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 14: pj's and hobbiton

We had seen an aerial picture of Rotorua that really showcased the steam rising from the city.  Kristin just had to get a picture like it, so we woke up bright and early and went for a drive...in our pajamas.  We drove to the top of a nearby hill so that we could look down upon the city.  Our picture wasn't nearly as good as the aerial photo we had seen, and the steam wasn't nearly as prominent as it would have been on a cold day, but it was still a fun adventure!

Rotorua from the top of the hill...at 6am!

After our trek up the hill, we decided to stop off at the city park.  It is one unusual city park in that it's full of thermal activity!  Yes, we were still in our pajamas...

My wife woke me up early in the morning to drive her up the nearest mountain for a view of the city, and then on the way back to the hotel, coerced me into taking a detour that ended in walking around a park in my pajamas.  Thanks, Dear.

Nathan's journal entry: "We went out for breakfast at Lewisham's to try out the eggs benedict and corn cakes there.  The eggs benedict weren't as good as what we'd had in Christchurch, and the corn cakes were alright, but they were an odd conglomeration of flavors with the corn pancakes (a little bitter on their own) stacked with ham, jam, and avocado."

Eggs Benedict.  What's missing?  The hash brown layer...

Kristin's journal entry: "On our last day in Rotorua, we ate an excellent breakfast at Lewishams (with amazing hot chocolate) and walked over to a local craft fair.  We met the nicest old man who handcrafted bowls out of native swamp wood that's over 30,000 years old!  We bought some gifts and took his picture.  We checked e-mail and got gas, both of which made us a little late getting out of town."

Who wouldn't want a bowl of hot chocolate?  It really is a bowl!

The interior of Lewisham's...it was an adorable restaurant!

Nathan's journal entry: "Once we finished there, we walked over to a craft sale in a park where we found the nice old man who worked his entire career in forestry for the DOC and used those connections to get trees from the parks and carve bowls and such from them."

This great guy had plenty of stories and plenty of great wooden bowls.

Nathan's journal entry: "When we had finished there and were ready to leave, we had trouble escaping Rotorua thanks to a Christmas parade.  The Santa/Rudolph float at the end of the parade was hideous.  Rudolph was made entirely from large balloons, so it looked like his entire body was bubbled up in some kind of illness."

After Rotorua, we headed towards Matamata for a tour of Hobbiton from Lord of the Rings.

Kristin's journal entry: "We had to book it to Matamata, but the drive was beautiful.  We made it to Hobbiton just in time for our tour.  I loved Hobbiton!"

We loved these beautiful, rolling hills surrounding Hobbiton.

Nathan's journal entry: "Our next stop was Hobbiton, but we managed to get behind schedule, and the GPS said we'd arrive ten minutes after the tour started.  I somehow managed to arrive one minute early, and the total drive time was right at one hour." 

Unfortunately, we can't show you any of the many amazing photos we took at Hobbiton.  Why?

This is the closest you get to Hobbiton.

If you want to get an idea of what we saw, check out this video...

After the tour of the movie set, we got to feed some baby lambs!  It is a working sheep farm, after all.

Nathan's journal entry: "After Hobbiton, we drove to Waitomo to the Abseil Inn.  First, Waitomo can hardly be called a town.  There is a really fancy restaurant (supposedly on some top 100 list) with a visitor/gift shop as a front, a museum, pub, Morepork pizza place, and a bigger visitor center.  I would not have recognized it as a town if we hadn't been staying there."

Kristin's journal entry: "We drove up to Waitomo after leaving Matamata and made it to the Abseil Inn.  That was a neat place.  It was built so that their B&B rooms were separate from their personal home.  We stayed in the 'cave' room and had our own bathroom.  The town has few dining options, so we ate a bad dinner at the local tavern and then chilled out at the inn.  We met some nice people there.  We really enjoyed some guests from Australia and had good conversation with them about holidays and traditions.  The next morning we met the other guests, two of whom were from California."

These were just some neat rock cliffs separating the fields from the hills.

The "Cave" room...

Nathan's journal entry: "The Abseil Inn had one of the steepest driveways I've ever seen and hardly any parking, but it was a really nice place to stay.  Each room had its own shower and bathroom, the owners lived in a separate portion of the house and could be buzzed anytime, and they cooked a pretty nice breakfast.  And, we got some good conversation with the other three couples sitting around the table at breakfast.  Plus, they had probably ten different types of honey from all regions of New Zealand, and they could tell us the differences in flavors of all of them."