Photo Journal of One Week in New Zealand

At the beginning of this month, we went to go visit my sister and her husband, the real, the ORIGINAL Agile couple. My sister's husband is a doctor who accepted a 12-month contract in rural Rawene, New Zealand (North Island) and my sister started her new career as a domestic engineer, looking after their one-year-old son, Donovan. Here is the family:

Baby shoes have become rather hipster and trendy.
(Photo courtesy of Lauren Alisse Photography)

This blog has gotten too wordy (I'm new at editing myself), so I'm just going to post a bunch of pictures with captions. I suppose I could have just posted an album on Facebook, but instead, we're going to be pretentious and call this a Photo Journal:

Donovan chasing bubbles on a deck in New Zealand.

View of the Hokianga Harbour from aforementioned deck (of Joanna and Dave's house).

On the ferry across the Hokianga Harbour to Ahipara. We were running late, and they had technically closed the gates on the dock already, but Joanna drove right up to the boat. Hard to deny passengers in a charging vehicle.  

View from the ferry. You can't tell, but I'm scanning for great white sharks.

Donovan safeguarding the surfboards while the rest of us wander around the ferry.

Newly brothers-in-law. Dave was an endless fount of knowledge on New Zealand's botany and could identify any species of plant around him, and don't think my husband didn't love every minute of it.

Donovan running along Shipwrecks Bay while the boys check out the surf. I drew a red circle around what's left of the ship, sticking out of the sand in the far background. You'd think a group of people would have dug the thing out with some shovels by now.

Room with a view at Ahipara.

Views from the front lawn of one of the houses we stayed at in Ahipara. How does one get one of these front lawns in San Diego?

Lobster, dropped off by the property manager of our guest house in Ahipara, a gift for no reason other than that New Zealanders are the friendliest people on earth.

My husband on sitter duty with Donovan. He's really natural with babies.

The thoroughbred farm where we stayed in Cambridge, just south of Auckland

When you get up close to the horses, you can tell they're not your usual placid trail ponies. They're super athletes behind fences who get fidgety, and if you make moves like you're gonna race them, they make moves like they'll smoke you. Well, just not this one in the picture. This one's just trying to drink her water.

Learning how to rappel underground into the Waitomo Caves. Just FYI, going down a gentle slope with a chainlink fence for footholds, in the sunshine, is not the most accurate simulation of descending 40 meters straight down into underground caverns. 

What the actual descent looks like. M had to shimmy through that hole, more or less. Highly recommended for anti-claustrophobia training.

Only my sister would be able to make a wetsuit and headlamp outfit look cute. 

After we rappelled down, we ziplined through pitch black onto a ledge, where we were asked to jump into the icy cold waters below. From our inner tubes, we floated along in the dark and gazed at glow worms along the ceilings. I'm really sad that we weren't allowed to wear GoPro's.

Me, in an accurately not-cute picture of the wetsuit and headlamp outfit.

M coming down the man-made slide in the river.

To get to this tranquil pond outside, we had to freeclimb waterfalls out through a small opening (Dave is not in this picture because he is watching his son. This particular tour discriminates against babies).

Our fearless group, just like Seal Team 6 (if Seal Team 6 shrieked at the sight of eels in cave rivers and complained about cold wetsuits and helmets ruining their hair).

It was an amazing week that we'll never forget, especially thanks to this photo journal (you're welcome, future me!). Thank you, thank you, Joanna and Dave for taking us all around and showing us a great time! We miss you already, and make sure Donovan practices saying our names when he gets around to talking. XO