Big Trip--Part One--New Zealand

[Just a FYI--these are roughly in chronological order from the bottom to the top]

fire-y sunset

There were a lot of these cool-looking pine trees.

During our drive, we saw lots of interesting things. Matt liked the fact that there were so many cool road signs. But this just stands out to me...pink sheep at "Sheep World." (I was sneaking into the picture at the last second. I thought maybe my head would be in it. Ha!)

We finally remembered to get a group picture right before we left. (One of their grand daughters was visiting, too. They have lots of relatives around, some camping out in their backyard for the summer(?).)

The Murray's home.

Their awesome tree swing that hangs from a massive NZ Christmas tree.

Before we left, a group of locals (most of which are relatives of the Murrays) gathered to show us the haka (a dance with shouting and stomping and slapping). We found out later that the kids' parents told them they wouldn't get to eat until after they did the haka!

That Sunday, we got to participate in sacrament meeting. Yes, the local bishop asked our friend to ask us, since he would be out of town. So we accepted. Dad Ripp and Matt spoke about the Savior and service, etc. And we, all 5 of us, sang acappella two musical numbers/ Christmas hymns. It went well and was well received. And Kelsey also played the piano for the other hymns. If there was time left over after the third speaker, us girls were to share our testimonies or something. However, we didn't need to. I was somewhat relieved because I would have cried through the whole thing, the Spirit was strong.

Two out of the four caught some.

Dad, Kelsey, and Matt went fishing with Wally.

Our friends made fresh seafood for us everyday we were there! I'm not a huge seafood fan, but it was delicious! We even ate it for breakfast. Red snapper, lobster, some even tried sea urchin.

A cute little crab we found on the beach. (If crabs can be cute.)

The sand was soft and smooth and had a metallic sheen to it.

Gorgeous views from the boat.

Gorgeous wild flowers grew everywhere.

Here we are trying to protect our whiteness from the sun. Our friends showed us how to eat raw oysters and other shell fish right on the beach, not me though. I went searching for empty shells instead :)

This is where we spent Christmas! This is the beach we had to drive on (you're suppose to) to get to our friends' house! Wally and Grace live just a couple hundred yards from the beach.

Afterwards, getting out of the boat at the mouth of the cave...we were not allowed to take photos of the glow worms. (I have a postcard of them though.)

Glow worms. We went to some caves where glowing maggots live on the ceiling of these caves. They glow to attract their food, insects that come in with the river. How can they eat them if they have no mouths? They ingest them somehow through their long sticky line that hangs from their bodies. Weird. Gross, you might say. But in the dark and quiet of the cave when no one is allowed to talk in the boat, you gaze up at what look like hundreds of stars in another world. It was different but amazing. Another cool part of being in the caves was singing "Silent Night" as a group in the "Cathedral" section of the cave. Even though there were many different nationalities there, we all knew the words to "Silent Night." :)

After Matamata, we drove to Hamilton which is a city right next to Templeview, NZ. Well we drove by the temple in time for the countdown to the Christmas lights turning on. There was a choir singing, then a video of the nativity on a screen outside, then the lights. It was nice to be there and see so many families (most of which are probably non-members) feeling the Spirit. Templeview has held this tradition for 25 years so far, and the community seems to understand that there's something different about this place, something sacred. Seeing the nativity statues in the visitor center was a wonderful reminder of the reason for the season, our Savior.

In contrast with the beautiful waterfall, we also visited "Hell's Gate" in/near Rotorua. It's a geothermal hotspot with acid pools and boiling mud, essentially. Very interesting in its own unique way.

Matt's stitched photo of the falls

Hiking up to the waterfall was a little much for me (i.e. I'm out of shape in so many ways...mostly pregnant), but we enjoyed the scenery. We were told that this was not the wet season, so the waterfall wasn't as full as it can be. Still, it was beautiful.

One night we went to a tribal show and dinner. My impression: kind of weird but interesting.

Every time I see this picture (which I think turned out cute), I have to laugh because I was trying to avoid sitting on the sheep poop, which was everywhere!

This is Bilbo's house. It has a small room in the hill; the rest of the inside footage was filmed in a studio.

What's left of the Hobbit holes (after 10 years).

This is under the "Party Tree" where Bilbo celebrates his 111th birthday.

Hobbiton was a very cool site to see! The location of the movie set (from Lord of the Rings) is nestled in the hills on a sheep farm. Just gorgeous! Those white dots are sheep. And apparently, they're preparing for two more movies to add to the story.

Here is the place we stayed in Matamata. If you were on the other side of the house, you could see the waterfall on the mountain to which we later hiked up halfway. It was beautiful. (The people who own this house have a dairy farm, so cows were right in our backyard!)

We rented a car and drove to Matamata. There were lots of rolling green hills and cows. It was hilarious and terrifying being driven on the left side of the road. Funny because everything is in the opposite place of what you're used to in America...you want to turn left? Don't turn on the windshield wipers! Terrifying because the roads are narrow with basically no shoulders, and they're so curvey through the hills/mountains :)

We did reach Sydney, stayed a night (just a few hours) and then flew to New Zealand! Here's a cool carved archway in the Auckland airport.

Don't you just love "fanny packs"? It actually came in very handy during our travels.

Sixteen hours after leaving LAX, we stopped in Fiji.

We had a couple of delays on our flight to Sydney...first in Honolulu because a sick passenger had to be taken to a hospital, then in Nadi, Fiji where we had to wait for a new flight crew to arrive from Sydney to complete our long flight!

LAX--need I say more? (We had to wait forever in lines.) [Front to back: Matt, me, Kelsey, Dad Ripp, Whitney]

Sierra loves her Grandpa Mac

[Mom Mac, Juli & Steve, me, Sierra]
As many of you know, we took a big trip this winter. It was pretty much a 10th anniversary celebration, a couple months early, as well as Christmas at Grandmas'. Matt and I are so blessed and lucky to have such wonderful parents and relatives who cared for our children while we were gone. We can't say "Thank You!" enough. We drove to Indy to drop off Raquel and Sierra at Grandma Mac's, then flew to Vegas to drop off Adam and Kaitlyn at Grandma Ripp's!