Our last stop-Hong Kong

Our 10th and final country on our expidition was Hong Kong. We spent 3 days here, touring the city and visiting with Adam's relatives. Hong Kong is a VERY busy city, with many tall buildings, however it is very beautiful. It consists of many islands, and the islands are very mountainous. We spent our time touring around a few markets, and looking around the city. The city is so busy and difficult to walk around because of all the people, but this also makes it entertaining. We bought our final few things at the markets. One evening we went up to a lookout called the peak. The picture is from the lookout at night time. The view is incredible. It is just a sea of buildings and bright lights. We also got to have a traditional Chinese meal of Dim Sim which was excellent. Dim Sim is sort of like many appetizers. Most are similar to dumplings or spring rolls, and you share everything in a group. On our last day, we took a cable car up to the top of a mountain and saw the worlds tallest seated buddha. It was very impressive!

"Swimming" with Dolphins in Bay of Islands

Adam and I loved swimming with seals so much that we decided to give swimming with dolphins a go. We new that there was a chance we wouldn't get to swim with them if they had babies with them. Unfortunately the two pods we saw did have babies, but we did get to see lots of dolphins swimming and playing in the water. The other downer was that there were SO many people on the boat, it was hard to see the dolphins. We did see about 50 when all was said and done though, so that was good. We also went for a cruise around the Bay of Islands, which are beautiful!

Adam's Birthday BASH!!!

We arrived in taupo early in the morning to look for some accomidations for the night and while we were looking we stumbled across rapid jet boating!! It was an excellent way to spend a birthday. The jet boat streamed across the water at 100 miles per hour. (well that is what it felt like) We jumped through rapids and did a bunch of 360s. Laura was smart and wore her rain jacket, I was not as smart!!! The ride was only 45 minutes, but definetly long enough.

After yesterdays grueling hike we decided after jet boating to go to the thermal spas for a soak since both our legs were tired. It was nice to just lie around in a bunch of different pools and hot tubs - our legs thanked us!!!

Tonight for Adam's Birthday dinner-------PIZZA.

Tongariro Crossing

The Tongariro Crossing is known to be one of the best day hikes in the world. It is very weather dependant and thankfully we had a nice day on the day we decided to do it. It is a 17km hike through a volcanic area with two volcanos that you can climb up. We caught a 7am shuttle to the start of the crossing. We hiked for about 2.5 hours, with 1.5 of that being straight up. The area is called the devils staircase. After this climb we still had 11.5km to hike, however we had lots of time so we decided to do a 3 hour side trip up Ngauruhoe Volcano. This was probably the hardest 3 hours of hiking I have ever done. It literally was up the side of the volcano, which thankfully was not active. We climbed and scrambled for 2 hours until we finally reached the top. At the top we could see the big crater, and see the other volcano, Mount Ruapehu(Mt. Ngauruhoe is in the picture-the big one in the rear), in the background. We could also see the Emerald Lakes, which are small lakes that are super blue and super clear because they are very acidic. Looking back now, it was worth the climb but at the time I was SO tired!!! It was neat being on the side of a volcano though! It then took us (well me) an hour to get down. Adam ran and "skied" down on the skree, but I took a more lady like approach and slide down on my butt most of the way.
After this climb up, we still had the 11.5 km to hike. This part was very interesting terrain, unlike any of the hikes we have done. It was all rock and very barren. Thankfully the last bit was not too hard and we caught the 4pm shuttle back to our campsite. In total, we hiked/climbed for 8.5 hours straight!! Needless to say we were very tired, however we did enjoy the crossing.

Swimming with Seals!

If you click on the photo, it will blow it up for a better view. There was no zoom on the camera!

In our quest to remain cold in New Zealand, we decided to try swimming with animals. We originally wanted to swim with dolphins, but the company was booked until the middle of January, so we decided to give swimming with seals a try. This could possibly be the highlight of our New Zealand experience thus far. We were suited up in a centimetre of wet suit from head to toe. We walked along the shore to where the seals were, and swam out to an island that they were swimming around. The wetsuit was better than a lifejacket. We were so buoyant, and surprisingly warm. We were (well I, Laura, was) a little apprehensive about being so close to wildlife, however it was amazing. When we got out to where they were they immidiately started to swim around us. They would come within inches of our body, including our face and at the last second, dart away. It is incredible how fast they are! I (Laura) am proud to say I took the picture above! We were in the water for just over an hour with the seals, however it seemed like 5 minutes. We both loved the experience and are now booked to swim with dolphins in the Bay of Islands, which is in the North Island of New Zealand.

Fox Glacier Hike

We decided to keep with the theme of freezing in New Zealand and went for a day hike on Fox Glacier. The night before we left it POURED rain so we were a little aprehensive to go, however we woke up to clear skies. We were fitted for crampons before we left and were then bussed to the Glacier. We had a 2 hour hike until we actually got onto the ice. This was the warm part of the day...

We walked on the ice for about 30 minutes and then had lunch. After lunch we were on the ice for another 2 hours. We thought we would be hiking most of the time, however the majority of the time was spent watching our guid cut stairs. We are not sure if she was doing that because she had to, or that she just really liked swinging an ice pick. Needless to say we spent a lot of time standing on the ice, and then it started raining. It sounds like it was not fun, but we laughed a lot and it was pretty neat to be walking on a glacier. We got to climb through several crevasses and go into a few caves. Although we froze it was still a great time.

River Surfing

Our next adventure was in the adventure capital of the world, Queenstown. Since we consider ourselves white water experts, we decided to give river surfing a go. We can white water canoe anytime....

River surfing is basically going down a river on a body board. We were bussed out to the start of the river and had a safety talk before we headed out and a skills lesson. We then were right into the waves. The water was about 10 degrees and once again, we are freezing in New Zealand. We did have 5mm wet suits which worked very well, and once we got moving we didn't even notice the cold. The ride down the river was awesome. The first part of the river was the biggest water. The guides were great and stayed very close to us. I was glad I had white water experience before, and so was adam. The rapids were pretty big, however there wasn't many rocks to dodge. The only frustrating part was that we had a group of 15, and only one river..........at times we were floating on top of each other. We had flippers though and were able to paddle away into an opening.

At the end they had a jet ski that we were pulled on, similar to tubing behind a boat. There also was a huge slide at the end that we went down on our body board, and then skidded across the water. It was a great day! For those interested, we went with Mad Dog River Boarding. You can check out the website.