WAITOMO GLOW WORM CAVES

After driving through a countryside filled with ostrich farms, Sandy and I made our way to the Waitomo glow worm caves for some black water rafting. Equipped with wet suits, helmets, inner tubes and 2 Germans, we explored the caves with our Maori guide.  

The glow worms are actually a "fungus gnat" but glow worm obviously has a much better ring to it. In the larva stage they glow to attract prey and after they emerge from their eggs, the females continue to glow even brighter but now to attract a mate. The things gals will do to get the attention of some bro, eh?

We crawled through tunnels, jumped off waterfalls (when Sandy was invited to do this she politely replied "that's not happening" but sure enough she did it!) and floated through the caves admiring the neon green glow worms. In the pitch black cave they look like a beautiful night sky, it was quite the experience. 

NEW ZEALAND ROAD TRIP: AUCKLAND TO PIHA

The day after Christmas I got the best gift of all.  My friend Sandy flew all the way from Boston to do a 3 week road trip around New Zealand with me! She skipped the 25th of December all together (it's fine, she's Jewish) to get here and we had a joyous reunion at the airport consisting of the kind of jumping up and down and high-pitched shrieks that only obnoxious American girls can provide.

We picked up our fully-equipped Spaceship camper van, had a big catch-up night in Auckland then hit the road in the morning for an afternoon at Piha Beach on the west coast. 

Lion Rock.

Piha is a little beach town that's famous for it's black sand, surf culture and intense waves (it's also where the reality show "Piha Rescue" is filmed).  We enjoyed the strong sun, a hike up the very steep Lion Rock, fresh fish and chips and the pretty horses.

This was Sandy's first ever camping experience and she just decided to go big by living out of a camper van for 3 weeks straight. What an adorable champ, look at her!

Our Spaceship camper van was awesome the whole trip. Driving on the left side of the road with the steering wheel on the right side of the car (and the windshield wipers/blinker sides reversed) was a bit of trip. We adapted quickly though, with only a few panicked screams of "left side! left side!" when turning onto an intersection. But that's all part of the adventure. 

AVOCADO PICKING

As I'm someone who began to think of herself as comfortably wealthy once I got to the point in my life that I could order extra guacamole on my Chipotle burritos without a second thought, it felt like the Kenny family lived next to a goldmine since their home neighbored an avocado orchard.

Equipped with mini tractors and a big bucket, Amanda, Carlos, Archie and I had a successful afternoon of avocado picking one sunny day in Te Puna.

Now I grew up in the rural suburbs  but the homegrown fruits and vegetables in New Zealand amaze me. Not only did they live next to an avocado orchard, but the Kenny family grew strawberries, lettuce, peaches, watermelons, beetroot, beans, tomatoes... everything! And they're not farmers either, they both work in marketing but just grow all of that right in their own yard. Apparently this is fairly common in New Zealand as the soil is super rich but I had no idea it was even possible.

To make salads at night, they would just go out and grab some vegetables, wash them off, chop them up and prepare the freshest and most delicious salad I've ever encountered. In the morning, I would just grab a handful of strawberries from the garden to have with my coffee. I used to be quite satisfied with myself eating "local and organic" when I would buy veggies from the farmers market in the parking lot behind Bank of America in Jamaica Plain so THIS just absolutely blew my mind. 

TE PUNA, NEW ZEALAND

When I arrived in New Zealand it rained for a week straight. While there were enough cute cafes and art galleries in Auckland to keep me fairly occupied, the big city was gray and I was thoroughly unimpressed. My friend Amanda rescued me just in time and took me to Te Puna, a little country town on the east coast. We stayed with the family she used to nanny for back when she lived in New Zealand and after 3 months of backpacking it was a welcome break to stay at their gorgeous house (next to an avocado orchard!) with their two adorable little boys, Carlos and Archie.

We started our stay at a holiday party at their families "bach" (summer home) and visited around Mount Manganui and Taraunga too, but mostly we ran around the yard (the boys can handle their mini tractors better than I can parallel park), enjoyed their garden where they grow their own fruits and vegetables (!) and had some epically meaty dinners. 

A hearty lamb dinner. 

Mount Manganui

We prepped for Christmas by wrapping presents and laying out cookies and coffee (Santa had a long night of deliveries ahead of him, it was a smart call on Carlos's part).  The following morning, the boys were thrilled to see Santa's footprints next to their outdoorsy presents that included mini wetsuits and little sleeping bag.  

I missed my family over the holidays but I had a nice little Kiwi Christmas thanks to Amanda and the Kenny family. 

12 HOURS IN SHANGHAI

After happily gorging on 12 hours of in-flight television on a plane ride across the planet (I haven't watched real television in 3 months! And I'm not one of those terrible people who would consider that an accomplishment. Plus they had HBO!), I arrived in Shanghai for a 12 hour layover. Beyond exhausted right before landing, I was planning on finding a cozy corner of the airport to pass out in but I immediately perked up as soon as the wheels hit the tarmac with the realization that I was in CHINA! 

After the customs guy assured me I was allowed to leave the aiport, I withdrew far too much Yen from an ATM, figured out how to get a train into the city and spent the afternoon wandering around downtown Shanghai.

The city is massive, looks futuristic yet retro and the best bits are packed with people and filled with smells of exotic street food. I ate killer street stir fried rice for lunch and got the best massage of my life at a very fancy and dimly lit massage place that felt like it was run by the Chinese Mafia. 

I took the Shanghai Maglev back to the airport which is a high-speed train that uses magnetic levitation to move and goes up 267 mph. It was awesome. It's the fastest commercial train in operation and in my expert opinion, I would say about 2 notches below teleportation. 

And now, onto Auckland.