the end of the day. When we got back, Gin and I were about to kill us because they didn't know if we were okay. I thought it was a resonable reaction since we made no effort to inform them that we were alive. Anyways, it turned out to be a pretty awesome adventure even though we were admist a storm.

Whitianga

While in Auckland, we have been staying with Jigar's childhood friend, Butti (real name: Niral) and his wife, Vatsa. They took Thursday and Friday off of week so we could all go up to the Coromandel Peninsula for a few days.

Wednesday night we went to a midnight show of The Dark Knight. It was awesome! But we didn't exactly get an early start the next day. We left after lunch and drove up to Whitianga (pronounced "fitianga"), a couple of hours north of Auckland. It was a beautiful drive.

Friday was gorgeous! It was sunny and warm. The skies were blue. We went to Cathedral Cove. It was a bit of a hike, but it was worth it. In the new Chronicles of Narnia movie (Prince Caspian), the kids get pulled from a train station in London into Narnia. When they appear in Narnia, they are in a cave. That is Cathedral Cove. It was very majestic.

On Saturday, we got to see the worst storm that has hit New Zealand in 10 years. Vatsa and I stayed safely in the hotel. Our foolish husbands went out into the storm. But I'll let Jigar write a post about that.

Today we came back to Auckland. We stopped by a mall on the way back into the city. I think that the entire population of New Zealand (about 4 million) was there! We got some hot chocolate (it was so good!) and headed home. We had a lot of fun.

Coromendal Peninsula with Butti & Vatsa

Butti and Vatsa had taken two days off which made it a four day weekend for us to go somewhere. We decided to head out to Coromendal Peninsula. By the time we got out of the house it was lunch time. Before we got out of Auckland, I had fallen asleep in the car. When I woke up, I saw beautiful landscape and couldn't believe I was still in the same country. This was real New Zealand. Miles and miles of beautiful landscape with lots of sheeps and cows grazing the grass. Luckily, the weather was beautiful and it was a pleasant drive. By the time we got to the town of Whitianga, it was sundown. After going around a few places to stay, we decided to stay at Backpackers On the Beach accomodations. It was a nice little two bedroom suite with kitchen. We ended up having dinner at an Indian restaurant (Sangam). It was really good food contrary to Butti's experience of eating Indian food in small town. Of course, as always the dish I had ordered sucked. It tasted like cow manure (not that I know what cow manure taste like, but I'm sure it was just as bad, looked the same). Everything else was awesome, even the desserts. We had a loki night.

Gin and I got up early to see the sunrise from our suite. Instead, we decided to put on our coats and walk down the beach which was literally across the street. I was glad we did that because it was a beautiful sunrise with my wife next to me.

The weather stayed awesome with clear blue skies and lots of sunshine. A few hours later we decided to head out to Cathedral Cove where the opening scene of the movie Narnia, Price Caspian was shot. I haven't seen the movie, but Gin gave pretty bad reviews of the movie. Anyhow, the place was amazing. The awesome part about being here during winter is that there are very few people around these magnificant places, but the downside is that it's cold and the weather is very spotty. Anyways, we were on a day when the weather was beautiful and there were very few people around which allowed for some awesome photographs.

We passed by the hot water beach where you're suppose to dig a hole and get in the hole where hot water from the ground combines with the cool water from the sea. Unfortunately, it wasn't the season to do it, so we skipped it. The success rate at the hot water beach is about 30%. Being a math teacher I figured the odds were against us. (math is all around us).

Pictures of Fiji!!!

Here are some pictures from our honeymoon week in Fiji.

Pictures from Jigar's hike to the highest peak on Waya Island:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=25055&l=8b97e&id=813269869

Our pics:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=24957&l=b4ea7&id=813269869


You can click on the pictures to see them in a bigger size. Enjoy!

First Couple of Days in New Zealand

Leaving Fiji was like saying good bye to good weather. Auckland weather started out to be wet and gloomy.

Vatsa (my friend's wife) came to pick us up at the airport in Auckland. Soon as we walked out of the airport to the parking lot it started pouring. Little did I know that this would continue for 3 days straight.

The first three days in Auckland all we did was eat and relax. First day in Auckland we got introduced to an ice cream parlor called Movenpick. Butti (my friend, real name Niral), Vatsa (his wife), Gin (my wife) and I (me, Jigar) all of us went there three nights in a row. My favorite flavor was Maple Walnut. Suprisingly maple walnut actually tasted like real maple syrup and that's why I liked it so much. My second favorite was Vanilla Brownie. Highly recommended if you go to Auckland and make sure you have it with the cone they have :)

Our second day in Auckland, Gin and I spent updating our blog and getting groceries at the supermarket. Once Butti was out of work, all of us went out for dinner, followed by Movenpick ice cream.

Finally on day three Gin and I took the bus downtown and explored the city. Little did we know that there wasn't much to do in downtown. We were done exploring downtown Auckland in a few hours. The most memorable thing in downtown Auckland for me was Britomart (train station). It was Auckland's take on Grand Central Terminal of New York City except that it was nothing exceptional, at least not like grand central. Again, the weather was pretty terrible. Rain all day. Gin and I decided to skip the sky tower and Kelly Carlton's underwater world. Again those two were like going to the empire state building and the sea world. If the weather was any better we might have gone up to sky tower, but with poor visibility we decided to stay on street level. Again, we went out for dinner followed by Movenpick ice cream :).

Still day three, we had opening night tickets to The Dark Knight at midnight. We went back to Butti and Vatsa's place and saw more Jeff Dunham's sparks of insanity comedy show. It was awesome. I laughted my ass off. Gin and Vatsa had decided to take a nap before going to the midnight show. The movie was awesome. It was, I felt, better than the first one (Batman Begins). It was 3am and we were all so wide awake from the movie and we decided to go home and hangout more before going to sleep. I knew we weren't going to wake up early for our trip, but it didn't matter because we had a lot of fun.

It's Deja Vu All Over Again!

We made it to Auckland! It was another close one at the airport. We had talked to a lot of people and even checked online and it seemed that the rule for getting into New Zealand is to have an onward plane ticket or have sufficient funds to leave the country. Needless to say, Air Pacific doesn't honor the sufficient funds part. No onward ticket, no getting on the flight to NZ. We had about an hour until our flight took off. We talked to Qantas, which is the only airline in the airport that flies out of NZ. Air Pacific flies in but not. Qantas' ticket counter didn't open until 8 and a "fully refundable" ticket is only 80% refundable. At this point it is about 7:40. Then we ran around the airport looking for internet access. Most of the computers didn't work and those that did didn't have a printer. The only option left was for Jigar to go into town and find an open internet cafe to buy the plane tickets. He took a cab into town while I waited at the airport with the luggage. Luckily, the internet cafe is only 5 minutes from the airport. He got there, but they didn't open until 8. He and the cab driver went around the corner to a hotel, but they couldn't let him use the internet. The only computer was in the manager's office which was locked. He had left to drop his family off at the airport for their flight to Auckland. Our flight! Jigar went back to the internet cafe and banged on the door. The guy was inside, but wouldn't let him in until 8. He finally got into the internet cafe, bought the tickets, and made a mad dash for the airport. He got back at 8:15. Our flight was at 8:45. We quickly checked in (luckily it wasn't too late). We made it through security and walked onto the plane right at 8:45. Phew! It was a close one. Every time we are at the airport it feels like we are on the Amazing Race. The weather here in Auckland is cold and wet. It certainly isn't Fiji. But we are having a great time with our friends, Butti and Vatsa.

Last Day in Fiji

Our last day in Fiji, we started out the day with a walk to the Garden of the Sleeping Giant. The hotel told us that it was a "half hour walk". Well, an hour and a half and 5 or so kilometers later, we arrived there. It was a nice walk, but it did get a little hot at the end. The garden was closing in half an hour, but we quickly got to enjoy it. Oddly, it was started by Raymond Burr as a home for his orchid collection. It was lovely.

As we were leaving, we ran into some other guests from our hotel, an English man (who reminded us of Hannibal the Cannibal Lecter) and two Philippino sisters, Raquel and Lisa. We hopped into their cab for a ride back to the hotel. We grabbed our bags and went into town with Raquel and Lisa. We all went to the Hindu temple together. Jigar and I had gone the day before and they told us to come back for the wedding the next day. We missed the wedding but we had an amazing lunch! It was neat to see the bride and groom with their garlands still on and we saw the mandap. It reminded us of our wedding day, just a couple of weeks ago. We made an offering at the temple and spent some time there. It is so tranquil.

We ended the day by watching our last day Fijian sunset from the beach near our new hotel. It wasn't the same as the sunsets on Waya Island, but it was beautiful nonetheless. This was an amazing first week. Fiji was so relaxing that one week here feels like months. We couldn't have asked for a more wonderful honeymoon week!

Life After Octopus

We had an amazing week at the Octopus Resort on Waya Island in Fiji. It was so relaxing! It was exactly what we needed. We met some really cool people, but Jigar already told you all about them. The food was really good and having the private beach was like a dream come true. Do we lay on the beach chairs? Or the hammock? Or sit on the porch? Those were the kinds of difficult dillemas we faced daily.

We left Octopus yesterday afternoon. It seems like so long ago now. Last night we stayed at Tropic of Capricorn in the New Town Beach area of Nadi (pronounced "Nandi"). It was fine. Clean, safe, and cheap but nothing to write home about. That part of town is definitely the backpackers area. Lako (a gentleman who works at the hotel) did recommend a good Indian restaurant, Maharaja's (well, Indian & Chinese it seemed like). We took a cab there. There is a really big Indian population here (somewhere around 40% it seems). The cab driver was Indian and he told Jigar that 80% of the land is owned by the native Fijians and by law they can't sell it. Only "free hold" land can be owned by non-native Fijians (including Indians who have been here for generations). The resorts are actually on land leased to them by nearby villages. Since it is almost impossible to own land, a lot of Indians are leaving Fiji.

Tonight we moved to Stoney Creek in Sabeto (pronounced "Sambeto"). We wanted to come inland a bit because after being on the beaches of Octopus, the beaches of the mainland are a bit disappointing. Basically, if you come all the way to Fiji and you stay in Nadi the whole time, you have wasted your money - at least as far as beaches are concerned. Now we are in the foothills of the Sabeto mountains and it is breathtaking. A totally different side of Fiji. We took the bus out here today and after we checked in, we took the bus back to town. It is really interesting riding the bus. You get to see the people and the countryside. It is a much realer side of Fiji than what we have seen up to now. It is an open air bus and you can smell the sugar cane burning in the fields as you ride through the hills.

We didn't have a lot of time in town. The last bus back to Sabeto was at 5:15 and we got to town around 3. We did some quick souvenir shopping and then we headed to the Hindu temple. I have wanted to go to a Hindu temple for the last couple of years so it was really exciting to go there. When we got there, we took off our shoes and left them at the entrance (Jigar said not to ever do that in India) and then we went to talk to the guy who worked there. Everyone was very excited to meet Jigar. The manager told us that his daughter works in the Malayasian embassy in Wellington and she would show us around when we got there! The temple was really beautiful. It was bright and colorful and had images of Lord Shiva around the outside. We walked around the temple 3 times carrying the offering to the gods, as directed by the priest. It was very calming. The temple had an aura of serenity around it. We went inside and made our offering. The priest blessed it and then gave it back to us (you are supposed to bring it back to the manager who gave it to us to begin with). Jigar and the priest had a long talk. It was in Hindi so I didn't understand it, but he was telling Jigar about the Bula festival going on in town and recommending some good places to stay that are owned by Indians so they would give us a good deal. We went down to bring the offering back to the manager (you are supposed to take half and give half back). He put all the fruit (the offering had been 2 bananas, a coconut, and the priest had added an apple to out plate) into a bag with about ten extra bananas. We told him not to give them to us, but he said they were just going to rot at the temple and we could give them to the villagers. Then he told us there is a wedding at the temple tomorrow at 10am and that we should come. We are going to move to a hotel back in town tomorrow so that we can go (the buses don't run on Sunday).

On the way back to the bus station, we got some Indian snacks and Coca Lights. It was delicious! We were eating greasy, fried samosas, bhajiyas, and bataka vadas. Mmmm, mmmm, good.