New Zealand Update

Hi Family and Friends!!

Sorry that there still aren't many new pictures. Did you know that Internet in Fiji and New Zealand costs more than an average meal? Neither did we! Now you do, and so do we. ;) We're waiting until we can find cheaper service in Hong Kong and the Philippines to post more of our photos, but we want everyone to know how we're doing.

New Zealand has been absolutely beautiful! The weather stayed cold and rainy since our last post, but each day has given us a few minutes of sunshine (during which we run to the beach as fast as we can!) The past week we have been staying up in the Coromandel Peninsula along the north-eastern coast of New Zealand. The coastline is breathtaking! There are miles of sheer white cliffs that drop into crystal clear blue ocean. The horizon is filled with dozens of little islands and dramatic sea stacks (we're south of the Barrier Islands). Along the hillsides you can find more sheep than you can shake a stick at! My favorite thing to do on our hikes has been to chase them. Not in a mean way, but in a "Hey little sheepie!!! Come see!" sort of way. No luck yet. I think I intimidate them with my towering height. :) It really is an amazing place.

Today we drove up from the peninsula to Auckland, and spent the day at the Auckland Domain, which is their version of Central Park. We found a gorgeous botanical garden to tour, and oddly enough, also the hot house's groundskeeper. He highly suggested we listen to music by Black Labor Party (Ozzie Osborne's guitar player's band...) and let us help feed the fish after hours. He also showed us the bottom side of their 4 ft Brazilian lilly pads that can hold up to 60 kg!! He ended our visit by saying "It's beer o'clock and my liver's been naughty." He was hilarious, and fun to meet!

After the botanical gardens, we briefly toured the Auckland museum. It houses more Maori cultural art than we've seen our entire trip! It is absolutely incredible, and we wish we had more time to do a more extensive tour.

The evening found us at Sky City, Auckland's 1075 ft tower! It was an amazing experience, and the city was gorgeous to see at night from so high up above. I fought vertigo the entire hour we were up there, but standing on their glass floor was worth it! After the tower, we enjoyed our first (and only) fine dinner out in New Zealand and had lamb shanks (sorry sheepies!) and steak. Yum!!!

We miss everyone and hope everyone's doing well! We're off to the Hong Kong and Philippines next.

Much love, Kaycie and Merrill

P.S. For the moms: Just in case our moms are worrying, we are managing to eat well here! We have been able to find hostels with private kitchen and bathrooms (such luxury!!) and so we've been cooking curries and spaghetti each night. We absolutely cannot afford meat here ($10 per kg for the bad stuff) but we eat lots of grains, fruits, and veggies. We've been gorging on kiwis (only $1 per kg) and gourds, as it's their late harvest here.



The view from Sky City



The view from the glass floor at sky city







The Auckland Domain's 4 ft lilly pads



Cathedral Cove on Coromandel

The cliffs at Coromandel

extras

So we really should be telling you all about Fiji, but we found some pics we thought we should put up. Also, there are no pics from Fiji because we were only there for 36 hours because we missed our flight (stupid international date line and midnight flight, it's a bad combo) and it rained the whole time anyway. But it was warm. Now Kaycie is commenting on my penchant for run on sentences. And now we're moving on.

When we were in Haleakala Crater, it looked like a picture from one of the Mars rovers or something. I thought it was cool.





These are of me and Kaycie at the top.

Maui is known for its beautiful sunsets...

...you just have to watch out for the wierdos who jump in your pictures.

A note from Kaycie:

So we're in New Zealand now! The blog is always a few weeks behind, as we find an internet cafe and get to post pictures and such. We're having a wonderful time in Taupo! Thanks, Clark and Amber!!! For those of you who already know, YES! IT IS COOOOLD HERE! The weather reminds me of late October in Utah, or January in Dallas. ;) We bundle up each day and have hiked several volcanoes (including Mount Doom) and waterfalls. It truly is gorgeous here. This weekend we'll travel up from the middle of the north island to the coast. Hopefully we'll be able to get the cabin on the beach we're calling about tonight.

Hope all is well!

Kickin' it in Kaua'i

Kaua'i was absolutely incredible! If I thought I loved Maui, Kaua'i surprised me with how incredibly green and beautiful it was. Merrill and I spent the whole time dreaming of how we could buy a home in Hanalei! If you ever go to Kaua'i, go to this small village. The snorkeling is wonderful, and they have a really good, cheap hamburger stand! Yum Teriaki Burgers!

The Napali coast was amazing. We saw it on this day by foot. I went up a few days later and saw it via Helicopter!!! Wow!

A few days later, we hiked into Weimea Canyon. The views were breathtaking. Here we are dangling over an 800 foot waterfall! Good idea, yeah? (they end everything with "yeah?" here. Nice. :)

Another day, it was all about cliff jumping into a large freshwater pool below. The water was warmer than you'd think! Here Merrill goes...

And here I go! Merrill jumped just before I did, and he said I was smiling huge at the top, and then looked a little concerned when I realized I was STILL falling a few seconds later.

We miss everyone! Take care and write us sometime, yeah?

Love,
Kaycie and Merrill

maui

Maui = amazing sunsets + crater hiking + waaaay less people and traffic than Waikiki!

Maui = like-y

We spent a week in Maui in the town of Kihei on the south-west shore. It was beautiful! I spent a lot of our beach time skim boarding and bodyboarding. Kaycie spent her days swimming in the ocean, reading, and playing with our little nieces and nephews on the beach.

Our favorite trip on Maui was traveling the hours long Hana Highway. The Highway is a one lane road that winds around Maui's coast to the small town of Hana. Every few mile markers, you can find hidden trails that lead to waterfalls (= cliff diving and rope swings), black and red sand beaches, and bamboo forests. The trip up the coast, though just a few miles, took all day. We were sun burnt and happy.

Kaycie and our niece Jane at the Black Sand Beach on the Hana Highway (the sand truly is black volcanic sand)

Merrill Boogie Boarding

The Tayler Family at the Red Sand Beach on the Hana Highway

The entrance to the Bamboo Forest

Kaycie and Amber entering the forest

The Snorks

Kaycie snorkled for the first time in Hawaii. Despite the look on her face, she really loved it. We've been many times and have seen all kinds of colorful fish as well as a few turtles. We were only able to get pics of a few but here they are.


This is a Moorish Idol.


This is a Wrasse of some kind. They were everywhere with all kinds of color variations.


If you look real close you can see the trumpet fish. They are about two feet long and about in inch high. (If you click on the pic you can see it full size which makes the fish much easier to see.) We found a cousin of this fish called a needle fish which is about half the size and almost totally transparent.


Turtles are so cool to watch. They seem to just fly through the water. I followed this guy for a while until I noticed that I couldn't see the bottom anymore. That's when I decided to head back towards shore.


We have no idea what kind of fish this is, but he has amazing coloring. Notice the orange flame pattern above his fins. He also has a long snout. You should really click on the pic and see him close up.


At one of the reefs, there was a ledge that ran for at least 20 yards and had bubbles coming out of the rocks every few feet. We couldn't see where the ledge dropped off to, it was too deep. We have know idea what was making all the bubbles. I've never seen anything like it before.

Waikikini

We spent the first few days in Hawaii in Waikiki, before meeting the family in Maui. It was Kaycie's first time ever in Hawaii. We were pretty tired from the flights from New Jersey to LA to Honolulu, the 3 screaming children on the flight to Hawaii made it pretty hard to sleep. Not that I can ever sleep in airplanes anyway, but still. We were very happy to have an amazing room at the DoubleTree courtesy of our friends Bart and Stacey McLeroy. Thanks guys! We spent most of our two days there sleeping. We'd go out on the beach and relax and then go take a nap and then go back to the beach for a bit before heading back to the room to rest up before dinner. It was pretty great stuff.

Up next, Maui.

Ben and Hetal's Wedding!

Last week, we left beautiful New Jersey (no joke!) to travel to Hawaii! We're in Maui right now, but we can't leave NJ behind without posting some pictures of Ben and Hetal's wedding.

The wedding was AMAZING!! We have never seen so much dancing and good timing at one party... ever! The bride and groom looked wonderful, and the whole day was terrific. Thank you, Sally and Syl for hosting us so well! We had a great time. Congratulations, Ben and Hetal! We love you both very much!

Ben and Merrill

Kaycie and Merrill in their Indian clothes

Ben and Hetal at the Kickin' reception

Kaycie's Henna Hands