New Plymouth and Mount Taranaki

Hello friends!  It's been another two weeks ( I think) since I last wrote a blurb with some photos, so expect double the dosage of your weekly Claire this time around. My parents have come and are now enjoying Sydney, Australia while I take pre-spring break tests. I loved having them here and getting to show them around Welly, as well as traveling with them. The first weekend after their arrival, we headed  off to New Plymouth to explore Egmont National Park. It was a five hour drive, which Jack (did I mention he also came?) was not too pleased about. We made it to Egmont, which is home to Mount Taranaki, a beautiful snowcapped mountain.....which I didn't really get to see, as it was foggy and rainy that Saturday. We ventured on a trail anyway, figuring that we had to do some hiking as we had traveled this far. The sights were wonderful and calming, until we came across a stream that had risen too high for us to get across by foot. It was the last leg of our hike as well, Mar was not having it and so we had to turn around and hike back the same way we came. The rain put a damper on things ( pun intended) but we made the best of it so here are a few snaps from the National Park:

We stayed the night in New Plymouth and hung around some nice sulfur pools, which was warm and cosy but also freezing when you weren't in the water. If you can't tell, I'm finishing writing this post a few weeks later, because life gets in the way sometimes. We stayed at a really cute bed and breakfast that night, and the name didn't stick with me, but I did enjoy sipping hot cocoa by a crackling fire and catching up on some netflix.  The town was small and not very busy, yet seems like it would be a hotspot during the summer season with its 4 person bikes and mountain views. Before heading back to Welly, we stopped at the beach and took some more photos, so here we are folks:

I fell in trying to get an artsy photo, serves me right

If you look closely, you can see how dorky Martin is and wrote "Farnan"

I'm planning on getting my Thailand/ Bali and Australia posts up sooner, as next week is  not as busy and I'll be hanging around quite a bit ( Fingers crossed). I hope you enjoyed this family weekend away! I miss my parents quite often, so getting to see them was so enjoyable. I also had a week of not paying for my own food so that was also great!

Napier Weekend Trip!

Hi friends! I finally made it outside of the Wellington area for a weekend. This time, my friend Chip and I decided to make a last minute trip to Napier, which is a 6 hour bus ride from our home city. We left on Friday, at 7:30 am( which I almost missed because Claire decided to stay up until 4 am the  night before). When we arrived, we explored the town a little bit and checked out the black sand beaches along Marine Parade. Napier is a Art-Deco Town that was styled this way after an earthquake, and is mostly a hopping' tourist center during the summertime. It was pretty cool place and I loved the look of the shops and the cafes!

We lodged at an airbnb nearby the town center which was lovely and our host Jo was so welcoming and friendly. However, we still needed a car to get around, so Chip took on driving on the left side of the road for the first time ( I thought I was going to die at one point, sorry Chip). We also needed the car to get to our main attraction of our trip Te Mata Peak. Off we went on Saturday morning to the hike site. I failed to mention it rained all of Friday night, so the trail was a mud pit full of fallen trees. We went anyway and it was worth the 4 hour total trip that was needed for Te Mata. The track would never be regulated in the US, as we hopped up some rocks and dangled on the edge for a good bit. The views though were worth being covered in mud at the end and I want to go back!

Te Mata has been one of my fav spots so far in NZ, I couldn't believe how beautiful and green it was despite being winter. We headed back to our airbnb, cleaned ourselves up and went to explore! We ended up going to salt water pools called Ocean Spa. Although we are still a little doubtful whether or not it was actually salt water, it was a nice way to relax my muscles after the hike!  I don't really have many photos from that because water, but would recommend going. 

Here are some bonus shots of Napier, as if there wasn't enough photos in this post already ( forgive me please). We found this cute little orange stand and bought a bag of fresh oranges, and it was adorbs so might as well include it. 

Well that's all folks! I hope you enjoyed pieces of Napier and this post. Also, one month down in NZ, and my parents and Jack are coming next week so there should be a bunch more adventure posts coming ya way! 

Ferry, Sheep and Somes Island

Hello friends! Its only been a week since the last  post, so I'm pretty proud of myself right now if we are honest. Although I spent another weekend in my host city, we took a Saturday trip to Matiu/ Somes Island by ferry from the Wellington Harbor-side. Also, by we, I mean my abroad buddies -Ellie, Sammy and Chip whom woke up early on Saturday morning to venture to this conservational island. It has recently been opened to the public, and we had to go through biosecurity upon our exit from the twenty minute ferry ride. This basically means we had to check out bags, brush all the mud and crap out of our shoes and then sterilize them before going on a 40 minute loop around the island. Its actually kinda nice that Kiwis actually care about their environment so passionately, as we were told it was wildlife was the priority here. We were set free to roam about after a safety briefing to explore this ex- military quarentine station.

There were sheep all over the island to help keep the grass in check ( according to our park ranger ) and we were more than welcome to go into their pens and say hi. Unfortunately, the little guys didn't really like me and kept trying to run away - I got close but not close enough to take a shameless selfie with them. However, when we got to their grounds, we noticed  one in particular that looked like it had been injured. We soon realized it was a mama sheep and she had just given birth to the little guy next to her. It was adorable. We watched them for awhile, and then the mama took a rest and sat down. As we were leaving, we turned back around and wham there was a little yellow puff ball with a wagging tail! Surprise! A second kid! It was a magical moment. Here they are! 

I know a little gruesome but its the miracle of life! 

Looping around the island we saw a lighthouse and embraced the peacefulnessof being almost completely alone on a tiny island. The views were unbelievable and made the very cold and blustery day more bearable. I enjoyed seeing another sleeping seal and hanging out with some sheep! Rumor has it that there is also penguins on this island, but we were unlucky and were not graced with their appearance. I want to go back when its a little warmer ( I was really underdressed for the weather but Wellington is so unpredictable) and maybe see more of the wildlife Somes Island has to offer and perhaps bring a picnic with me. But in the meantime, here are some fun pictures of the lovely place which is also beautiful in the middle of winter! 

Thanks for reading! 

Wining in the Martinborough

Hello friends! I have made it to my new home university in Wellington and had fallen in love with this little cafe city. For starters, my single dorm room is twice the size of my previous one ( if you're reading this, hi Nicole! I miss having you sleeping on the other side of the room and the heating actually works here). After settling in and going book shopping and room shopping(  also fun facts: you can't rent textbooks here and the closest thing to a target is called the Warehouse) I decided to plan a weekend to Nelson on the South Island with some new friends. We booked flights and showed up with our travel packs ready to jump into the spa that our airbnb hostess heated up for us....to have our flight cancelled 30 minutes before takeoff and the next available flight a few hours before our flight home. Four sad students headed back to our dorms and grieved the loss of our weekend outside of the city. Luckily, 2 of our other friends were going wine tasting the next day ( Saturday) and invited us along to Martinborough with them! Martinborough is known for its vineyards, with a whooping 20 vineyards within the small town area. Although a true tourist would bike the whole trail and drink up with the $5 for 5 tastes offered by most vineyards, we opted to walk it after taking a train and a bus to get to the small town. We ate at the Village Cafe for some brunch, to prep for our wine time.

First pin on our map was Muirlea Rise which appeared to be a little family owned vineyard, with an amazing owner who made us laugh between sips. He was kind enough to waive our tasting fee and give us the down-low on grocery store wines and details on his special ones! He was definitely our favorite stop, as he was funny and seemed less like a worker and more passionate about his vineyard than making it seem like a posh wine.

Featuring the beautiful doggy Bella

Next stop was Martinborough vineyard, which was more than 5 tastings and very clean cut. We had a lot of fun here asking questions and talking to our server, as well as taking some photos! We had 7 tastings if I remember correctly. They have two locations of vineyards and a couple of prestigious awards under their belts, so they had a little more variety than our previous stop. 

 The last and final stop on our wine adventure was a cafe with a winery, but we skipped out on the tasting and went straight for the food. At this point we were all feeling the wine as the last tasting was borderline 1/2 glasses and we were hungry hippos. Our first vineyard owner had told us "eating is cheating" in New Zealand when it comes to wine tasting, so we went for a post meal instead. Let me tell you- it was glorious. 

This was a triple ice cream something-or-other. It was good, I would eat again. After this, ya girl slept on the train home, making it onto my friends snapchats as I slumped over on a train chair. It was a beautiful day out, and I am very happy to have met some new friends who knock on my door at 9 am and tell me I have 20 minutes to get ready for wine tasting (thanks Sammi and Ellie, you guys rock (also explains why my hair looks like crap but whatever)). Thanks for reading if you even made it this far!