When we went to the black sand beach area, we found this amazing American ninja warrior play set. There was some logs you had to step on, some things you had to balance on and had to climb. And there was a twisty thing, monkey bars and stuff like that. It was this little loop which was fun and also a little dangerous too. Mom wasn’t going to let us play on it but dad said we could and I am so glad of it!! But we couldn’t go back in the morning. 😭😭

Black sand
One type of black sand is made near volcanic explosions like places near the Ring of Fire. The other type of black sand is made out of fine grains and minerals. In New Zealand, we were on a Black Sand beach but it was the one made from the volcanic explosion. 
They had tools to separate the black sand from the other minerals and they used it by using a magnetic thing because there is iron in the black sand. 

-lb😀🐋

After a four hour layover at LAX we got on a plane to go to New Zealand. The plane flight was 12 hours long, luckily for us we rested on the plane for a bit and that helped combat the time zone change. When we landed we had to wait in a long line for customs and that took a good while, but we were rewarded when we finally got to the breakfast place called the scarecrow and ate a ton. Yum!!! After eating, and a lot of bad temper from Lu we finally were welcomed in to the warm and full of light apartment. After that we decided to crash and after that we went to eat ramen at a ramen place. Also yum! After that we walked over on to a bus and went to the museum, walking up to the museum we met a very nice lady that worked for the museum and she gave us a tour of the museum! After the incredible tour and some exploring the museum we decided to go home and sleep.

Maori meeting houses 

 The Maori, as you might be wondering, (unless you are a New Zealander)were the first to cross the ocean and settle in New Zealand. The interesting thing about the Maori is that the Maori had sailed across the ocean to new land and  the amazing thing was that the Maori had sailed acros the ocean, not in ships like the mayflower but in ships with two pontoons that had a flat deck sitting on the pontoons and that could carry up 100 people at a time. 
 Now enough of that and on to the Maori meeting houses. The meeting houses were used as a community house, or a place of peace, and if you started a fight you would be kicked out until you calmed down. The meeting houses were also considered, and not like a church or a house of worship, a sacred place ,where usually no food was allowed and no shoes were allowed inside and religious ceremonies were held there. The meeting houses were also called by other names such as a wharenui, whare rūnanga, or a whare whakairo. Also the meeting houses all had a name, and that name was usually a legendary hero, a legendary god, of a famous ancestor. And lastly the houses were sometimes given as a wedding gift.



  The Maori meeting house,above, was the meeting house that we saw at the museum. The meeting house used to be panted red for the grand opening of the museum but after months of chipping the museum finally got the original color and now they are weaving new panels for in between where the paint was chipped off. 
-HF

It was time to rent a car and begin the harrowing process of driving on the left. To be real, it wasn’t nearly all that bad but I did get tired since you do have to pay attention and be thinking about being sure you’re on the left all the time. An Australian friend told us to remember at all times “your ass is on the line” and I have repeated that to myself over and over. The biggest thing to get used to is that EVERYTHING is backwards – the signals are on the right of the steering wheel and the windshield wipers are on the left so, as Sonia commented on my last post, every time you want to change lanes or turn you end up turning on the wipers. Every. Damn. Time. however, given that we are traveling here in winter, this is actually useful since it’s most likely just rained and we need to clear the glass anyway. 

The girl insisted on crepes for breakfast, and now that we had a car we found a creperie and made our way there. I’ll do a separate post at some point on how much I love the Internet for travel and how different these trips are with it. The creperie was situated in a little modern farmer’s market/food court (is that what you call them?) where not only did we get a delicious crepe but then stocked up on bread and cheese for our lunch. 

We drove from Auckland up the western coromandel peninsula coast. This took an hour longer than it should have because Eric was the navigator. This enabled us to cross the bridge to the western northland peninsula and have some beautiful views of Auckland city. once when going north over the bridge, and then again when going south. We’re so lucky. 
Once we actually got on our way it was probably one of the most beautiful drives I’ve ever taken, comparable to route 1 on the California coast line, except that to the right was either verdant hills with grazing sheep or a prehistoric looking tropical forest. One thing about traveling with kids is that you stop at playgrounds, which you wouldn’t otherwise as an adult. The fun part of this is that these are much needed breaks for everyone! 

After we finally made it to Coromandel, we realized that well, there wasn’t much there that we wanted to stay for and there wasn’t much in the way of accommodation, so we decided to drive east to Whitianga. After after a tip from a friend who recommended the NZ Frenzy guidebooks, we knew to take a stop at the Kauri trail along the way. It was so peaceful along the trail – didn’t see another soul along the way. Someone in our group found this disconcerting and made the interminable 6 minute hike crying most of the way. The trees, though, are truly magnificent and it felt like we had stumbled upon a hidden, secret gem of the island. 

Here in Whitianga, it was a bit of work to find a place to stay that was within our budget. I know NZ is pricier than some other places, but with a long trip like this we can’t really spend over $200 a night anywhere. We’ve found ourselves in a decent motel near the beach, but decided only to stay here 1 night instead of 2 and spend more time in the Rotorua region. I’ve also learned that last minute air BnBs don’t work so well and so at least 24 hours notice will work better – all valuable learning, no?
Tomorrow, off to hot beach and then make our way to Rotorua. 

The pake is a cloak of Maori people and this is the original of something I’m going to talk about later in this blog post. The raincloak is thought to protect you from weather. The name of the thing I’m going to talk about later is the evening cloak. The rain cloak was made in winter and could be used as a skirt or shawl. The Maori made these out of twisted cords. 
The evening cloak is a decorative cloak that doesn’t protect you. This is something an artist made in a museum so it’s nothing I should criticize about but I really like it I have to say. I chose the evening cloak because it was not just the coolest looking it looked like that most people would wear it in a parade or something or a party or festivals and festivals are usually night when they light fires. The evening cloak is all black and it looks like there are spikes on it. I think the Maori people would have worn this as decoration but not out in the rain. 

-lb2

So, on the first day we sort of spent our time walking around and going to this breakfast place called the scarecrow. I got some fruit salad! Yum yum! And then we sort of went round the sky tower and then we took a long tine to get to our hotel and I was sort of complaining since I just wanted to relax. Once we got to our hotel we had to wait a little while until the he person came down for us.Then we stayed there for a night. When we woke up we packed a little and then we started going again. We went around the city, we walked to the car rental place which seemed like 100 miles. And then we started driving back to our hotel and to get all our stuff. Then here’s the funny part,when mom and I were in the car when dad and brother were getting our stuff, dad had been in Starbucks before writing his blog post and had texted mom and we just got the text then! And then we started to go to Coromandel but along the way we stopped at Thames and we tried to eat there but somebody told us to go over there.Well,we sort of ate there but in the car.We went to another place and played there a little. Then we had a hike too. Then we went to Coromandel and we decided to go to the hot beach area instead. And I’ll do a little blog post on the museum we went to in Auckland also. 

-lb

I feel shifty, like I’m shifting feelings, but I am excited, not that excited because i am nervous. It feels like something might happen such as something might happen to our home or to the place we are going and we have to leave right away. I believe I sort of feel like the trip is a month away. Nothing seems real.                         but it is.

I am happy that we can spend all that time together as a family. I’m looking most forward to Paris, France and maybe Venice if we can go there.

-lb

As the upcoming trip is approaching (by saying “upcoming trip is approaching” I mean that it is on the 26!) and me and my family are getting more and more nervously excited for the trip. One of the reasons that I think that we are getting so nervous is that our best friends that happen to live (read “live” backwards)  down the street from us have left and we do so much with them that it is hard to do something that we usually do with them by ourselves. For example, (watching “Monty Python and the Holy Grail”). But to combat that we are looking forward to going to all of the places that we are going. I am going to make this a short post and end it here because, I wrote this very quickly a little bit  before the trip partly because my mom asked me to write this and because writing this down helps me process that we are leaving. So here I must conclude my post until new zealand! 🙂

-HF

It was four in the morning and my sister and I had just been roused from sleep to go on a plane by ourselves to Ocean City. After the three hour long plane flight, we landed and were received by our grandparents. They took us to the house that they had rented and we changed into our bathing suits and, while grandma cooked dinner, me, my sister, and grandpa went for a walk on the beach. The walk soon became a time to play at the beach and me and my sister had much fun. But soon we had to go back to the house and eat a dinner of mac & cheese and salad, then we had to go to bed. I woke up next morning in an unfamiliar bed and then I remembered! And at that thought I let out a sigh and thought of my dear mom and dad and how I wish I could see them again.

Soon we found ourselves walking around on the boardwalk, and then getting a surrey, a four person bike, and riding around the boardwalk.

After the tiring morning we decided to go to the beach and have some fun! And…we did just that.

Once we had our fill of the beach we went to bed…but not before doing some mini golf, and then fell asleep almost immediately. The next day, after some breakfast, me and my sister found out that we would be boarding a pirate ship and going for a ride. Soon after receiving a eye patch and boarding the ship we found out that we would be fighting pirate Pete so we got out the water guns and blasted him. Although that was not the end of our pirating adventures I must finish the trip now otherwise half of the post will be taken up by them! And (again) we went to the beach after that, and after that we went to bed. (also again) . This time I woke up I learned that we would be visiting Cape May Lighthouse and then go to see Lucy the elephant, both of which were fun.(to learn more about Cape May Lighthouse and Lucy the Elephant,look at my sister’s and my other posts)

Next morning I woke up to the rain and cold, and because of that we were not able to really go to the beach. But we still went on a walk on the boardwalk, and we also went to a bookstore and got five books. And lastly but not least we went to see Finding Dory. We spent the rest of the day (and night) resting. The final day we would be staying had just come around the corner and slammed right into me. Soon we were driving along to get mom at the Tropicana bus center, then we went back to the house. And soon again! I was slammed by realization that lu, my mom, and I had to go soon. And we did we went home at nine.

-HF