We made a quick trip to the grocery store to pick up the necessities (wine, chocolate, strawberries, grapes, crackers, brie…) then spent the rest of our night chillin’ in the spa bath.  We took a few photos of the sunset too.

It was pretty awesome.

On Saturday, we walked into town and had a go at the mini golf.  Matt won, by a lot, but it was good fun!

Why yes, that is me wearing shorts and jandals!  The weather was so nice and warm all weekend – I even got a bit of a sunburn.  Hello, Summer!  (at least in Taupo, not so much in Wellington.)

After lunch, we walked to Huka Falls and took some photos.  I still can’t get over the colour of the water here – it’s so blue and pure looking.

Didn’t end up doing much with the rest of the day – ate some ice cream, went out to dinner, and watched a movie in our room.  It was nice to be able to take our time to do things and have a relaxing weekend.

Sunday was awesome.  We went to the hot pools and soaked in the hot water for a few hours with a couple waterslide breaks!  Look how pretty:

To top it all off, we had massages.  I’m addicted now – pretty sure I can justify getting one once a month from now on.  Why did I not have one before???

The only kinda bad thing that happened on our weekend was Sunday night’s dinner.  We went to a new Indian place and they were still getting used to running a restaurant.  We ordered our food and waited.  And waited.  And noticed EVERY table was waiting for some part of their meal.  After over an hour, I went up to ask when the food was coming as we hadn’t even been served entrees yet.  Apparently, they thought we had already had our entrees – at least the food came pretty quickly after I asked!  At the end of it all, we finished eating at 10pm.  Luckily, we were able to laugh at the whole thing.  We felt pretty bad for the staff cause they were just run off their feet.  One couple wasn’t so understanding though – they ate their entrees then did a runner!  It was pretty funny watching them run down the street.

I could definitely get used to weekends away!  Our next trip isn’t for a couple of weeks but I want to go NOW!

We actually have quite a few trips planned for summer. So many that we should really come up with a name for the collective group – I’ll leave that to someone else as I’m not very creative in the name department…

Anyway, 3 weeks after our Taupo trip we’re going to Toast Martinborough.  It’s a one day wine festival that we’re turning into a weekend with a few people from Matt’s work.  We booked our house way back in April and it was one of the last places available.  It looks awesome, and I can’t wait to go!  I bought a dress to wear on the actual day – it’s up on Flickr and I’d really love your opinion so leave a comment!  I don’t mind brutal honesty so be sure to say EXACTLY what you think.  I still have a few weeks to buy a new dress if need be…

The trip after that is a big one!  We leave Dec.27 (Happy Birthday Mom!) and will be road trippin’ for 2 weeks in the South Island.  We’ll be in Golden Bay for the longest amount of time – hanging out on the beach, doing some walking tracks, kayaking, and I want to go horseback riding along the beach.  Matt’s not too keen on the last one (fair enough) but I’ll go by myself if I have to cause it looks like so much fun!

After that, we’ll go to Westport for a couple nights, Franz Josef (Glacier and Hot springs) for one, Wanaka for 2 more, then spend a few days visiting Matt’s Dad in Timaru.  We’ll finish the trip with a night in Christchurch (apparently Chinese food and the Casino are on the menu) and fly home the next morning!

But wait, there’s more!  Three days after all that we’re flying up to Auckland for a few days and going to Big Day Out – a one day music festival being headlined by Muse!  We’re staying at the SkyCity hotel which has a heated rooftop pool (that you won’t get me out of) and the Casino (that you won’t get Matt out of) downstairs!

There’s also a few ideas for camping trips and visiting Matt’s older brother and nephews sometime in February, but nothing’s been booked yet.

I’m excited (and little bit tired) just from writing all that out but we want to make the most of this summer, especially since there will be little to no travel next year.  Matt starts accounting school in April so he’ll have his head buried in books for the majority of 7 months and I want to use that time to save as much money as I can.

We’ll have to plan a big trip when he’s finished to celebrate!

As you can see from the pictures, the weather generally worked in our favour.  The last day we got caught in a massive downpour and hid in the shelter of a public restroom until it passed.  I’m not gonna lie, it was pretty romantic…

I couldn’t believe how warm it still was.  Winter in Sydney is like Summer in Wellington or even Vancouver.  I could totally live there!

There were a couple events on while we were there.  Darling Harbour was celebrating 21 years, so they had a jetski fireworks show.  Exactly how it sounds, 4 guys rode around on jetskis while fireworks exploded from the back, plus more from a platform.  Matt took these sweet photos:

Then there was the Vivid art show.  Every night, music played and buildings around Circular Quay were lit up with lights and projected pictures, including the Opera House.  Matt took these as well (he rocks the night shooting):

This is one from our hotel room:

I like how most of the beaches had these side pools cause there’s no way I’d get into Aussie waters (which was still 20C)! Matt and I thought about throwing steaks into the ocean to start a shark feeding frenzy, but better judgement won out.
This is Bondi:

Palm Beach, where Home and Away is filmed.  No one back home will know about this show, but I’ll get you hooked if you visit!

We spent $150(each) to do a Blue Mountains tour and this is what we got to see:

A whole lot of nothing.

It was still a good trip though.  We went on the world’s steepest railway.  This pic doesn’t do it justice, but it was pretty much vertical.

Highlights for me were in the little things.  Our tour took us to a tiny candy shop that had every sort of candy you could imagine!  I finally found the cola bottles I’ve been looking for.
I was a loser and took a picture of Krispy Kreme!  So yummy!  These aren’t even in Canada and the last time I had one was on the way to Mexico like 7 years ago (has it really been that long??).

Wellington doesn’t really have a bra/underwear store like La Senza, for example and I always complain about it.  So, I made sure I bought a couple when I found, you guessed it, LA SENZA!!

I don’t normally shop at the following store.  I boycotted it when I was still in Canada cause EVERYONE wore it (at least in Vancouver anyway), and I would never spend more than $50 for any item.  But I caved and ended up buying a pair of pants before I left for NZ and fell in love straight away.
So, when I found it in Sydney, I decided to splurge and buy 2 more pants and my first hoodie from LULULEMON! Goodbye $450! It was worth it.

The whole trip was a lot of fun, whether plans worked out or not.  I would go back in a heartbeat.

*There’s a lot more pictures on Flickr and Facebook

Other than my bathroom escapades, the weekend was pretty sweet.  We were up with the sun and spent most of our time at the beach.  The waves were pretty big and the current was really strong so I didn’t last as long in the water as I would’ve liked.  I did try boogie boarding for the first time! I sucked, but it was fun and hopefully I’ll be better next time.  I also tried playing cricket…the result was about the same.

Even though we came home a day early, the weekend seemed to go on forever.  It was awesome!

There are a TON of other photos up on Flickr…so check them out!

Although it pains me to say it, I still haven’t won a game.  I think the score is Matt-10, Dayna-0.  I blame it on all the  sports questions being about rugby and cricket.  I’m from Canada!  Me like Hockey!

The rest of the week was hot, sunny and so awesome!  We walked around the Mount one day, up it (an hour…all uphill) the next, and got some sweet photos from the top.  Other than that, days were spent on the beach and at night we’d go out for dinner then watch a movie or play thegameIcannotforthelifeofmewin.

Matt and I arrived home after a somewhat nerve racking flight.  Matt doesn’t like flying to begin with, whereas I love it (growing up on an airport could have something to do with it) so the poor guy was on the edge of his seat for the turbulent 45 minute ride.  To be honest, I wasn’t feeling any better than him.   Flying in Wellington wind and having a plane powered by PROPELLERS was not what I considered fun.  Plus, I ate some bad candy and my stomach was yelling at me.

You’d think after that experience (and having the wind lift up my dress in plain view of everyone as I got off the plane) would be a bad way to end vacation, but the rest of our trip was so awesome, nothing could ruin it.

We did a lot of driving, which could’ve been boring if there wasn’t so much to look at.  Most of our pictures were actually taken through the window of the car as we were travelling 100km.  Like this one Matt took:

Not sure how that came out perfectly, but it did.

The first night we spent in Hamner Springs where we went to the hot pools and stayed in a nice hotel.

Then we went to Timaru where I met Matt’s dad.

The next day we all went on a bit of a road trip.  We stayed at a backpackers in Wanaka (reminded me of the Okanagan),

and took a day trip to Arrowtown and Queenstown, where we went up the gondola.

There’s not really such thing as a straight road in New Zealand,

and all the hills are lined with sheep.

We went to a few little towns that I can’t remember the name of and on the way back to Timaru, we stopped at Mt Cook where Matt and I went on a 2 hour walk to Kea Point.  I miss mountains, so I got a little home sick…and a bit sunburnt.

Neither of us were ready when Matt’s dad took this picture, resulting in my absolute favourite photo from the trip.

Gold.

**********

Matt and I fly to Christchurch tomorrow for an extended (as in 6-day) long weekend!  We’ve managed to pack a lot into the few days we’re there and we’ve rented a car to ease the process.  I get to do ALL the driving too, since SOMEONE doesn’t have his licence…
It’s ok, I love driving, but I am a little nervous about doing it on the other side of the road.

Anyway, we’ll spend a night at hanmer hot springs and stay at a really nice hotel.  Then I get to meet Matt’s dad for the first time and we’ll all go to Wanaka, Queenstown, and a bunch of other places.  I’ve never been to the South Island, or a hot spring, AND I get to go on an airplane….so I’m pretty excited!

As we were packing tonight, Matt took out a folder with all the tickets/confirmations/directions/information in the order of which we will need it.  I love him.