Abe and Erin’s travels

After work we headed to Mac’s brewery for an awesome dinner.  Mary set everything up – Trish and her husband were there as was Brent.  They talked me into the Lamb schanks (which were amazing!) when I was about to order the soup.  We had a great time!

Brent was kind enough to take me by Lyall Bay to see the surf after work.  We were joking that the surf was kind of bad since I’ve been here – ironically the surf was up!!  I had to take advantage and thanked Brent for the ride and made my way to the surf shop to rent a wet suit and a foamy.  Brent went for a bike ride and offered to pick me up after a couple of hours to go for a drink at his place.

I was able to stand up in the foam, but couldn’t catch anything for any length of time.  It was great!!!! I was so tired from paddeling, that by the time Brent showed up I was floating on my back admiring the clouds (so much for showing off even remotly). 

Brent was shaking his head and chuckling when he saw me.  I was so thankful that he brought a towel – life saver!! 

Dinner and drinks at Brent and Diana’s was wonderful.  We had awesome burgers and kumra chips, great drinks, and some awesome conversation.  I look forward to staying connected to Brent – hopefully we can do a pharmacy exchange in the future!

One more week and rotations are done!!! 

Went to check out my tattoo – I’m getting so excited!

We got a good start agian and grabbed a great breakfast at a local cafe. 

We started our day at the mudpools in the Waiotapu Thermal Wonderland. 

We made our way to the Lady Knox Gyser to watch the prompt eruption at 10:15am

 we waited thinking that something was going to happen…. Maybe there was more steam comming off the top…. Or was there a grumble (no just a plane).

Then a guy walked out and dumped a bag of soap in the hole.

  It was meant to break the surface tension of the water so that the gyser would erupt (something discovered by prisoners who were washing their clothes near the gyser).

Yay!    

We then went to the thermal Wonderland – we met a guy who was at the Hongai the night before – Matt a nice guy from England – I thought he sounded a little like Ali G (no offence Matt if you read this – I love Da’ Ali G show – and the similarity is only slight).

Here are some photos from the park:

            Rashmi breakin the Law at the Champaign Pool.

We made our way to Taupo to jump off a perfectly good cliff with a large rubber band attached to our ankles….BUNGY!

Here is the lake area:  

I screamed like a little girl (I bought the dvd so you all can watch)  I’ll post the website if you want to see pictures.  I did bungy before with Jesse in Interlocken Switzerland and it still is really freaking scary!  When they were lowering me into the boat the two women were having a good laugh: “Damn Mate, you almost regestered on the richtor scale with that bellow.”, “He is shaking like a leaf.” and my favorite, “Don’t worrie mate you are’nt dead…We’re too ugly to be angels.”

Nuts.

We started off the day at 8am (I think Rashmi was up at 6am getting things ready to go).  After a trip to the local information center we spent a lot of money and planned the next 12 hours.

We started with a gondola ride up to a senic lookout area and had a very intense Luge competition. 

Here is a view from the gondola:   

We were able to take 2 rides down the mountain – I must grudgeingly admit that Rashmi beat me by a nose on the second run (I crushed her on the first run)!!!

After that we walked around the area and took some photos:

We then made our way to check out the Zorb and the Agradome.  We were considering doing the Zorb – it looks pretty cool, but we were looking forward to doing the bungy!   It looks like a short green on a ski hill.

We decided to go to the Agradome and smell some manure – it turned out to be really nice (not the manure but the attraction).

Rashmi was able to achieve her goal of holding a lamb .

So I held the smelly little beast too

The Agradome also had a wool loom thing and a very tasty chocholate factory:

We went to the shearing shack and Rashmi gave me a lamb style haircut.

We made our way back to the city and went to the meuseum.  The meuseum is surrounded by beautiful English gardens and the bowling club was out in force.

 The bowlers. 

 That’s the front of the meuseum.

   View from the top of the Meuseum.

The building for the meuseum used to be a resort that people used to go to be cured of diseases.  They would take baths in the natural spring water (high in sulfites and other minerals) for the “healing” benifits.  It was also common to electritute people in bath tubs to help cure them – odd.  We could’nt take pictures of the inside, but the building is beautiful.

Surrounding the meuseum are a number of thermal pools    you can’t get close to the pools because too many people have burnt themselves by putting their hands in the water.

     That’s as close as we got while others were watching

  Rashmi – BREAKIN the Law! Me sticking my finger in the water – it was the lake so it wasn’t hot, just bubbly.

Here is the entrance to the meuseum/garden:

After that we headed to the backpacker to get ready for the next adventure – a Maori show.

   here is the backpacker – really nice!

We piled into a bus and went to the Mietie (I’m guessing at the spelling) villiage.  There were about 100 people in the audience.  We all were seated in the dining tent where we met our host who greeted us and gave us a quick orientation of some Maori culture and customs.  We had to select a Chief to represent our “Tribe of Many Nations.”  I’m glad I didn’t volunteer – a guy from the US named Jeff was named our Chief! 

We then went out to check out our dinner that had been cooking in the ground for “3 hours” it smelled wonderful: Chicken, Kumura, potatos, and Lamb. 

We then went to the river to see the warriors arrive in the war boat.  It was really cool at night!  Unfortunatly we couldn’t get very good pictures…But we tried!

  the warriors on the boat

 This guy was hiding in the bushes (it was a really fun show)

We then made our way back and went to the stage where the Tribe performed.

The back of the stage was set with tradational style Maori buildings and big fires. 

Some other pictures:     

There was some fun audience participation:  The chief was given a peace offering and was greeted by the other Chief by touching noses (Hongai sp?).  Our Chief was scared shitless with major stage freight (I would have been too with 100+ people staring at me while a really intimidating warrior is swinging a weapon and shouting like he was ready to kill someone – way cool by the way).

The Chief took time to explain the Moko.  The performers/people of the tribe are not tattooed – they paint themselves for the shows. 

From what I remember the story he told went:  Moko hit his wife and she left him.  He searched for her and she kept evading him.  He found a man with tattoos on his body and decided that if he was tattooed then his wife would find him attractive again and have him back.  The tattooed man gave him the secret of tattooing.  Each part of the Moko corresponds to a specific part of nature.  On the face the Bat, parrot, and owl are represented (the gifts?).  The bat is placed on the forhead and represents status in the tribe.  The parrot is on the nose and represents one who is an acomplished orator (as they look down their nose the spirals look like the beak of a parrot).  The owl is on the chin and is also worn by women – it represents protection (women for their children and men for the women). 

On the legs are waves of the sea to help in safe voyages, and the spirals on the buttox represent the winds of change/speed/etc.

After the show we ate the meal, which was really good!  The lamb was very tasty!

After dinner we made our way to the sacred spring and saw some glow worms on the way (we couldn’t get a picture).

I really enjoyed the show.  It was so realistic (being at night) and I really felt like I was watching something from the past (very cool).

Off to Rotorua… Check out the sweet ride (I’m posing oh so nicely next to the car)

On the way north we passed this cookie plane:

Rashmi drove most of the way because I’m a crappy driver and I get scared easily:

It was striking to see the vocanoes (as usual the pics don’t do it justice).

We made the trip in 6 hours flat!  Even in the rain and at night – Rashmi was a champ! 

After checking into Treks we went to The Pig and Whisel.  I had a scrumptious lamb burger and one of their microbrews – not bad. 

We watched the Huricaines beat the Reds and headed to the backpacker to rest before seeing all we could in Rotorua in one day.

Wow that hurt – but I am so happy with the finished product!!!

Check it out

Here is Manu working like a champ!

So I’m waiting for my clothes to dry and decided to see what direction water drains in the southern hemisphere (prompted by Gary’s question earlier). This is slightly more difficult to determine than I initally thought – the drains here are really good so it’s hard to see what direction the water is swirlling.

The answer: Clockwise…to my best observation. I did take some video, (the picture is just a blur)

I’ll show you guys the video when I get home to prove it!

We started our day with a bit of a scare.  At about 4:30am NZ time a 8.7 earthquake hit the pacific islands of Tonga (north of NZ).  The BBC and CNN were issuing possible Tsunami warnings for Fiji, NZ, Hawaii, and surriounding areas.  Carrie’s Father is a meterologist and called the house to warn Carrie.  Carrie and Rashmi took the threat seriously and woke me up to warn me of the danger (at the time I was pretty grumpy – but in retrospect I really appeciate the warning).  We discussed going up to Mount Victoria for safety if there really was a tsunami.  Fortunatly no tsunami happened and no one was hurt as a result of the earthquake.  It makes you appreciate the powerful forces of nature when you are staying in an Island Nation! 

It has been interesting watching the media rip apart the politicians and the government over the lack of communication surrounding the morning’s events.  It appears that New Zealanders seem to have expectations that the government is supposed to support it’s citizens – this is so radically different than the typical American ideal that it’s citizens need to look after themselves.  It makes me realize that there is no perfect role that government can play in anyone’s lives – either the government isn’t doing enough or the government is interfering too much (the same kind of story no matter what democracy one is living in).  Maybe that’s why we invented alcoholic beverages? (hey I’m drunk right now)

After work I went for a walk on the “southern Walk” at Mount Victoria (need to know my escape route in case of a tsunami).  Of course – its beautiful!  Here are some photos.

Imagine the scene in LOTR Fellowship when the Hobbits are being chased by the Nazgul:

Here is a picture of a “Chest Hospital”  I’ll have to find out more about this facuilty

These are photos of the Antarctica Treaty Memorial.  It’s a breathtaking structure that recognizes the efforts of Admiral Richard Byrd who saw the continent of Antarctica as “the great white continent of peace.”  12 nations signed the treaty with the commitment of promoting world peace through innovation and exploration.  My camara ran out of juice but the memorial has stones taken from a glacier in Antarctica.  It is set in such a beautiful area near the Mount Victoria look out and is so peacful.

    Unfortunatly, when you get close to the structure – it has grafatti on the sides and smells like urine.  Ahh, the plight of pacifism!

…This evening has been spent blogging and preparing for our journey to Rotorua.  We are going to rent a car for the weekend.  It’s shaping up to be an adrenaline weekend.  The plan is to get to Rotorua on Friday night – take in the sights on Saturday, and jump off cliffs and bridges on Sunday (likely in Taupo, maybe in Gravity Canyon).  I’ll take lots of crappy pictures!

Brent invited me to observe the operations at a small retail pharmacy in Hatitai.  Of course we have stopped into various community pharmacies during our travels, but it was great to go in and see the internal operations of the pharmacy. 

NZ has a “pharmacist only” schedule of medication.  Basically, this is a group of medictions that can be “prescribed” by a pharmacist.  This group includes medications like topical antibiotics.  In the case of medications like Plan B Emergency contraception and Diflucan one time only oral treatment pharmacists are expected to take a course before they can legaly dispence these medicaitons.  They must document the patient information and the particulars (dose, schedule) for record keeping.

It makes so much sence and works so well, I wonder why we have’nt adopted a similar program in the US?  Yet another Windmill that I can plan to attack!