Queenstown!

Finally made it down to the south island to the really cool (though admittedly really touristy) Queenstown. It's a great little sprawling skii town situated on the banks of a large glacial lake. Very steep, snowcapped mountain peaks complete surround the little valley and make stunning views in every direction. I did get stung by some angry bees on a hike, but aside from that the experience was all very good.

More photos to come

taken immediately upon stepping off the plane

Meeting Sam on the path from the airport!

dramatic pose

awkward selfie imposed upon my fellow americans

attempting to play frisbee golf. the hostel we stayed at had free frisbee rentals

Rangitoto

About  15 min ferry ride from the Auckland waterfront is Rangitoto. I went there at 7:30 in the morning with this cool group of Americans in the photo below (+1 who was late). It is the largest and youngest volcano in the Auckland volcano field. The whole island is just a big dormant volcano. Auckland is covered with them. The name translates to "Bloody Sky" in Maori. It was a pretty short hike to the top, but it was a beautiful place with cool lava tubes to explore and a ton of interesting animals I've never seen before.  If you notice a stark increase in the quality of these photos compared with previous entries, it is because Amy took them with her camera (she is the short Indian girl in the far right of the group photo). Photo credit to her.

playing in the rocks

A good portion of the island is this very course volcanic scoria. looks so otherworldly

The kind of paths that we walked on for most of the upward portion of the hike

Cool native bird

another

very tiny lizard (not more than 2 inches head to tail)

Earwig roughly the size of that lizard found under a log

Bizarre aquatic snail

Cool lava tubes

Working together to take a nail out of a show with a knife and a spoon.

The Caldera

I had to go to the bottom. Standing in a volcano seems cool.

Scenery! 

Hiding like Hobbits

Auckland from halfway to the island

Rangitoto!

 It was a really fun way to spend the morning and I think I'd like to go again sometime before I leave New Zealand. You can camp there for free, apparently.

Wellington

A lot of photos here. Went down to visit a friend in Wellington on the overnight bus; a trip lasting 11 hours and spanning most of the north island. I arrived in Wellington in time to see the sun rise, though i lamentably don't have a good photo of that. Plenty of photos of the city and of the long ride back to Auckland, most of which was in daylight.

Cool Hillside

The widely renowned "Trippy Tree"

Interior, with random child

Branches

Sam enjoying the tree

Emerging from within 

Not a bad view from the tree

Hungry birds

Cheesy

City capitol ("The Hive")

art

Bubbles

Sam being dramatic

food

pumpkin seeds

Pumpkins are different here 

back on the road after a fun 3 days

some familiat chains

the trip had many views to view

Is that the south island?

Gas prices (per liter)

Taupo is roughly a halfway point. Still a long way to go

mysterious orange box

corn

the first half hour break

Cool goat from another rest stop

weird landscape near a giant dormant volcano

strata

best shot I got of the mountain. it was cloudy

closeup of strata

Lake Taupo!

Lake Taupo is stocked with rainbow trout from California.

The sun goes down

It then became way too dark for any more pictures

and then I took a nap.