New Zealand Trip-Day 2 & 3

Well, I was feeling really motivated so I went ahead and did Day 2 & 3 together in one post...it's a lot of pics so prepare yourself (what's new?? I always post a ton of pics :) Anywhoo....

Day 2: Site-seeing adventures begin!

Our first morning....Katie and I were a TAD BIT tired :)...The night before Georgie managed to keep us up till 9pm and then we PASSED OUT. I woke up at 9am the next morning (yes, I CANNOT remember the last time I slept that long...seriously). I snapped a pic of Katie before she awoke from her comma....girlfriend was in DEEP sleep fo sho!!

We headed up the west coast about 30 minutes to Piha Beach. Ummmm....just slightly gorgeous :)

Our view from the top of the mountain as we headed down to the beach.....nice...

This is the New Zealand "Christmas Tree", the pohutukawa tree, blooms red beautiful flowers right at Christmas time.....they were all over the place and SOOOOO pretty...

Piha Beach! The west coach beaches have black sand b/c they contains so much iron.

Muy Beautimous......yes, I just made those words up b/c I can't think of any to describe how amazing it was :)

Going on a little hike...

Mollusks....there were Zillions of them....

Very cool....

Massive, Ginormous seaweed.....Georgie tried to pull a piece off....she was unsuccessful :)

Georgie driving us around...on the other side of the road, on the other side of the car...I was taking notes b/c I was going to be the "designated driver" while we were there since A. I could drive a standard. B. I'm a decent, alert driver (some may disagree :). C. I drove there in 2002 when we spent the summer in the South island, so I was experienced :) D. Katie's hubby, Ben, absolutely forbid her to get behind the wheel of a car while we were in NZ! E. Shane was completely not allowed to drive while we were there b/c in 2002 he managed to almost entirely destroy a rental car, particularly by filling it up with diesel instead of gasoline along with several other not-so-smart things (i'm sorry, dear, I had to share :)......SOOOO, there really wasn't a choice...I was going to be the one driving us around when Georgie couldn't :)

Day 3: More site-seeing!!

We met up with one of Georgie's best friends, Ruth. She was also one of the bridesmaids. She was SO much fun!! I love me some Kiwis!!

Georgie and Ruth took us to this AMAZING cafe on one of the MANY beaches in Auckland. They all had different names and for some reason, I can't remember at this moment the name of this one...anyways, this cafe had the best breakfast food I've ever tasted...seriously.

Ruth and I

Our sexy model face....yeah, don't think I really can pull that off....Ruth on the other hand....

Katie had the best strawberry pancakes EVER...

I had eggs Benedict for the first time in my life and I probably won't ever have it again b/c it will never be as good as it was here!

Yea, I liked it.... :)

In the background is Rangitoto, the largest volcanic island they have. I called it "Tuty Tuty" b/c I could never remember the name of it. Tuty Tuty was much easier. You can't see it very well b/c the cloud cover was so thick that day. It was still stunning.

Ruth and Georgie

Katie and I

There is volcanic rock everywhere....

There are volcanoes all over the place. There's like more than 50 just around Auckland (I'm pretty sure that's what Georgie said :). Here we are on the top of one of them. It's actually the one that Mark proposed to Georgie on. She re-inacted the whole event. Fun times!

You can see downtown Auckland in the background....

The Toyota Corona. Yes, that is the real name of Mark's white "bless its heart" car that we drove during our time there. We prayed everyday that it would make it through that day......oh, the Corona.... :)

I love this girl!

Ummmmm....hello....gorgeous....

You can see Tuty Tuty a bit better in this one....

This was yet another volcano we hiked around. There were actually a ton of bunkers built into this one from back in WWII. They were preparing incase of attack...however, no one ever came.... :)

Classic. I don't know what Katie is holding b/c Georgie has ZERO booty.

Ridin' the big guns....

Sooooo pretty....did I mention that is was summer over there and like 70-75 degrees every single day.....

The crater of one of the volcanoes...

We then headed to the Museum. It was very cool as well.

The Maori (New Zealand natives) section.....

A hand-crafted sailboat that had some significant meaning...however, I can't remember what that was.... :) Cool boat though....

This elephant used to be in a zoo....until it attacked and killed someone...now he is stuffed....

Had to get a pic with a Kiwi bird, of course...

I've always wanted a pic with a mummy....there ya go....

After the museum, we went to this super cool pub and had the best pear cider beer I have ever tasted in my life. It was fabulous.

Such cool decorations....

What an awesome two days!! And we still have so many left! Day 4 coming soon.....