Go Lakers!

I love the LA Lakers! :) The western conference finals are especially sweet because it's the Husband's hometown team against LA. I think we all know who's going to win in the end, but the games have been so intense and fun, in a slightly stress-inducing way. :)

New Zealand, Part III

In Rotorua, we experienced more of the Maori culture by going to a performance and traditional hangi dinner, which they cook in the ground for several hours.

The performance was a mix between music, dancing and folklore from the Maori.

The food was delicious! There was chicken, lamb, potatoes, kumara (sweet potatoes), and then assorted veggies, which may or may not have been totally authentic.

The picture below is from Wanganui, which is the newest thermal park in Rotorua, formed back in 1920 or so, when the volcanoes erupted. It was very cool... hot boiling water forming these colorful rivers and lakes; steam everywhere making the park look surreal.

New Zealand, Part II

New Zealand has a lot of offer in terms of adventure... the first ever bungy-jump was off the Eiffel Tower, and was a New Zealander. He then founded the first commercial bungy-jumping company, and the Kawarau Bridge jump is it. It's 43m in height, and is just outside of Queenstown. We decided to do the tandem jump together and though I knew it was going to be scary... it was about 100 times scarier than I thought. I was so not mentally prepared for it! (Not sure if anyone could be!) We got to the ledge and looking down at the blue turqoise river flowing beneath us, I thought I couldn't do it. But before I even had a chance to change my mind, they were counting "3-2-1" and we sort of fell over the edge and were in a free-fall.

The rush you get is so much more intense than a rollercoaster... I think having your entire body's blood pooling into your brain helps. :) We have a couple other shots but I need to scan them in...

After cruising Milford Sound, seeing waterfalls larger than the Niagara Falls, rainbows, dolphins, seals, and fiords, we took a short helicopter ride over the mountains and landed on a glacier! See how deep the snow is (up to our knees!)

This is what we saw when we looked around...

New Zealand, Part I

I have wanted to go to New Zealand for as long as I can remember... so when airline prices took a huge plunge, I was so excited to go for our belated honeymoon.

Words are just not sufficient to describe New Zealand. I've travelled fairly extensively and other than Alaska, New Zealand wins the prize on untouched natural beauty. Sure, Machu Picchu in Peru was breath-taking, and the Leaning Tower of Pisa in Italy is incredible, and the Great Wall of China is mind-blowing, and I love the Spanish architecture of Gaudi... but the entire country of New Zealand is an ecological wonder.

Rainforests, beaches, mountains, glaciers, thermal parks... they have everything.

This was the view from our B&B in Queenstown (Queenstown Chalet):

This was the view of Queenstown after we hiked 75minutes up a steep incline, because we were too cheap to pay for the gondola ride. :)

This is Peter's Pool that reflected the Franz Josef Glacier... one of the most amazing views of our trip.

We finally see the Fox Glacier after hiking for 1.5hrs and climbing 700 steps!

Baltimore/D.C.

I know I've been neglectful... so here are a series of updates! :)

From where we left off...

I went to Baltimore for the Pediatric Academic Societies meeting, earlier in the month.

This was my first national meeting and it was awesome. It took place at the convention center. It was a little overwhelming and the schedule always had multiple sessions going on that were interesting... it was so hard to pick! My talk on physician communication during signout went well, even though I was so nervous, I could feel my entire body shaking! There were lots of good questions and it was, in the end, a huge honor to talk in front of so many program directors, etc.

Another bonus for the trip was hanging out with my best friend from HS. On Friday, I went to D.C. to have dinner with her, and on Saturday, she came over to Baltimore for dinner. This is a picture from Nacho Mama's, which had the most delicious (you guessed it!) nachos. We stuffed ourselves. mmmmmmmmmm.

Immediately after my talk, I booked it to the train to get to D.C., then super-shuttled it over to the airport, to fly to LA for the start of what turned out to be an amazing vacation.