nz day 19-21: the wedding

We traveled up to Martinborough for the big event...Caleb and Ruth's wedding!  This was the main reason for our trip to New Zealand.  We couldn't be happier for the two of them.

We stayed at the Parehua resort in Martinborough the night before and the night of the wedding.  It was a beautiful room (more like a small cottage) in the midst of wine country.  The room contained a lovely living room with folding doors that opened up to a patio overlooking a pond.  It had a small kitchen, a window nook in the bedroom big enough to sit and read in, and a huge bathroom.  The bathroom had a spa tub as well as a separate shower with no immediately visible drain.

Once we got settled into the room, we went and found the Joneses to help set up for the wedding.  We moved furniture, unloaded flowers, set up chairs, and we even helped entertain little girls and run sound equipment during the rehearsal.

That night, the wind hit really hard.  We could see the trees outside our window blowing back and forth late into the night.  The wind howled as loud as any wind I can recall in Oklahoma.  The owners informed us when we left that that just happens every few months when the wind comes blowing down between the mountains.

In New Zealand, the tradition for weddings is to have the ceremony around noonish, take the afternoon off so the wedding party can go take pictures at all the scenic locations in the vicinity, and then regroup for an evening reception.  During the "intermission", Kristin and I took a walk into town to look around at the shops.

Caleb and Nathan shortly after the wedding ceremony.

Lounging by the pond during the "intermission".

The lovely couple, Ruth and Caleb, make the rounds at the reception.

This is one of the infamous boxes of chocolates that everyone spent so long making.

On our last morning, we enjoyed a breakfast with the bride and groom and their family and friends.

Cindy Jones (Caleb's mom) and Nathan

 

Kris Jr. (Caleb's brother)

Kris Sr. (Caleb's dad)

Sammi (Caleb's sister)

Once the breakfast was over, we headed back to Wellington to catch our plane.

We hitched a ride with the Wooleys back to the Wellington airport.

Bye bye, beautiful New Zealand.

nz day 17-19: wellington

On December 7, we met up with the Jones family in Wellington!  Nathan has been friends with the Jones family since childhood.  Now, the children are all grown up, and Caleb (Nathan's best friend in high school) is living in New Zealand.  We joined with the family for a visit in Wellington a few days before Caleb's wedding.

This is the Jones family...yes, they took up the entire sidewalk. :-)

Kristin's journal entry: "On my New Zealand birthday (December 8) we met up with the Jones family at their place (Caleb came to get us to lead us there), and we all went to look at a Christmas store together.  Nathan and I went off for our own lunch together and then met back up with Cindy and Sammi for a bit of shopping.  We didn't buy anything but looked at a lot of shops.  We briefly split from them to buy Nathan an Icebreakers shirt, and then we all went to Ruth's place for dinner and wedding favor construction.  I enjoyed spending time with everyone and making the chocolate boxes.  They even surprised me by singing Happy Birthday and giving me a little carrot cake!"

Happy birthday to Kristin!

Constructing wedding favors - chocolate boxes!  We worked for several hours and didn't even get close to being done.

Kristin's journal entry (Dec. 9): "We slept in today and then met up with the group to check out the Botanical Gardens and rose garden.  They were pretty, but not the best we've seen on the trip.  We ate a late lunch in a pub, and then Nathan and I split off.  We went to Moore Wilson to buy the wedding gift (took much longer than planned due to an unexpected ATM run), and then we just went back to our cottage.  We wanted to go to Mt. Victoria (and the walk to Bree from Lord of the Rings) but never made it.  Nathan surprised me with a birthday dessert of homemade peanut butter cookies.  We didn't have an oven, so he had to make them in the skillet.  They turned into cookie crumbs, which I ate over my banana and Nutella (yum!).  After dinner, we walked to the psychedelic Christmas tree and watched the light show on bean bags.  Happiness abounded."

This trolley runs up the hill to the university and botanical gardens.

Looking down upon Wellington.

Playing in the park...

The rose garden...

Nathan spent over an hour attempting to make Kristin's birthday dessert - peanut butter cookies.

This was the end result...it was delicious!

It's not what was planned, but we had a dessert of cookie crumbles and wine.

On our last morning in Wellington, Kristin walked around with the Jones family to see some of the sights while Nathan waited with the luggage (he's a good man).

I forget the story, but Caleb was part of some Lord of the Rings rally here.

Carrie and Sammi Jones

nz day 16: dawson falls and mt. taranaki

Kristin's journal entry: "Today we headed out towards Wellington.  We were hoping to see Mt. Taranaki, but it was obscured by clouds.  Instead, we went to a possum tannery, and I found a beautiful possum/merino sweater and a merino shirt.  Nathan bought socks and gloves for his family.  We had a great conversation with one of the owners and ended up staying over an hour.  While we were in the area, we went to look at Dawson's Falls."

This is about all we could see of Mt. Egmont/Taranaki, but we had seen it clearly from the plane on our first day in the country.

Kristin's journal entry: "When we finally got to Wellington, we did a grocery store run and settled in for the night.  Our cottage is nice - it is large with a washer, dryer, dishwasher, kitchenette, etc."

Nathan's journal entry: "Our cottage had a complimentary bottle of wine and a sliding partition to close off the bedroom.  Kristin thought the partition should be painted like the wall and furniture behind it so you wouldn't know when it is closed."

nz day 15: blackwater caving

Blackwater rafting - the highlight of our trip!

Kristin is easily identifiable as being the only person with a blue helmet.

Kristin's journal entry: "Caving was one of the most adventurous experiences of our whole trip.  We were in a group with 6 other people and 2 guides (Logan and Tom).  We suited up and then did some practice abseilling.  The real abseil into the cave was a bit scary just because I still didn't really know what I was doing.  I was horrible at it, but I made it."  

 Our caving adventure started with abseil training where we learned the ropes (pun totally intended) on a hillside before heading to the cave entrance.

Nathan's journal entry: "The cave entrance was a small hole that we had to lower down into and slide through.  Once through the tight spot, it opened up into an underground chasm.  The rock throughout the cave was formed in very distinctive layers a bit like the Pancake Rocks, and the exposed surfaces were all worn smooth with odd waves and divets.  The exception was where fissures came together, and those had some incredibly sharp ridges.  The total distance from the platform to the cave floor was 37 meters."

Into the abyss we go.

The photos with plenty of lighting are not us.

Not us, again, but this is looking up from the cave entrance.

 Kristin's journal entry: "Inside the cave, we walked a little ways, and I found myself at the front of the group somehow.  The guide started hooking me up to something without missing a beat and then gave me a little push off a ledge into the darkness.  Ziplining was awesome!  It was like flying through space with glow worms as constellations.  The zipline (flying fox) wasn't long, but it seemed long since I was the first to do it."

 This isn't Kristin, but it gives you an idea of the zipline experience.

Nathan's journal entry: "Once everyone was down, we walked along for a bit until the walkway dropped off into nothingness (or darkness, if you prefer).  Kristin was in the front, and the guide started hooking her harness up to some rigging and telling her where to place her feet.  Pretty soon, he let go of a rope he was holding, and she flew off screaming down a zipline.  When the second girl went, right after she stopped screaming, we heard a loud noise like a dumpster falling off a roof (but less metallic).  The guy she was with was a bit confused and could not seem to figure out if he should be worried or laughing.  The noise was just the other guide smacking an inner tube against something, though.  The zipline was fun with the only light coming from the glow worms."

Kristin's journal entry: "We sat on a little cliff over the water and ate some chocolate and biscuits, and then we had to jump off the cliff into the water.  This was the first time I had ever jumped into water, so I was a little nervous.  Even though I landed on my tube, I went all the way under water.  It. Was. Cold."

Nathan's journal entry: "Then we undid the harnesses, grabbed our tubes, and jumped off a little cliff into the stream.  We tubed, waded, swam, floated, and pseudo-climbed upstream for a while until we got to the 'end.'  I was a bit disappointed because beyond that point, the cave narrowed and the ceiling got lower, but it looked like there were way more glow worms in there.  It was like a tunnel lit by thousands of tiny blue lights.  But we had to turn back.  Only two people have explored farther upstream, and that required scuba gear.  On the way back down stream, we formed a chain on the tubes, turned out our lights, and the guide floated us back."

Nathan's journal entry: "We ditched the tubes at the cliff where we jumped in and set off down the stream trying to stay near the edge where we could touch the bottom.  That section was a tiny lake where a natural rock wall was damming the stream.  They had put in a slide for us to go down, so I forgot to pay much attention to the real waterfall."

This is our floating tube chain.

Nathan's journal entry: "Somewhere in the mix, I realized that I could float thanks to the wet suit.  It wasn't great, and my head was barely above water, but I floated better than when I've tried in a swimming pool.  I showed my new found trick to Kristin, and she started doing it.  Maybe 20 seconds later, a hand grabs my shoulder and starts pushing me down.  Apparently, my wife is so lazy that floating down the stream with no effort is not good enough for her.  She wants to latch on to me so that I'll make her more buoyant and pull her along at the same time.  She tried the same kind of thing while I was swimming, but I'm just not buoyant enough to keep us both afloat."

Nathan's journal entry: "At our next rest top (the first was on the cliff before we jumped in the water, and we got hot chocolate and an awesome brownie at that one), we got chocolate and hot tang.  One girl didn't want anything to drink, so they poured it down her wet suit to warm her up a bit."

Picnic in the cave.

Our guides had us take the little plastic cups we had been drinking out of and put them over our headlamps.  We then moved our heads around during a slow exposure film to create this effect.  Kristin's is the blue square, and Nathan's is the yellow cross.

Kristin's journal entry: "We waded and tubed through the cave and then floated back downstream with our lights off so that we could see the glow worms.  Then, we slid down the waterfall face first, and Nathan and I went to the bathroom.  Once again, I had to strip naked to do it (good thing it was pitch black in that cave).  We got more snacks, did some more floating and wading, and then had to basically crawl through some tighter parts.  To get out, we had to free climb up 2 waterfalls.  It was so much fun."

Nathan's journal entry: "After swimming and wading and such, we crawled through a small opening.  It was small enough that you either had to crawl through, or you could hang from the rock over the hole in a sitting position, swing your head through a gap angling up from the main hole, sit down with your feet pointing back out the hole, and then pull your feet through.  That small hole opened up into a small closet sized space under a water fall.  I was first through the hole, so I was the first to climb the waterfall.  The guides had to stay there to protect anyone and push them away from the walls if they fell (because there's no safety gear down there)."

Nathan's journal entry: "So I went through the waterfall and got in position against the far wall.  It was narrow enough that you straddle the span between the opposing walls to climb up until the top of the waterfall, and then you just pull yourself up.  The hole at the top was just as small as the one we'd came through to get in under the waterfall, but it was pitch dark in there, and the hole didn't appear to open up very much as I went in.  We were supposed to wait and regroup at the first corner, but I wasn't even seeing enough space for two people to pass one another.  I got claustrophobic in a hurry.  Pretty soon, I came to an S-bend where I could crouch, and there was a bit of room, so I pressed my back into a corner and turned my light of so the next guy would get that same experience.  He loved it and turned his light off too.  It was great!"

This isn't us, but this is the top of the first waterfall.  About six feet of the fall isn't shown.

Nathan's journal entry: "After regrouping, we climbed another waterfall and made our way up a very low ceiling tunnel.  We came out in a bright green nook set back in a hill with thick brush and luscious trees and a beautiful clear pool.  Thus ended the great New Zealand adventures."

 The cave exit was really pretty.

Celebrating the completion of our last major adventure.

Kristin's journal entry: "When we left Waitomo, we headed up to New Plymouth.  I was really excited to see one of the parks all lit up for Christmas, so we went out for a walk.  It was a little rainy, but not too bad.  The park was one of the prettiest I have ever seen, but it was unfortunately not lit up."

This park was huge!

Nathan's journal entry: "From Waitomo, we drove down along the coast to New Plymouth.  The main city park was supposed to light up with Christmas lights at night, so we took our time getting dinner and walked to the park.  The park is massive, and what we saw of it was beautiful.  It's big enough, that it has a 'main lake' (implying lesser lakes), and the main lake has a fake sunken pirate ship at one end.  On a clear day, you can supposedly see Mt. Taranaki/Egmont from here, but it was raining.  For a while, the park was really creepy because it was empty and the paths were not well lit, but more people showed up later.  We got tired of waiting for the lights around 9:00."

 

The lighting behind the waterfall changes colors.

Next stop...Wellington!