judyonthenet

I booked tickets to Vegas a couple months ago, simply because tickets were cheap. It’s also right after both Kelvin’s and my birthdays, so I used that as an excuse to go. I barely took any pictures during our trip. Having been to Vegas several times, I’m no longer impressed by the artificiality of the place, so I rarely take pictures of anything. Plus, I can’t take pictures of most of the entertainment there, like gambling areas and shows. As a result, my Vegas pictures this time around mainly consist of food.

Friday
Our flight was delayed half an hour, but we still managed to fly into Vegas before 11PM. Check-in at Treasure Island was a breeze as there was no line. Room was decent, but it was located in the back where you could almost kinda get a peek of the Strip but only mostly see the Treasure Island tower and the roof of the casino. Bed and pillows were super comfy, and the room wasn’t static-y, but that was probably because of the cooler weather.

We dropped our stuff off and ate at our favorite place to eat in Vegas: Noodle Asia.

On the way back, we bought a couple bottles of water at the Walgreens. Back at the hotel room, we showered and went to bed, as the next day was busy…

Saturday
Got up at 8AM, which was REALLY hard. We were meeting up with Anna at Paris to have breakfast at 8:45, and after that, we were going to taping of Let’s Make a Deal. The show likes people to dress up, so the best we could do last minute was have Kelvin wear his dog-eating hat and I would wear a track suit and hold the dog’s leash. I don’t have a track suit, so I wore whatever obnoxiously colored running wear I could find at Target. And all Target had was this ugly-ass pink track set. While I don’t mind wearing offensively colored things (people wear things like this regularly all the time), I took great offense to the pants. CAPRI SWEATPANTS. Disgusting. Who invented these things?! I got it anyway since it was the only jacket/pants set in pink I could find that was my size. This morning, I grumpily put them on. Thankfully, I believe no footage exists where I am seen wearing these damn things.

We took a cab to Paris, where we met up with Anna and had breakfast at La Creperie. Kelvin had some omelette crepe, I had a Nutella crepe, and Anna had some berry crepe. None of us took pictures cuz we were zombies busy drinking coffee. Kelvin ate all of his, but Anna and I only ate 1/3rd of our own crepes. So much sugar… After crepes, we grabbed a cab to the Tropicana, where the Vegas Let’s Make a Deal shows are taped.

The whole Let’s Make a Deal experience is worthy of its own post, so I’ll skip it for now and hopefully eventually put a link… here? Summary: Kelvin and I didn’t get to be contestants, so boo.

I was originally going to put on makeup and do my pigtails neatly (like in front of
a mirror and with a brush), but getting up early made me brain-dead and extra-
lacking in motor skills, so I just ended up looking scary. At least Anna is cute!

After LMAD, we had a late lunch with Anna’s cousin and her boyfriend at Wolfgang Puck Bar & Grill at MGM Grand. They have generous portions, so Kelvin and I split a chicken noodle soup and gnocchi. Tasted decent, though th gnocchi was a bit salty for my tastes.

When we finished lunch, we headed back to our hotel, while Anna went with her cousin to Bellagio for dessert. I wanted to go too, but I was SO TIRED. I could feel myself getting grumpier with each passing second, so I didn’t want to pass my grumpy cloud to company while they’re eating sweets. Back at TI, I napped for a good two hours.

It was dinnertime after nap, and Kelvin was wanting cheap prime rib. Before heading out in search of cheap prime rib, we walked across the street to the Fashion Show (mall) to look for a coat. I had warned Kelvin that Vegas had highs in the 50s, but he still didn’t bring anything warmer than a track jacket. Macy’s had some really great deals of jackets and sweaters; we got an Alfani coat and a Calvin Klein sweater. We were already past the the $100 minimum (pre-discount) to get an additional 25% off, so I got a cute top as well (which ended up being the most expensive item in the bag). Kelvin looks good in his new winter wear, though he’d look even better if his pants were slimmer.

We walked down the east side of the strip, looking for dinner. We made it all the way down to Kelvin’s favorite gambling spot, Bill’s Gamblin’ Hall and Saloon, and they also happened to have many posters advertising $15 prime rib dinner at the Victorian Room. Guess where we ate for dinner? :P I was in the mood for cheap steak, but their steak wasn’t that cheap. During late-night hours, they have a $6 steak and eggs deal, but this was normal regular dinnertime, so I just got their overpriced cheapo steak. Decent meal, considering price and cheesy dining atmosphere (prime rib and Chinese food in the same place!).

Bill’s is one of the few places on the strip that regularly has $5 minimum craps tables. All the tables were full, except for the one next to entrance where the air was freezing. Kelvin likes it here because of the low minimums, nice dealers, and he claims he always wins here. We tolerated the empty spot of the table with the cold breeze, won some monies, and walked back to TI.

We called it an early night. I think there was something in the air, because most of the trip I was tired to some level. Either that or we’re old people. I fell asleep watching movies on TBS. Yep, old people.

Sunday
We still got up pretty late despite going to bed a little earlier. I wanted to see a show, so we went to the box office to get tickets to Mystere. They had a buy-1-get-1 free dealio, so we got center seats for ~$60 a person for the 7PM show. That was better than anything I could find online earlier, both in price and seating, so I was stoked.

Ever since we got to TI, I have been constantly smelling pho when leaving the hotel room because the cafe next to the elevators on the casino floor sells pho. And is called Pho. So we had pho for lunch. It was good pho, too. I don’t know if it was $14 good, but there was a lot of broth and fixin’s (practically a whole lime per person!) and flavor was comparable to all the good pho I could find at home.

TI had $5 craps going, so Kelvin played a few points. Table wasn’t hot, so overall, we were down when we left. Not much to do, so we walked down the west side of the strip. Unsurprisingly, we found ourselves back at Bill’s. They had some hot shooters, so we were able to kill a bit of time there as well and left up almost a couple hundred. I played some slots, lost monies, and we headed back to TI.

There was still some time before the show, and we spent it at the Pai Gow tables. Someone taught me how to play Pai Gow a long time ago, but I had since forgotten. The game is simple enough, and the odds are close to half, so it’d seem we could play for a while. In the end, we still managed to lose 50 bucks in 20 minutes. It was mostly just us, but a guy came and did all the other things you apparently can do in Pai Gow Poker (buy the dragon hand, play as bank). I didn’t realize there was more to the game than just your hand and the dealer’s hand; I need to read up on this later.

We went to the Mystere theater at 6:30 and waited in our seats until the show started. It was… okay. I didn’t like the theatrics of Ka, but I was a bit underwhelmed with Mystere as well. Clowns and acrobatics were good, but wasn’t impressed with the dancing (which, looking at the Mystere website, replaced a missing “Hand-to-Hand” act) and Taiko drumming (which I see at any Japanese event here). The giant snail thing was kind of freaky, too. The show was still entertaining and worth the money, though.

Kelvin was still craving Asian stuff, and Venetian had more Asian options, so we went back there again. A couple of the places seemed too trendy when Kelvin was wanting simple food, and I didn’t want to eat at Noodle Asia again. Instead, we went to Zine in Palazzo, another Asian noodle place. Nice, modern decor, crappy, overpriced food. Kelvin claimed the Szechuan beef noodles (which was cheaper than Noodle Asia at $12), so I got pho AGAIN. An $18 bowl of pho even! Some BS about filet mignon meat, which was way worse than the cheap stuff they typically use in normal pho places. Kelvin’s beef noodles didn’t seem that great either, making Noodle Asia the clearly superior beef noodle soup option. For pho, go to Pho.

I played a lot of slots after dinner. They’re getting really creative with the slots; they have these “community” slots where 3 or 4 slot machines are hooked up to a central computer. When one person gets a special lighty-uppy bonus event, everyone on that server has to stop playing their game and watch the event. The winnings of the event go to everyone playing on the server, making the slots a lot more social and interactive. I enjoyed playing the slots, bitching and cheering with other people at the same statistically crappy system. Kelvin thinks slots is the dumbest thing, which I understand. What I don’t understand is his incessant bitching of me playing it. I’m not sure why I enjoy the lights and spinnies of slot machines (probably from the same part of my brain that likes reality TV), but can’t a girl throw away her money in peace?

I lost about $20 to this round of penny slots and wasted an hour of time. We went back to our hotel room, but we were still bored and weren’t sleepy for once, so we went back to the casino floor. We attempted Pai Gow Poker again. A couple times, I also bought the dragon hand. With the house getting ridiculous hands like straights and triple pairs, this just means I lost my money twice as fast. Losing my $20 (or was it $40?) at Pai Gow Poker, we were still bored and decided to go for craps. Unfortunately, the tables were up to $10. High for our bankroll, but we played anyway. And consequently lost $400. Sigh.

Tired of losing money and only having enough cash for the cab fare back to the airport anyway, we called it a night.

Monday
Slept in late again, but our check-out time was 1PM, so no issues. We crammed all our possessions in Kelvin’s rolling suitcase and went downstairs to the lobby for check-out. Starting last October, TI implemented a ridiculous $22 daily resort fee. I knew about this already, so I took this into account when booking the room (even though I’m finding this trend of resort fees as obnoxious as anyone else would). Unfortunately, a lot of people didn’t read up on reviews as much as I did. Everyone in front of us in line (about 3 parties) stormed away from the check-out desk, outraged and pissed off because they just found they have to pay an extra $22 a day for benefits they most likely never used. (Benefits don’t even include free water!) I don’t blame them for being angry, but it probably makes me look like a saint to the check-out people. They must hate their jobs.

Not wanting to think about food and spend a lot money, we had lunch at Noodle Asia. After lunch, we took a cab to the airport. The flight back home… TOTALLY SUCKY. SO turbulent towards the end. I knew there was a storm coming into San Jose, but that was much bumpier than I expected. I was scared to death, but of course, all Kelvin the Fearless could think about was:

They’re taking the hobbits to Isengard!

Apparently Kelvin can’t talk-bubble links. LAME.

New thing I learned today: The house gets the edge in Pai Gow Poker through two things: 1) They charge a 5% commission on winning (you bet $10, you’d win $9.50 while house gets 50 cents), 2) House wins ties. House edge is about 2.85%. This edge is decreased if you play as bank, an option in Pai Gow Poker. Because of its slow pace,

After reading up more on the game, I’m intrigued. Next time, we’re in gambling land, I think I’m going to play more Pai Gow Poker. I like that it’s slow-paced and social, sounds like a good game for getting free drinks. Too bad TI Pai Gow Poker was rigged and their waitresses are slow and/or non-existent. *grumble grumble*

Kelvin and Avery goofing off at Waialea Beach

I finally uploaded our pictures from our trip to the Big Island back in October/November. It randomly poured today, so it was nice to take a second look at the our vacation pictures. If y’all are bored, feel free to check them out. I don’t have any videos uploaded, and I don’t know if I’ll ever do blog posts like I did for my honeymoon (which I STILL haven’t finished, sigh). Maybe I’ll eventually do a highlights post. Eh, whatever.

My gallery:
http://judyonthenet.com/gallery/v/vacation/big_island_2009/

The trip was for our 1st year anniversary, but after our anniversary, Avery joined us for the trip. He’s a photographer working on going pro, so he took some really excellent shots of us. His gallery for the trip is here:
http://www.averywongphotography.com/Vacation/Hawaii-2009/10399705_RMtAW#720385476_4whiW

New thing I learned today: A heiau is a Hawaiian temple.

Before this trip, I never realized how fascinatingly barbaric Hawaiian history is. Before, when I thought of Hawaiian culture, I thought of hulas, ukuleles, and roast pig. Now, I think of backwards laws, violent war, and human sacrifices.

This weekend! I’ve never been to (any part of) Hawaii, so I’m pretty stoked. We were originally planning for Maui, but Kelvin made a last-minute-without-conferring-with-me decision to book a place on the Big Island. (Which is cool… but why did we even bother deciding on Maui in the first place??) We got a decent priced deal with Kelvin’s auntie through her time share thingy. It allows up to 4 people, so Kelvin’s coworker buddy Avery is coming along, and I’m still holding out hope that my coworker buddy Ted will get some sort of rebellious streak and ditch work to come along as well.

TED. COME TO HAWAII. YOU NEED A VACATION.

(Yay. Kelvin’s new talking head plugin now includes me. I look kind of scary, tho.)

We ordered new rolling, carry-on luggage. For our honeymoon, we borrowed Kelvin’s dad’s luggage and discovered every possible annoyance a cheap piece of rolling luggage could have. Lesson learned, luggage ordered from eBags. Along with luggage, I ordered some more beach clothes (new dress, sandals, tank top, and swimsuit) and a Big Island guidebook. So, a bit of spending, plus this trip isn’t cheap. (Damn you Hawaiian Air and your lack of price matching. Southwest or Jetblue needs to fly to Hawaii.)

So we need suggestions on what to do there… we’ve stuck there the entire week! I know there’s volcanoes and nighttime manta ray diving. Anything else? Please let me know!

New thing I learned today: eBags charges tax in California.

When I bought my beloved Fossil purse from them earlier this year, no tax was charged. I guess they got a warehouse in CA, which is a bummer. Even with tax, their prices are still competitive, especially Bing or Fatwallet cashback doesn’t hurt either.

Previously, Honeymoon Day 8 – Looking like dorks in a New Zealand brochure (bunnies & black water rafting)

Wednesday, November 26th, 2008

We got up this morning to see if we’d be able to get a tour of the farm as well as order breakfast. Liz had told me the day before that we might not be able to get a farm tour because it’s shearing season, and if the weather is good and shearers are free, her husband would be shearing sheep and unable to give us a farm tour. I remember Ross from the blackwater rafting tour saying the same thing about having an erratic schedule as a shearer. The weather ended up being beautiful, so the shearers were coming out, and we would not be getting a farm tour. This greatly annoyed me, because one of the main reasons I wanted to do a farm stay was to do a farm tour. I had asked Liz before coming to NZ how I should schedule things so I can do the farm tour, but she had told me it could be done anytime so it was no problem, mentioning nothing about shearing season. So no farm tour for us.

However, she said we could go check out the shearing instead. Well, that’s a pretty authentic New Zealand farm experience, so I was very much up for that. She gave us directions to where they were shearing, but I didn’t write them down. We left Kamahi Cottage to go look for the shearers, but there were several buildings on the country road we were taking. I wasn’t sure where we were supposed to go and couldn’t remember exactly everything she said because I was stupid about not writing the directions down and thinking I could remember all the info. Now we were going to miss out on the shearing. *sigh*

We stopped by where we thought we were supposed to be. The area was beautiful and hilly, and there was a large field of sheep between a barn-like building and a house. There wasn’t a person in sight, but we saw a couple empty chairs surrounded by dirty piles of sheep fleece. It looks like we had missed the shearing.

Where did the shearers go?

What we didn’t miss were the sheep. There’s a huge group herded in a fenced area next to the barn, and a good amount of sheep hanging out outside of the fenced area. The first thing I noticed walking into the area was the sounds that sheep make… it sounds HILARIOUS. It sounds like a human saying “Maa.” With a lot of sheep, it sounds like a bunch of guys saying “Maa.” at varying tones and volumes. I was laughing the entire time because I couldn’t get over the sound of sheep.

A group of sheep probably running from Kelvin

I brought Shaun with me so I could take pictures of him with his brethren. There was this small rock that was the perfect spot for him to sit on, so we put him there. Everybody knows sheep are not the brightest animals and are always herded, so Kelvin walked over to a good bunch by the fenced area, hoping to direct them towards where Shaun was. After seeing the sheep, I’m convinced they are, indeed, the dumbest animals on the face of the Earth. As Kelvin walked towards them, the group of sheep panicked, running out into the field and maaing their way to safety. A couple of them, instead of running towards the field, ran headfirst into the fence. They’d wiggle the impact off their tiny brains and then head over to the field.

I couldn’t stop snickering, so most of my video footage is extra shaky as a result. I also didn’t get any particularly good shots of Shaun with sheep because I was so engrossed in my video filming. Kelvin was a really good sport about chasing the sheep back and forth. I kind of wonder if the Liz’s husband or the shearers had seen us, they would have been unhappy with us messing with their sheep.

Eventually we got bored of the sheep and left without witnessing any authentic New Zealand sheep shearing. When we got back, we told Liz where we ended up and how we didn’t see anybody. Apparently we were at the right place, but the shearers were inside the barn building we walked by. I didn’t hear anything people or shearing, and I didn’t see any open doors (actually I had no idea where the doors were), so I didn’t even check the inside barn. Doh! We enjoyed a simple scrambled eggs breakfast inside the cottage before checking out and heading to our next destination: Hobbiton!

Hobbiton, the village where the main hobbits from Lord of the Rings lived, was filmed on private farmland near Matamata. The town of Cambridge was on the way, and we stopped here for a quick beverage and short walk to stretch our legs.

We made it to Hobbiton around before 1PM. The road to Hobbiton was narrow and gravel-y, so we weren’t sure if we were going the right way at first. We parked our car next to some already shorn sheep and entered their cafe called The Shire’s Rest, where we ordered the tour tickets and some grilled sandwiches for a quick lunch. The scenery from the cafe is serene with endless rolling hills speckled with sheep.

At 1:30PM, a tour bus pulled up to the front of the cafe and tour goers hopped on. The bus drove through a gate and winded past hills as an ancient New Zealand man gave us a spiel about the land we were passing, mostly LotR trivia. His accent was very strong, so I had a hard time understanding what he was saying. He told us that, as far as you can look, if you see white spots (sheep) on it, it’s owned by the folks who own Hobbiton. So basically, the folks own Hobbiton own A LOT of farmland. All of it is some sort of idyllic sheep haven. Sheep everywhere, standing around, munching, chilling, sleeping, walking, pooping, somehow not getting hit by the bus. There was sheep turd everywhere, but New Zealand air must be spectacularly fresh because it didn’t smell at all.

The bus stopped by this shack where the walking tour starts. Hobbiton is special as it’s the only LotR film site that still has some of the original structures from the film; all construction and props were taken down at other site for legal reasons, but Hobbiton was completely forgotten about. The hobbit holes look really cool, being neat white faces embedded in a large hill. Not surprisingly, they were mostly decorative and not very functional, with the doorways just going into hill dirt or planks of wood. Only Bilbo Baggins’ house you can actually enter, but it’s just a tiny and dark room of nothing. Also here is the giant tree and lake where the hobbits had their party in the movie.

When we got to the hobbit holes, I realized my camera was running low on batteries. After one last hobbit hole shot, the camera completely died. I was so pissed at myself for not changing the battery before the tour, as I had a spare in the car. The rest of the tour was kind of a downer for me, as I couldn’t take pictures of the scenic views at the topmost part of Hobbiton. The tour guide tried to make me feel better, saying other people have had camera issues before the tour even started. I was still a grumpy bunny regardless, though I was relieved I managed to get a decent hobbit hole pic before it died.

The walking tour ends back at the shack where the bus is. Along with the Hobbiton Tour, we also go tickets to “The Sheep Farm Experience“, which is an additional show at the end of the tour with a sheep shearing demonstration. I assumed it’d be overpriced and lame, but the show was actually quite good. It’s in a barn by the parking lot (I made sure to grab my spare battery from the car), and because it’s small, you get a good view no matter where you sit. An experienced shearer came out and gave his little speech about shearing (and how the farm has one of the fastest shearers in the world in… competitive sheep shearing). Then he went to back, dragged out this poor sheep that looks like it’s going to a roast, and started speed shearing the animal. He did it fast, and he was super neat; the coat was completely intact when he was done. He let us come up to feel the fleece and sheep, both of which felt greasy because of the lanolin. This was where I learned that lanolin, which is highlighted in every beauty product in New Zealand tourist shops, is wool grease.

The second part of “The Sheep Farm Experience” is feeding milk to lambs. There’s a 6-pack of milk bottles, one of which I grabbed, and then they let out a small group of lambs for feeding. Unlike the sheep I’ve seen everywhere else, these sheep know it’s dinnertime, so they hella rush you and aren’t at all shy. They acted like they were starving, knocking into you for the bottle head. I felt bad for smaller lambs that were bullied away from the milk by bigger lambs, especially since the smaller ones are so cute. There were only a couple people using the bottles, so I got to feed two lambs. I always thought sheep had little fuzz nubs for tails, but some of them had long tails. And they wag like happy doggies!

They were also passing around this tiny baby lamb with a black face. Almost makes me feel bad for thinking they are so delicious…

Feeding time ended, and the lambs were herded back into the barn. We got back into the car drove to our pit stop for the next three nights, the tourist city of Rotorua! On the way down, we stopped by the i-Site in the town of Tirau for potty and water breaks. The i-Site also happens to be shaped like a giant dog next to a giant sheep. So cool!

Giant dog made of corrugated iron

Driving from Auckland to Waitomo to Rotorua, there were never many people. Like I mentioned before, the roads were fun kind of windy; Kelvin said he’d enjoy the driving if it weren’t for the dread he felt when opposite cars passed him on the right. I noticed for most of the trip we passed a ton of cows, which was a little disappointing because I was hoping for more sheep. (I see plenty of cows in California, though they’re usually on ugly, dry-looking yellow hills or wide smelly fields of nothing.) We still saw our fair share of sheep. As we got closer to Rotorua, the landscape became more and more forest-y.

I had originally wanted to book three nights right in the center of touristy Rotorua at the Novotel Rotorua Lakeside. However, something must have been going on on this day, as the hotel (and the adjacent cheaper hotel) was completely booked for the 26th. Instead, I booked our first night in Rotorua at Ngongotaha Lakeside Lodge, a well-reviewed bed & breakfast a little north of Rotorua.

We were greeted by the owners, Lyndsay and Graham, upon arrival. Their personal home is the first floor, while the guest area takes up the entire second floor. Their property has an amazing view of the lake. There’s a nice lawn area between the lodge and the lake, and apparently helicopters land there when people from the lodge book helicopter tours! (If I had known, I would have totally booked a helicopter tour.) I booked the Wai Motu Room, the one with the lakeside view. There’s a small TV and fridge, and the bathroom is well-equipped. My only complaint I have for the room is that the water temperature of the shower would fluctuate, but other than that, it was very comfortable.

There was another American couple here from Vegas for their anniversary, and they were snacking on smoked salmon Graham had caught from the lake and smoked. (btw, if you like fishing, this lodge is great for fishing. Graham has fishing equipment and fishes pretty much every morning.) We joined them and snacked on the salmon as well. Very tasty. The couple was doing a very similar route as ours, except they went in the opposite direction. They were going to Waitomo the next day, doing the same blackwater rafting tour we did; we were going to do most of the Rotorua stuff that they had all finished doing. We shared what we had experienced so far, which was handy.

Munching on salmon in the living room with a great view

At this point it was time for dinner, so we asked Lyndsay for dinner suggestions. Lyndsay is a New Zealander, but she sounded English to me. (Graham happens to be English.) She has this very familiar voice, like maybe some jolly old English maid or matron voice… I can’t quite place my finger at who she reminds me of. (I’m willing to bet one of the chickens in Chicken Run sounds like her.) With this accent and her enthusiasm for sharing the fun things to do in New Zealand, she is SO cute. Graham is pretty quiet, but he’s got all these tattoos all over his arms, which makes me wonder if he was some tough guy when he was young. His tough guy look totally contrasts the super sweet lady-ness of Lyndsay, and as a result, they’re an adorable couple.

The owners of Ngongotaha Lakeside Lodge, Lyndsay and Graham

Lyndsay was very informative for meal choices. We went to every place she recommended while in Rotorua, and they were all great. On this night, she recommended we go to this nice restaurant called “Pappy Long’s”. She showed us the sample menu she had, and the menu cover said “Papillons” and had a picture of a butterfly on it. Now, if you know any French or ate at Le Papillon in San Jose (one of the fanciest restaurants we’ve got in the South Bay), you’d know that “papillon” is pronounced “pappy-yawn” and is French for “butterfly”. I found this mispronunciation to be so cute, I couldn’t get myself to correct her. Now whenever Kelvin or I see a butterfly or Le Papillon, we go, “Pappy-longs!” in a cutesy, old lady English accent.

She called check to make sure there were tables (there were), and she gave us directions. I asked if we needed to dress nice, and she scoffed at the idea. I forget how chill Kiwis are; I love New Zealand. The restaurant is located in a hotel complex (Muriaroha or Serenity Lodge) down a major thoroughfare in Rotorua. It was hard to find, as we didn’t see the restaurant sign from the street. Actually, I don’t remember seeing any sign; we just saw the street number matched a hotel complex and drove in after passing it a couple times. We couldn’t figure out where the front door was, but we eventually found ourselves in the main dining area.

The front or side (I can’t tell) of Papillons

Papillons is a French/Japanese fusion restaurant. The inside is nice decorated and romantic, with cute tuxedo folded napkins at each seat. The restaurant was completely empty, except for an old white couple near us. We later spoke with them and found out they were from… Canada? England? I totally can’t remember, but they were there for their 50th (or some other ridiculous number-th) anniversary! That’s absolutely inspiring to hear on a honeymoon dinner!

I don’t remember exactly what I ordered, but everything was delicious and beautifully presented. We had some Japanese fish sampler as appetizer, some fish and… whatever Kelvin had for entrees, and a cute dessert sampler. They also gave us some sort of fruit sorbet between appetizer and entree to cleanse the palate or something. I don’t think I could eat all my fish because I was ill, and that was hard for me because it was so yummy. Our waiter was an old gentleman. I’m not sure where he was most of the time, as there were only two tables with people and our water carafe was empty most of the time (and being sick, I was desperate for water all the time). Other than the missing waiter, Papillons was very nice. They also have some of the fanciest restrooms I have ever seen; the women’s bathroom was a large bathroom very well decorated and had a full shower. The restaurant seemed to have been converted from some sort of lodge.

When we left, we passed the kitchen window, where I snuck a couple shots. I don’t think the (Japanese, I’m assuming) chef noticed me, but his Asian girl assistant totally caught me.

She sees me!

Getting back to the lodge, we dropped by a supermarket for more supplies like beverages, tissues, etc… I wanted to get more cold medicine but their medicine selection was lacking for such a big supermarket, and pharmacies were closed for the night. We returned to the lodge after shopping, then showered and went to bed. I can’t remember what I watched on TV, but I was pretty drugged up and coughing and all feverish again, so I was miserable. My voice was pretty much gone (you can hear it in some of the videos), and my abs were sore from constant coughing. Sleeping was particularly difficult on this night, even with the drugs.

Next, Honeymoon Day 10

New thing I learned today: November to December is prime sheep shearing season, with many farmers have a secondary shearing season in the autumn months of March to May.

This was a very educational day, with much new knowledge concerning sheep and Lord of the Rings.

Previously, Honeymoon Day 7 – Hitting the road (on the left side)

Tuesday, November 25th, 2008

Today was the day I was trying SO hard not be sick for, as this was the day we were going blackwater rafting. Do you know remember what black water rafting is? Here’s a reminder:

It’s basically a cave tour in underground caves with some hiking, tubing, rappelling, yada yada. It’s pretty physically intensive, so I didn’t want to go through it feeling sick and hacking up stuff. That didn’t quite happen; as with previous days, I started off feeling pretty okay, but I’d gradually get more awful as time went on.

A view of the cottage from the front

Beautiful view of the hills

Morning started off with breakfast made by Liz, the lady who runs Kamahi Cottage. You have the option to eat in your cottage or at her house in her dining room. I chose the dining room, since I figured all our other meals would be at the cottage. Her home is gorgeous, with beautiful gardens and a spectacular view of the Waitomo countryside. On the table, she has a nice display of breads and jams, along of the plates of waffles we requested for breakfast. The waffles were only just alright because they were the thin kind, not the large puffy ones I’m used to.

After breakfast, we drove to Waitomo, where all the touristy stuff is located. The black water rafting tour we were going on was scheduled at 2PM, and there was this rabbit shearing demonstration I wanted to go to at 12:45. And that’s pretty much all there is to see in Waitomo. We stopped by the local i-Site and checked out souvenirs before heading over to the Shearing Shed.

“Willy wash” seems very… specific

The Shearing Shed, this barn-looking place that boasts “New Zealand’s only angora rabbit shearing show”, is located around where the Waitomo Caves touristy area begins. We were early, so we checked out the bunnies they had on display in the sideroom. They were super fluffy and a lot bigger than I had imagined. They reminded me of the Wererabbit in that last Wallace and Gromit movie.

Kelvin mingles with the rabbits

Before the show started, I did a bit of shopping in their store. I picked out a 10-pack of yarn to split amongst the knitters in my life: 3 each for Anna, Jess, and Kelvin’s stepmother, with 1 leftover for myself. I was kind of surprised the yarn is only 15% angora with the rest being sheep, but I shouldn’t have been considering how much more sheep there are than angora rabbits. I also contemplated getting a sheepskin rug. Our cottage had one by the bed, and it was SO soft. The Shearing Shed had the same rugs (by Classic Sheepskins), but I thought it was silly to travel around New Zealand and fly back to Fiji and the states with a furry rug and decided against buying one. I figured if I really wanted one, I’d find one at another shop somewhere, as they seem to be everywhere.

When the show began, a small crowd had gathered in the shop. Two old New Zealand ladies ran the show, with one speaking and another doing the actual shearing. The rabbit was already half shorn, and they were going to do the other half in front of the audience. The way they prepare the rabbit is both hilarious and freaky. They tie bunny up by its paws and stretch the limbs out so the rabbit can’t move. This allows the skin to stretch out to prevent nicks when they shear. They can also rotate the rabbit, very reminiscent of a rotisserie. The talking lady mentioned she’s gotten people who complained about animal cruelty, which is ridiculous since this is the safest way to shear the rabbits. The rabbit seemed cool about the whole thing before and after.

After the shearing, people can walk up and pet the sheared rabbit. They also put a non-sheared rabbit on display to take pictures with. When I motioned I wanted to post with the rabbit, the lady was something like, “Oh yes, you bought all that yarn. You must pose with the rabbit!” For a free attraction, I really dug the Shearing Shed; it’s definitely worth a visit if you head over to Waitomo. (Not much else around there anyway.)

We headed straight for The Legendary Black Water Rafting Co. There was still some time before the tour, so we ate lunch at the cafe located there and waited. Around 2PM, we were led by tour guide Josh, a young surfer-looking dude, to the changing area. There’s lockers to store your things, and separate men’s and women’s bathroom/shower areas. The trailer with all our equipment is here as well; they handed us wetsuits, helmets (the aesthetics of these things have improved since the first picture in this post, apparently), and boots to wear. The wetsuit is supposed to be as tight as possible; I spent a lot of my dressing room time trying to get the crotch of my wetsuit up all the way, but never succeeded. The wetsuit was otherwise fine in terms of comfort, except for the fact that they were cold from being damp still. If your hair is long, you also have to wear funny almost-ninja-but-not-quite hoods to keep your hair tucked.

This area is the last place where we can take pictures. After some group pictures, cameras are off-limits, even if it’s waterproof. Their reasoning is that they don’t want to deal with people losing cameras throughout the many activities.

Group doing haka pose. The New Zealand rugby team
apparently does it all the time

We were joined by Ross, our second tour guide, who’s been doing this tour for years (unlike Josh, who’d only done it for… a couple weeks or something ridiculous like that?). Our group consisted of me, Kelvin, two American brothers, one brother’s partner, and two other girls. The guides drove us in a company van (listening to Flight of the Conchords, appropriately) a ways to a hilly area to practice rappelling. We were taught how to use rack descenders, this weirdly simple mechanical gadget that controls your rope tension and how much you drop. They also emphasized the importance of keeping metal loop thingies (carabiners, I think?) locked on designated spots.

After the short training session, they walked us over to an area shaded by trees or rocks or something. There is a short platform that goes over a large hole. The trip advertises a 37meter (~121ft) rappel (or “abseil” in the British colonies), and apparently it’s how the trip starts off. Kelvin and I volunteered to go first; I’m easily frightened, but I find the anticipation of doing something much more nerve racking than actually doing it. While 121 feet is a decent height, and I’m not a fan of heights, the drop isn’t intimidating. From the top, the hole narrows down to a point where you can’t really see the rest of the drop, so it’s sort of split into two parts. Once you get past the tight spot, it’s dark and hard to see the bottom. When I went down, I was more concerned with hitting the walls too hard or knocking into rocks. Also, since I’m fairly light, I had to really put some effort moving down the rope, as gravity wasn’t enough to drop me down quickly. I never felt like I was close to falling because of this, plus I always felt safe because I trusted the guides, who can stop anybody’s rope from releasing too fast. I imagine it might have been scarier for the bigger men in the group; they had to control the tension carefully to avoid sudden drops, and the tight spots were probably tighter and more claustrophobic for them.

Kelvin go down the hole.

Judy go down the hole.

Once everyone gathered at the bottom, we walked through some cave area with our lights on. Along the way, they told us interesting tidbits and pointed out things, like an ancient shellfish fossil which I just happened to be leaning on (yay me for great fossil preservation). We reached a point where we’d be doing the ziplining. Apparently, we’d be ziplining in the dark, so we couldn’t see where we’d end up but we could still hear some sort of stream below us. With a tour guide on each end, we took turns ziplining. It’s kind of freaky, because you can’t see anything, so you don’t know if you’ll actually step on ground when you get off. But of course we all did, and when everyone gathered again, it was snack time! They had granola bar type thingsand hot chocolate (I think, I can’t quite remember) for us to munch on. I was starting to feel sick again, and I couldn’t finish my goodies with my poor appetite. I felt bad for being wasteful.

Group pic after ziplining

The next part was the really scary part. After our snacks and another group pic, we had to leave the ledge area we were sitting on. Apparently, the only way to leave is to make a 10-15 feet jump off that ledge. In the dark. Into cold, dirty cave water. While sitting in an inner tube. This… scared the shit outta me. Me and the other girls in the group. It’s not high at all, but I was like, I don’t think I can concentrate on keeping this inner tube on my ass and falling into who knows what. I’m guessing the water isn’t that deep, which is why we have to use the tube. Still, I have to brace for cold water, not drown, not fall too close to the ledge so I won’t bounce off and knock my head somewhere, and not fall into the water in some other awkward manner that might kill me. (Kelvin insists all these things are not possible.) A couple people went before me. I was REALLY scared, but I wanted to get it over with as soon as possible. I jumped over the edge, and for the moment when you first hit the water, you’re completely underwater. It’s dark and muddy, so you can’t see anything. And it’s freezing. The next instant the buoyancy from the inner tube pushes you out of the water, and everything is normal again (except you’re wet and freezing). Everyone else came down no problem, except for the last girl. She had a false start or two because of nerves, but she eventually made it down. I still found myself shaken up after jumping… I’m not sure I would ever do that again!

Since there’s no photos of this part, this is
my best Paint rendition of the jump

With the group all floating around on inner tubes, this section of the tour would be done floating down cave streams. We were all told to lie down and link legs (the person in front of me would hold my feet around their shoulders), and the tour guides led the floating, linked tour group down the cave, talking about more facts and pointing out glowworms. Looking at the high roof of the caves in the dark is very pretty, like looking at a bunch of stars in the sky. Nevermind what we’re really looking at is a bunch of maggots (gnat larvae, more specifically).

My Paint rendition of the tubing

As we floated down the cave, I began shivering to the point where the guy holding my legs kept asking me if I was okay. I started getting very cold, but for the beginning, I shook it off. I wanted to finish the tour, even though I was feeling worse and worse. Josh mentioned we were quite fortunate because of the recent spring rain. The water levels were high, and we could float for most of the tour instead of walking. This turned out to be a bad thing for me, as it meant more time soaking in the cold water. I don’t remember much of the tour at this point, because my mind was focused on figuring out how to control my chilliness so I could finish the tour. Eventually, we stopped floating and began walking, ditching the inner tubes. I remember Josh asking if anyone needed a bathroom break, which Kelvin made use of. Josh pointed out a spot to Kelvin that wasn’t upstream from the group, so no swimming around in pee water for us, I guess.

During some parts of the hiking, I remember walking through some deep water. Chest or neck high maybe? I was getting REALLY cold. We made it to another stop point, with more snacks and pictures. At this point, I was feeling totally awful and shivering a ton. The guides were getting concerned with my body temperature. They started pouring the warm beverage they had (some Tang-like orange drink) into my wetsuit to try and get my body temperature warmer. Felt better, but it wasn’t enough. The other group members were commenting on how blue my lips were. I decided at this point I needed to stop the tour. I really didn’t want to stop, but I was feeling pretty sick and cold. Russ kept saying that it was totally okay and that bigger guys have done the same thing. Everyone was really kind to me, but I still felt crappy about it. Apparently there’s an alternate emergency route from this spot, so Ross was going to take me down this less strenuous path back to the van, while Josh would take everyone else on the rest of the tour. Kelvin wanted to go with me, but I told him to finish the tour so he could at least tell me about it.

Right before I left the group

The walk back the surface was still kind of long, despite this being a shortcut. We walked a bit and stepped carefully over rocks, and we passed by another tour group doing the shorter tour. We finally reached the exit, and I sat on the ground near the van to really take in the sun while Ross grabbed me a towel and a sweatshirt. As I warmed up, I watched the nearby cows graze away. (They really waste no land for livestock.) I chatted with Ross while we waited for the group to finish the tour. He’s super nice and interesting. He’s from the Waitomo area, and he’d done a lot of odd jobs before doing this tour guide gig, including a brief stint in sheep shearing. (He said it was incredibly boring, and the schedule sucks.) He even owns a bit of farmland inherited from family. I asked if he ever thinks it’s boring being in the same, not-very-populated place all your life, but he didn’t mind. In fact, he seemed pretty content with staying there. Waitomo is very serene; I’d imagine it gets dull, but in a good way.

It felt REALLY good to be warmed up (and not constantly shivering), but I still felt like crap missing out on the rest of the tour and not being with Kelvin on this part of our honeymoon. (This one of the first things we planned and one of the reasons we wanted to go to New Zealand… as dorky as that sounds). Eventually, the rest of the group made it back. Kelvin told me the only thing that was remotely tricky was a small waterfall climb, but I could have handled it. He thinks it was good for me to sit out though, with my lips turning blue and all. However, he spent the remainder of the trip trying to rush through the tour so he could get back to be with me, hence the lack of a waterfall shot for him. The non-gay guy in the tour group said he didn’t think his wife would be able to handle the cold water after seeing what I went through, as she hates cold more than me. I don’t think that’s a fair assessment. I think I made the cold seem a lot worse than it was; I’ve dealt with colder water/situations before. I would have managed through the tour just fine if it weren’t for my damn sickness. When you’re sick, your body doesn’t generate as much heat as it normally does and you’re more susceptible to hypothermia. I hated not being able to finish the tour when I wanted to finish it. To this day, it still frustrates me that I couldn’t get better in time to complete this tour. ARGH :(

Waterfall I missed out on

The guides drove us back to the changing area, where we all showered and got back into normal clothes. We soaked the wetsuits and boots in water before returning them, which makes me wonder if this is all that’s used to clean them. The tour ends with free soup and bagel, so we enjoyed our soup in the main building where the cafe and gift shop are. I liked how the tomato soup is served in a tin can cup thing; it makes me feel like I just went mining or something. It was pretty tasty, too. Everybody also bought their photos at the gift shop. (The photos are kind of a ripoff, but how else are you gonna show that you actually did the tour? I wish they’d take more pics, tho I guess they’re busy making sure we don’t die.) I also bought a couple souvenirs, since you get a 10% discount when you buy the photo CD. The Black Abyss Tour, which is the name of the tour we took, is quite awesome and worth the money. It was a ton a fun, outside of the whole being-sick-and-leaving-two-thirds-into-tour-ARGH thing. It’s certainly not something I would usually do; I tend to lean towards “dull” over “adventurous”. I’d say I’d do it again, but that tube jump still makes me hesitant.

I only have blurry pictures of Ross (in third photo). I
should have been less sneaky and just asked for a pic.

We drove back to the cottage, stopping by Otorohanga to go to Woolworth’s and get some necessities. Another weird difference from the US:

“Krispies” sounds yummier than “bubbles”, no?

When we got back, I spent most of the night recovering from the day and continuing with my futile fight with whatever insane disease I had. My fever was in full blast, yet again. Liz brought dinner to the cottage. Kelvin wasn’t a fan of the chicken with pasta we had, which I didn’t understand since it seemed very similar to what he had the night before. I couldn’t even taste the food; my taste buds were shot, along with my appetite, from being sick. Kelvin got really concerned that I wasn’t eating anything. I think then I went to go rest a bit, woke up very hungry, and then scarfed down my cold dinner, at which point it was quite tasty.

Before going to sleep, I watched television while laying on the sofa, covered in a blanket. Movie of the night: Minority Report. I hadn’t seen it before, and I actually kind of enjoyed it, even though I was asking Kelvin every 10 minutes what was going on.

Next, Honeymoon Day 9 – Sheep, hobbits, and more sheep (and pappy-longs!)

New thing I learned today: When you’re cold, your body diverts blood away from the skin to your organs to keep them warm. Oxygenated-blood flow in the lips is what gives it its color, so when the blood is diverted away, the lips turn blue because deoxygenated blood is blue. This discoloration process is called cyanosis.