A Kiwi Farewell

G'day!! Although we're flattered that you have taken the time to read our blog, honestly, instead, get up out of your computer chair, leave the aimless web-browsing behind, stop watching re-runs of Friends and Seinfeld, please oh PLEASE stop frustrating yourselves with updates on the War in Iraq (come on nothing is changing!!!) and go engulf yourself in the torrent that has become the World Cup!!! Seriously, once every four years for a complete month, the entire world comes together and passionately celebrates an event that transcends borders, elevates national pride and literally gives certain countries their much-deserved chance to shine on the global futbol stage. Being away from the US has allowed us to realize how little the rest of the world cares about our "power" sports - especially American Football - and how much soccer rules the planet! Not that we didn't already realize this fact...but hanging with Europeans and South Americans on a consistent basis has confirmed this point and therefore made the 2006 World Cup even more engaging for us. So take a chance and get out of your normal summer routine and give the WORLD'S greatest sport a chance and watch a World Cup game. Unfortunately, for you, most pubs in the States will be playing baseball games and golf tournaments instead of our country's much anticipated World Cup games, but with a little prodding perhaps the bartender will give you access to some real excitement! And who knows...maybe by watching a game you will gain some [extra] national pride and slip back to a time when this stateside honour ran more quickly through blood veins than how dollar bills do today. Do it for us!!!

So now that we have that out of the way (wink)...we'll fill you in on what we've been up to the last few weeks. We left off in Hamilton, New Zealand's largest inland city, taking care of visitor permits and contemplating our last few weeks in the country. Battling head colds, our energy and enthusiasm for the daily travel decisions were running out and although we still wanted to explore certain regions...the eagerness to "pack it all in" was coming to an end. We escaped Hamilton for the Bay of Plenty and spent a few days touring an area that is known as the world's greatest kiwi-growing region and a continuation of the geothermal stretch of land that runs through the center of NZ's north island.


Once the head colds were completely gone, we landed in Rotorua the capital of rotten egg smelling cities (from the sulphur) - for a night before heading back west to an area loaded with an extensive network of massive glow-worm lit caves. The area is widely known as Waitomo Caves but there are numerous companies doing tours throughout heaps of caves apart from simply Waitomo. This area has quickly become one of NZ's hottest areas for adventure seekers looking for something a little different than bungee jumping and skydiving. The caving companies all do a little different type of tour so deciding between them is a test of patience and diligence. Depending on the cave and the company, you can do a combination of abseiling, rock climbing, black water rafting, glow-worm gazing and cave exploration. We went with a tour "Rap, Raft & Rock" which had a good combination of rafting in the cave on tubes, lots of glow-worms (luminescent larvae of gnats) to view, a short abseil (27 meters), rock-climbing, and alot of cave exploration where we fought through water and squeezed through small cave openings, basically navigating through all its magnificient shapes, for a rather modest price. The days leading up to our scheduled trip were loaded with rain and come to find out, the caves were shut down the day before our trip. The water levels inside the caves were up to 60 inches high and it has to be around 30~40 inches deep to allow tours. Luckily, the water level dropped and we found ourselves strapping on musty wet suits and goofy looking mining outfits and heading into a deep cave with a maniac kiwi guide by our side! We went with an English couple and the whole trip was a blast! The abseiling, the glow-worms, the rafting in complete darkness with nothing but the blue-starred glow-worms and the caving all combined to give us a really cool adventure and something we won't forget.

Longing for one last week of travelling in a beautiful, remote region of NZ we ended up making our way to the Coromandel Peninsula. The peninsula is a popular region for residents of Auckland to find escape and is a very popular spot in the summer. Since the winter is amongst New Zealand, we found ourselves practically alone and overlooking gorgeous coastal views and lush, mountain ranges comprising the backbone of the peninsula. About halfway through our week we were headed to an area called Hot Water Beach. This particular stretch of beach is widely known for having an underwater hot stream running below the sandy surface. So people grab a spade/shovel, throw on their swimsuits and head to the beach to dig their own natural hot pool. The trick is to find a balance between the boiling hot natural stream and the ice-cold ocean water to fill your hole. Settling into our pool (which took forever), we looked up and saw what looked like a familiar face! Believe it or not, a guy that Tom went to high school with was getting into his very own hot pool right next to us. Sean Ballard, for those of you that know, was visiting a buddy in the area and was on a two-week vacation in New Zealand. Sean has lived in Chicago for a few years so we were all amazed that while living in the same city in the US, Tom and Sean hadn't seen one another; but half way around the world they run into each other on a random beach on the Coromandel Peninsula! Crazy!



The rest of the Coromandel was filled with a few walks, a horse trek in spectacular scenery, many slow evenings in almost-bare hostels (the "hippie house" being our fav) and a great one-day hike to The Pinnacles, which gave us 360-degree views of the entire peninsula. The whole week gave us a really nice last view at a country that has never once failed to deliver something special. A great way to transition into the city life of Auckland!



Our next phase of NZ travel was to be two weeks in Auckland, hopefully working at a hostel for free accommodation, selling our car and preparing to fly into Europe on the 19th. Upon arriving into Auckland we were striking out royally in finding a hostel that would take us in for cleaning. "Sorry, mate, we don't need any cleaners right now, it's the winter --- no guests, anyway" was the common response. So we looked to see if any hostels outside of Auckland needed help and we scored a spot at the Marco Polo Backpackers in nearby Orewa (located on 3 kilometers of breathtaking beach and waves). Only a 30 minute drive north of Auckland, it houses a peaceful hostel setting where a fireplace replaces the TV, banana trees take the place of computers and where intriguing people reside. A South African woman named Sandy took us in (even though she really didn't need to) and we are now able to stay for two weeks at no charge in exchange for cleaning the place every morning once the guests check out.

As many of you know, we have had a car in New Zealand and selling that car in the winter, slow period has been a source of concern for us. We designed our car flyer and posted it at every hostel in Auckland for step number one. A few days passed and we hadn't heard from a soul making our prior fears more of a reality. Car markets and ruthless dealers are a backpackers last resort and it was starting to look like our only option would be dumping the car for 20~30% of what we paid for it and leaving a hefty piece of cash on the proverbial table --- not ideal! But, not so fast! Next thing we knew a girl from Wyoming checked into the hostel whom basically had no solid plan for her 6 week holiday in New Zealand. After talking with her we came to realize that she was actually considering a car purchase but didn't want to waste a lot of time looking and really didn't want to stay in Auckland city. Orewa and the Global Prancers ended up being her perfect solution!!! We dropped our price, took her for a test drive and next thing we knew she wanted the car! Almost half-stunned, we proceeded with the paper work and although it took her a few days for her to iron out the money, we sold the car only 5 days into arriving into Orewa, taking a HUGE burden off our backs. A gigantic break for the Prancers which was promptly celebrated with yummy margaritas, thank you very much!!!


Next stop: EUROPE!! In between wrapping up things here, we are trying to slowly prepare ourselves for the next travel phase. Some of you know our loose plan for Europe, but we haven't officially posted any itinerary on the blog to date. We fly into Rome on the 20th of June and have until July 1st to travel between Rome and the amazing area of Cinque Terra on the Italian Mediterranean coast. On July 1st we pick up a rental car in Nice, France and plan to spend a few days driving in the direction of Munich and the madness that is World Cup Germany!!! On July 5th Munich is hosting one of the semi-final games and should be a pretty spectacular place to experience the cultural phenomenon of soccer and be in the energetic presence with thousands of raving lunatics hoping like hell their team sends them into a euphoric state of nationalistic pride. We won't actually be AT the game but we'll surely be soaking in the atmosphere of Bavaria during a German World Cup. Can't wait! From there we plan to continue back into France, catch the Alpe d'Huez mountain stage of the Tour de France, explore other areas of France (primarily Provence) and be in Paris around the 22nd of July to catch the finale of the Tour and explore the city! We will drop off our car in Paris and then continue through the rest of our "European Adventure" on train, plane and ferry hoping to visit the following countries: Slovenia, Croatia, Hungary, Austria, Czech Republic, Denmark and then Norway where we will visit great friends! Then in mid-September we will fly back to Italy where we'll begin working on an organic vineyard in Tuscany for one month. For two weeks we'll blast to Barcelona, Spain for what will be an amazing reunion with Jill's mother, Barbara, and a chance to dive into Catalonian history and beautiful culture. Then it will be back to Tuscany for more work on the vineyard, and more get-togethers with family in Florence. Tom's uncle and aunt, Bob (champion comment-contributor to this blog!!!) & Nancy along with kids, Ava & Isabel (hey you two!!!) will be living in Florence for an entire year starting this fall. Then John & Judy are heading to Italy in early November for another reunion with us in northern Italy. Sounds like a lot, eh? Well, it is and it isn't. But the best part is that we'll be seeing some friends along the way and then family towards the end.

Okay, now off to watch the US play in the World Cup! We know their first game against Czech Republic is on the 12th, the second against Italy is on the 17th and their third against debutant Ghana is sometime around the 21st or 22nd. Check fifaworldcup.yahoo.com for the details.

Ohhhhh LAY, oh LAY oh LAY oh LAY!