David's top and bottom 6 North Island

Here's my favorites and least favorites from our stay in the north.

The north had a lot of good things to offer.

1. Glow Worms!!!
Very cool experience. The light they give off is amazing and such a nice shade of blue. Plus I managed to get a cool T-Shirt from the gift shop that glows in the dark. And it's an adult shirt as opposed to getting a kids XXL size ;-)

2. Huka Falls
Another one of those nice surprises. Didn't even know we were going to see it, and just happened to pull over at a spot that gave us a nice little hike to the falls. Pure Blue colors and a ton of water moving through the small channel. Really happy that Brenda's panorama shot came out as nice as it did. One of my favorite pictures from the trip.

3. Thermal Stuff in the Rotorua area
Despite the smell, it was really interesting to see the various thermal pools. I liked the different colors that were produced based on the chemicals in the water. Such sharp colors that the camera has a tough time doing it full justice

4. Maori Feast
Not often that you totally get encouraged to "blow yourself up" with food. So, I did. Who knew the Maori people know how to make a mean scallop potatoes!! Could have taken the whole tray with me, but I settled for two or three helpings instead :-)

5. McLaren Falls - Disc Golf with the sheep!
Not only was the course fun (though scary and poop filled) but the views were amazing as well. Lots of nice pictures and we got our workout that day!

6. International lounge at the Auckland airport. This got us in the mood for our long flight and even though we had multiple hours to wait, they flew by and we were sad to leave since not only were we leaving the wonderful lounge, we were also leaving New Zealand and in essence our vacation.

Ok, now the bottom ones . . .

1. Trying to find and then play the Rotorua Disc Golf course. Not only was it a true pain to find, but when we did finally get there, it was in bad shape and poorly laid out.

2. Driving in Auckland at rush hour. Not a fan of traffic in general anyway, but wrong sided traffic? So glad that Brenda was there to guide the way and be a calming force.

3. The Rotorua Hotel. Someone has to be the worst on the trip, and that distinction belongs to the Rotorua stop. Really bad wifi aside, no one likes to spend their night with ants crawling around the room. Glad they moved us, but it still wasn't a great place.

4. Smoked Eel - I gave it a try, and f-eel like I never have to have that experience again.

5. Not seeing a Kiwi at the Kiwi enclosure. Ok, that's not totally true. We did see the Kiwi on the camera indicating they were in their enclosures, but we never saw the actual birds. Would have been nice to say we saw one. We still wound up with a plush one to take home (and it makes authentic kiwi sounds) so we will settle for that

6. Throwing one of my discs into a deep, dense ravine. The McLaren course really was extreme in places and I found one of them. Moment I let the disc go, I knew it was in trouble. I figured it was long gone considering how steep the side was, but Brenda encouraged me to go ahead and search anyway. Got lucky that the underbrush isn't all that thick and nothing like the blackberries we have at home, so it took a bit of a hike, but I was able to locate and retrieve the disc. Plus, I managed par on the hole anyway.Read more