New Zealand Day 4: Wellington to South Island

Woke up, matt a little groggy and stuffy from a head cold / fly he probably caught while crossing the pond. Packed up the room, showered and made our bacon and steak pie in the oven. FaceTimed matts parents to wish Dave a happy birthday and off we went. Drove the coast down to Wellington. Stopped at a small town pharmacy to pick up some chlorapheneramine for Matt's post nasal drip and cough drops. It was a little bit of a challenge but at last we found what I wanted-- well the dex-isomer of what I wanted 🤓. Along we continued. 2.5 hours to Wellington.

Made it and drove atop of a lookout, which was very pretty-- saw the airport and the harbor then we were going to drive the coastal drive around the harbor but on the way found a kabob shop-- had to get a döner kabob and drove to the harbor road. Found a lookout with a bench and enjoyed our kabobs overlooking the water. Matt took a nap in the car and then it was nearing 330. We booked a standby flight to Christchurch for 36$ total for the two of us that takes off at 610. Continued driving around the harbor and then made it to the airport.

Checked in for our flight and were given exit row seats immediately :-) easy standby trio ever. Booked a hotel walkable to the airport and car rental location and we were off.

50 minutes door shut to door open and we were in Christ church. Called the hotel shuttle. Checked into Our room and booked a car (for 18$ a day....). Off to the grocery store and found a Mexican restaurant with $4 tacos on tuesdays, then to sleep. Next day-- Antarctic mueseum and driving ... somewhere! Cheers!

New Zealand day 2: forgotten highway

Woke up and packed up the room by 930 and were on our way to the forgotten highway-- two hours drive from taupo. Highway know for its winding roads and primitive world ambience. Thank goodness for the Dramamine that lives in my travel pack-- roads were all over the place but we made it to the start of the highway. A few miles in there was his gorgeous field of purple lavender, we had to stop. Ordered a cappuccino and lemon cream cheese muffin and sat out by the lavender field. The buzz of all the bees was almost deafening. It was very tranquil to just sit and relax.

Onward we continued through the meandering hillside scattered with sheep and cows. We stopped and had lunch in a very tropical area with a river below. All of the bridges throughout the road were one lane and a very long tunnel was also one lane and we couldn't find the lights so that was intense. After about 3 hours along the road we made it back to cell service range and decided to head to the town of wanganui for dinner and rest. Booked a motel online for 60$ drove there and then walked into town for a pint and dinner. Found the Irish pub in town and had 2 pints for $25 and then went to stellar; the restaurant recommended in our lonely plant book. Their Monday special-- $15 steak salad and fries. Matt and I were just talking about how we wanted to have lamb and steak once while here since they are scattered throughout the countryside. Our 15$ steak was a little gristly but came out with a poached egg on top and excellent fries. 33usa$ well spent. We then stopped at a grocery store for water and mince pie for brekke and retreated to our motel. Next day-- drive to Wellington and possibly fly to the South Island.

New Zealand day 2: glow worm caves

Woke up almost refreshed at 6am, microwaved our quiche had coffee and planned out the drive. 2 hours to waitmo to see the glow worm caves. Filled up the gas tank and picked up some Coke Zero for the drive and we were off.

Drove two hours through winding hillsides spotted with cows and sheep. I think there is more livestock on this island than people. T-Mobile service was rather spotty the entire trek but we got matt a New Zealand SIM card at the airport with 1g of data for 20$. So we used his phone. Bought our tickets for the glow worm cave online off the side of a road in some farmland. Most of the roads here are two lane with blind turns and hills where you can't see the bottom. Bought he tickets online for 11am entrance and we were going to arrive by 1020 per Google.

Arrived to the glowworm caves as expected and waited the half hour before our time. These caves were discovered and mapped out and opened to the public in 1886. The caves are home to glow worms-- they emit bioluminescence at their connection with the ceiling of the cave which attract flies to it tricking the fly into thinking it's an exit-- meanwhile the glowworm has a tentacle like sting that can reach 30cm long and is sticky and catches the fly--dinner. Glowworm life cycle is 11 months. 8-9 months in the glowworm/tentacle state followed by a cocoon stage and then they turn into a fly which cannot eat and basically starves to death and gets eaten by a cousin glowworm within 2-3 days. Anyway, we had a mini walking tour through 2 levels of the cave, when it was dark we could see one or two glow worms; until we got to the end of the second level-- we say the tentacles of the glowworms and then rounded the corner and boarded a boat which brought us to glowworm haven-- it looked like the night sky covered with stars-- but they were gooey glowworms emitting the light. No pictures were allowed. We exited the cave on the boat and at the last spot we could attempt to take a picture but the glowworms weren't bright enough to capture. It was pretty flipping cool. Glad matt agreed to spend the 52$ each to do it.

After the tour we hiked out to a lookout where matt spotted the tree that he Dave and Jason joked about-- it had branches like an oak tree but the leaves were that of a pine tree complete with pine cones. After the 10 minute hike back we ate our ham and cheese sandwiches we prepped in our hotel room and drove another 2 hours to mount raupehu, a dormant volcano with a ski hill. Drove up to the ski hill parked the car and hiked around for a bit. They even were making snow (which was melting at a quick rate) for a mini sledding hill. After our short hike we returned to the car and drove around a couple lakes on our way back to taupo. Returned to the motel, went down to Dixie browns for amazing calamari and a tequila like chicken along the water front. Stopped at the Irish pub on our way back to the motel and fell asleep by 930. Driving the forgotten highway tomorrow and working our way to Wellington. Car has to be back by 1/17 am and fly to Christchurch. Oh. We also decided against a campervan due to gas cost and how crabby someone who shall remain nameless gets if he doesn't get a good nights sleep.

New Zealand Day 1: Arrival

Got out of work at 330; made it home changed and matt and I trekked through the negative windchill and 2-3 inches of freshly fallen snow with our rollarboards and horizontally blowing winds to make it to the light rail (and avoid the stopped traffic). Got to the airport to find security lines all the way to the center escalators. Jumped the line using precheck and made it to the United gate by 445 (515 departure). Missed that flight by 1 seat-- didn't want to make matt fly in the uncomfortable jump seat for four hours). No fiji then as that flight departed sfo at 8 pm and the delta flight arrives at 740. And the delta flight departing 555 had 15 seats open, we were 2-3. Sooooo, then we headed to the delta flight. Delayed. Slowly the number of available seats diminished. But we got on with exit row middle seats in front of each other. Watched a couple movies, used some expired drink tickets and made it to sfo 2 hours before the united flight to Auckland. 47 seats open we were 32/33 on the list.

Found our way around sfo to the internationals departure terminal and to the gate just in time for boarding to being. Slowly the list was being cleared. Thought we would get comfort but we got two seats together in the middle of a 4row and matt was on the aisle. We had three rows of screaming babies ahead of us and I had a kid with sharp elbows on my left. Yuck. I passed out had some gross airplane food. And slept. Ankles are missing and replaced with cankles. Matt pulled out the maps and book 1hoir before landing. We decided we didn't want to get on another plane and we would spend a couple days on the north island. Rented a car one way from Auckland to Wellington $50/day yuck! Made it through customs (andrea did super easily as they had an electronic gate walk through area and Matt's passport got hung up. Then to customs and cleared that X-ray machine and off to find a bathroom to change.

Changed, matt got a coffee-- he claims he only slept for 1 hour but on the 12 hour flight he watched 2 documentaries and 1 movie before I woke up 2 hours before landing. ... which means he too could have had 6+hours of sleep. And I picked up breakfast pitas. Then down to hertz to pick up our car rental -- left side of the road driving and round abouts will be fun; then we set our destination to hobbiton because why not.

Drove the 2 hours to the hobbiton movie set paid the 80$ a person to see it and ordered a beer and cider and bag of potatoes chips while we waited the hour for our turn. Did I mention the drive to hobbiton was gorgeous with cows everywhere and sheep fearing in the rolling hills? Anyway; booked a hotel for two nights in taupo, some town on a lake which would allow us to sleep in the next day and not worry about check out. Then just enough time passed, we boarded the bus to bring us back to the set area which was in the middle of this guys family farm which is still a farm today. And proceeded through hobbiton. The different doors are different sizes to allow to fool the eye into the different sizes of the characters. Oh--side note, when they made hobbiton for the lord of the rings movies they made it like any old set out of polystyrene and plastic which would easily be taken down-- but the attraction was so great and the set was falling apart that for hobbit movies they spent 2 years building the set as permanent fixtures. Anyway. We toured through the town and saw all 44 of the hobbit holes and the fake oak tree they erected to make the tree from lord of the rings appear 60 years younger. It was pretty cool. Ended at the party tree and then down to the green dragon inn for a pint (included) and then back to the car. Maybe I'll have to watch these movies now.

Then we drove for another 2 hours to taupo pulled into our motel at 6pm exhausted. Grabbed dinner at the crafty trout brewing (margarhetta pizza and a beef weiner schnitzel) and picked up quiche, sandwich stuff and water from the grocery store and passed out at 9pm. Next day: glow worm caves and mount rupeho

Italy day 3 -- jenny and nicole arrival, Vatican City.

Woke up at 10 am to discover jenny and Nicole's flight was delayed from a 930 am arrival to 1020 arrival. Perfect. We got ready to stop for breakfast and they messaged us saying they were catching the 1108 am train to arrive to termini at 1140. We had our meeting place set and decided to wait to eat until the girls arrived. They found us within ten minutes of their train arrival. Walked them back to our hotel so they could drop their bags and take a quick shower before setting off for our 130 Vatican museum tour.

After meandering for awhile to find the metro train station we found it and were on our way to the Vatican. 10 minutes later were at the stop and walking to the museum. Worried we were going to miss our 130 time, we started straight to the museum, to be stopped by a guy who informed us we can go at any time not per the reservation. So we found a cafe for sandwiches and then went to the museum, where we stood in a short line to get through the metal detectors and then had to exchange our vouchers for admission tickets. That took awhile, but then we were on our way. Decided to take the fast track to the Sistine chapel as that was the highlight of our time in the museum. Passed through some marvelous rooms and gorgeous ceilings. After meandering for a couple hours we finally found the Sistine chapel. Then over the museum. But we had to meander for another half hour to find the exit. Matt grabbed an espresso then we headed to at peters basilica. The line was forever long to enter and it was 500 the duomo closes at 7 pm we got into the basilica at 545 and headed to the duomo. 8€ for the elevator and then 320 windy stairs. Or 6€ for all climb 551 stairs. We paid the elevator which got us to the top of the inside of the duomo of St. Peter's. All of the wall paintings were actually tile mosaics. We then started the 320 stair climb to get to the top of the outside of the duomo. The 360 view was gorgeous. Then we walked through the lower of the basilica stopped for some gelato and headed back to the tram.

Got the girls checked into their hotel and took them down to see the coliseum at night. Then meandered to a back alley ristorante and has dinner. Underwhelming dinner. Then called it a night. Early ish morning the next day to see all the sites of Rome.

Italy day 2-- pompeii

Woke up at about 11, after 12 hours of sleep. Walked to a nearby cafe for a sandwich and then to the termini station to try and find our way to Naples and then to Pompeii. The one hour train was 50€ a person. Yikes! One way!! But there was a slower two hour train for 27€ a person. Opted for that. Rode the train with ac and figured out there was a private train that for 2€ brings you to Pompeii scavi, the station 100m from the entrance to Pompeii in a half hour. Sold. Train arrived to Naples and we meandered our way to the other train station and got on board the train. Half hour later we were arriving to Pompeii. Pompeii closes at 8 pm but the last 2 hour train from Naples to Rome departs at 831pm. Which means we need to leave Pompeii at 7. We entered the park and meandered through the ruins. It's amazing how well the volcano preserved everything. We hiked out to an old rich persons home and then back to the coliseum and theater round. The houses still had the wall paintings preserved. Then before we knew it it was 630 and we had to start our hike back to the train station.

Arrived a little after 7 for our 725 train. Which was delayed. Then at the next station entirely shut down. Not sure what happened but everyone pointed to us to get onto the other train headed towards Naples. A half hour later we were finally departing. Noting we were probably going to miss the two hour slow train, I tried looking up other routes home. 845 is a 3 hour slow train for 11,60€. 901 is a two hour train with an exchange for 40€ and 950 was a night train with an exchange not able to price out. We figured we should arrive to the private train station at 830, which gives us 10 minutes to run to the other station, buy tickets, find the train platform and board.

We arrived to the station at 832. And off we ran. I bought the tickets, matt looked at the platform and looked for a validation machine. 842 we boarded the non air conditioned three hour slow train to Rome termini. Three long hours. But we were heading home. In the mean time jenny and nicole were boarding their plane to come to Italy!

We arrived back to Roma termini about 1150, starving and dehydrated. We found a place to buy a kabob box and a bottle of beer and returns to our hotel to meet up with jenny and nicole to hit up the Vatican the next day.

Italy day 1-- arrival

After going back and forth which flight to ams to take, we last minute decided to take the 734pm. 4 first class seats. We were 2/3 on the list. Left work about 20 minutes early and made it to the airport about 6pm. Matt had already cleared my passport and then we waited. Thirty four long minutes to make sure no one listed last minute. And no one did. We scored our first class seats across the pond. Asked the nice gentleman next to me if he wanted to swap and have a seat to himself so matt could sit next to me. Score. The purser was very friendly and he ordered the seared tuna and I the chicken and Rossito. The zed fare link was broken and we couldn't check in for our zed from ams to fco. Hoping that would be back up and working by the time we landed. Two movies later and our five course dinner and I was out cold. Awoke to the clinks of the glasses for breakfast being served. Some frittata which wasn't as tasty as I'd hoped. Then we landed and we're on our way.

We made it through customs and finally got listed for the klm flight. It was yellow, meaning there might be seats, but Europe never oversella tickets so we should be ok. Exhausted we bought some sandwichs and then returned to our flight, which we got seats together. And then we both were fast asleep. Even the free drinks in coach didn't arouse us.

Landed in Rome, and had to wait for our gate checked bags. Purchased train tickets into the city for 14€ each and then took out some cash. After waiting 20 minutes our bags finally arrived walked the fifteen minutes to the train and were on our way to Rome termini.

After thirty minutes we arrived and made our way down the busy steeets filled with tents and merchants to where we though our hotel was. We booked it after we got seats in amsterdam and it was listed as a hotel being right next door to jenny and Nicole's hotel and was only 100$ a night. Buttttt we couldn't find it. We called the number. Thank goodness T-Mobile just works. The front desk guy then said he would meet us outside hotel Verona. He arrived and walked us two blocks around the corner. Apparently the hotel we booked is under construction so we are staying in this other hotel. Up two flights of stairs to a rickety elevator to the top floor (4) into the hotel sandy, a five room hotel. For the double room with the en suite with the tiniest shower I had ever seen. Oh well. It's a room and it was clean. Good enough. The desk man said we could pay cash of 400€ tomorrow and save on taxes and fees. Okay. We showered and freshened up after traveling for 18 hours and hit the road to the coliseum. Sunset hits the rocks and makes it gorgeous. It was about a ten minute walk from the hotel. We then detoured back to this cute restaurant that has outdoor seating. Orders a bottle of the grappe de Castillo (house wine red) and ordered mushroom artichoke olive pruschuto pizza and matt the spaghetti and meatballs. Yummmmm. Then we walked to the Trevi fountain for some night time pictures and grabbed gelato for the 20 minute walk back to the hotel. Where we passed out from exhaustion to sleep for 13 hours.