Monday, February 27, 2012

New Zealand - a great place to bring your mum

In honor of Bret Mckenzie winning an Oscar last night I wanted to do something in the vein of Flight of the Conchords. I recreated some posters from their HBO show, but I used some of our own shots from New Zealand:
 The fourth exclamation point is really what makes it stand out.
But seriously, we did go to New Zealand last month. We were excited to get away from the snow, but we didn't realize how much it was going to rain. I kept thinking it was going to stop, so I refused to buy any rain gear. So I looked like this for most of the trip:
Jacob embraced the rain coat. He also carried all of the gear. 

We thought bringing our camera (the Epic) would be a great idea. But that bag is around 50 lbs with the tripod attached. Needless to say, I never offered to wear the pack. I did, however, offer suggestions for places we could stash it while exploring. Jacob didn't like the idea of leaving the most expensive thing we own under blankets in the car or behind the big leafy tree. It turned out to be OK since we were constantly stopping to take pictures the minute the sun came out. Before we came out, our friend gordon told us that he couldn't tell you how green the grass was. He said we wouldn't believe it. He was right.
I think this one above looks like a Microsoft desktop picture.The sunsets were also really beautiful over these rolling green hills. 
While I was taking stills like this one above, Jacob was doing this:  
Our first attempts to go to the beach were interrupted by this:
A cargo ship named Rena had been stuck out on the reef for about 3 months and had just decided to start sinking and sending debris all over. We considered getting in the water anyways, but then they started talking about oil. So we left.  Rena sucks. 
We also went down to Lake Taupo, which is a biggest lake I have ever seen. Jacob had been talking about Jet Skis since we arrive in New Zealand, so he finally got the chance. 
In return, he had to pose for this picture in front of the sheep. I was really excited about this one. 
I was surprised by how much we loved New Zealand. It so different then anywhere else I have ever been, it's kind of like a mix of England and Hawaii. Also, I will have make another post about how we almost died. Because driving on the other side of the road is hard.