Christmas Eve in New Zealand

Christmas Eve morning and I am finally laying on a bed!! :). In the last 33 days I have slept only 2 nights in a bed, and that was on our live aboard trip 21 days ago! It feels nice to be back in civilization.  We  are looking pretty tired and beat up from being on the road. When we bought groceries yesterday they asked to see our ID for our wine. Even after showing our ID, and explaining that we are married and 30 years old, they still did not believe we were 18 or older!! haha. They had to get supervisor approval. I guess that should be a compliment but gees, really?

We have had such a incredible time in New Zealand. It's one of the most beautiful places I have ever been. I couldn't stop taking pictures, everywhere I turned. New Zealand is known for these beautiful caves but we couldn't afford the tour so we went exploring on our own. Way more fun anyways! We were so covered in mud from slipping around in the dark, way off the trail. We even saw glow worms. I didn't even know there was such a thing. I thought it was a make believe animal like a unicorn or a ziger. We went on a really beautiful hike through the mountains too. It had scrub bushes, then desert alpine climate, beautiful pools of water, tropical areas and the whole thing is an active volcano. We found out later it was where Mt. Doom was filmed for LOTR. Seems fitting. We also got a chance to check out some of New Zealand's world famous beaches. They are incredible too! We went to the "hot water" beach. You dig a hole in the sand and the lava under the earth heats the water to boiling temperature. So many natural wonders all over New Zealand and the world it is incredible!!