Texans in Transit: Road Trip part IV: Picton to Rotorua 12/17/12

Picton was our jump off point to take Wally and us, on the ferry, over to the North Island. So we gave ourselves a couple of days in Picton to catch up on computer stuff via the public library's free wi-fi and manage tons of photos. Once we loaded our car on the ferry, which was paid for by the rental car company (major bonus!), it was about a 3 hour ferry ride to Wellington. The highlight of the trip for Kristin was the band waking around the ferry playing Christmas carols :-).

In Wellington, we had our sights on one thing, NY style pizza. A friend, Hamish- who we met in Peru, told us about his friend that left his job at a big time law firm after 3 weeks to move to New York and learn how to do pizza the right way. He then came back to NZ to start his own pizza place in Wellington. It was cool to go his place- Tommy Millions, meet him, and enjoy some NY style pizza!

We moved on after lunch because we had a short time in the North Island and wanted to make our way to Rotorua to do some fun activities. Rotorua is heavy on NZ history, culture, museums, and tourism.

We knew we wanted to sledge, because it was something we learned about in Queenstown, but waited to do until Rotorua. Sledging is hard to explain, but hopefully the pics will help. Basically you hold on to a sled and ride it down the river through the whitewater rapids, face first. It's a lot more work and intense than one would think. We had a great time doing it though, and it fulfilled the adrenaline activity for the day! Sadly, no pics of us on the river- way too dangerous to take your hands off the sledge.

Our last stop in Rotorua was to ZORB. There are various types of ZORBs you could opt for, but they all consist of being in a ball, within a ball, and rolling down a hill. We went for the wet ride zig-zag version and it was plenty of fun! The ride only lasts about 45 seconds, but trust us, it's plenty of time when you're being tossed around in a ball.