new zealand trip!

it's finally time!
finally time to share photos from new zealand.
when i was preggo i was so busy nesting,
and working on photography & wrapping up my teaching.
then i had a newborn around :)
now the dust has settled,
and when baby's asleep,
mama gets things done!

we visited new zealand in june of last year.
i was 17 weeks pregnant, so violet sort of got to join us in our adventures.
we stayed in hamilton & auckland, but we rented a car,
so we drove a few hours each day to see as much as we could.
we are in LOVE with this country.
i would move there in a heartbeat. no kidding!
the land is gorgeous, the people are loving.
we had an amazing time and can't wait to go back!

the temple in hamilton.

 hokey pokey ice cream. it's the best! i blogged about it once before.

 the long drives were always beautiful.

 rotorua.

 we had such a good time at the polynesian spa,
where there are natural thermal pools.
since i was pregnant, i could use the lower temp pools.

 a meat pie for lunch!

 whakarewarewa thermal village.
a sweet village of maori who live off of the energy provided by the geothermal activity.
they use it for cooking, bathing, showering, everything. so neat!

 sometimes we just had to pull over and admire the sheep!

 we did a TON of driving to see as much as we could,
but the driving was so gorgeous,
so it definitely felt like the journey was part of the destination.

 we found some thai food!

 our sweet ride.
will had a lot of fun driving on the "wrong" side of the road.
we did have a few scares.
he even had trouble adjusting to driving on the right when we got back home.

 starting our hike to bridal veil falls near raglan.
the best part about this hike is that we were the only living souls on the whole hike.

 more breathtaking driving.

 a cool "house" across the street from the beach where we ate fish & chips in the sand.

 the only other person on this beach was a kiwi fisherman.

 we made it to the famous piha beach.
surfers die here all the time apparently.
will didn't surf here, thank goodness.

 this cute dog was waiting patiently for his owner who was riding the waves.

 then we stayed the night in auckland before our flight took us to australia.
this was the view from our hotel.
will loves big cities! downtown auckland had the feel of san francisco.
i prefer the quaint little towns.

this was one of our favorite trips ever!

next up will be photos from australia :)