New Zealand (Part 2)

Our trip to New Zealand was awesome. We've been back in Korea for a little under a week, and we're soaking up our last few days before we return to school.  Here are pictures from the second half of our New Zealand trip.  

Everett's first swim:

 Hiking at Moke Lake. 

 Feeding himself for the first time:

 E's first time at the beach:

 Hanging out with a couple from our school, the Pettigrew's:

 Geothermal sites in Rotorua:

 Geyser exploding:

 Time to go back to Korea:

Hobbiton

Yesterday we got to explore Hobbiton!!!!!  If you're a Lord of the Rings fan you know exactly what we're talking about.  Hobbiton is the fictional place where the Hobbits live in J.R.R Tolkien's books.  This fictional site was fleshed out in New Zealand as a movie set for the Lord of the Rings and the Hobbit movies.  We were in luck because they just stopped filming on the Hobbit six weeks ago and opened up tours so we could see the latest creation of the Hobbit village.

Was the tour overpriced? Absolutely.
BUT...
Was it awesome? ABSOLUTELY!
We got to see Bilbo Baggins' hobbit hole and learn interesting facts about how the movie was made.

We took a lot of pictures but they made us sign a confidentiality agreement that we wouldn't share them with anyone since the Hobbit movies have yet to be released.   You can see a few pictures of the movie set on the tour's website here.

Here's a picture not from the movie set.  It's a little hobbit hole painting in "The Shire's Rest Cafe."  Everett was a perfect size (and he grabbed the door all by himself)!

And now we've exposed just how unashamedly nerdy we are.

what we've been up to lately

Happy 5 Months Everett!

Everett is 5 months old today!!! Here is a pic on his big day: 

We are currently on the south island of New Zealand.  These pictures were all taken in Queenstown, NZ.  Tonight we are hanging out in Te Anau, which is a small town in the middle of beautifulness. 

Contrast

One thing that we noticed while in the Philippines is the contrast between our lodging and the surrounding area. Really this is something that can be noticed in a lot of places but is particularly evident throughout a lot of Asia. Sometimes the best examples are visual. Here is the view from the balcony inside of our hotel room.

Here are some views from out our door on the opposite side of our hotel room.

It is sometimes hard for us to visit these places for vacation knowing the people we see so much live and work there on a daily basis. There is definitely a lot of economic disparity and we are trying to figure out what it looks like for us to wrestle with the contrast.

highlights from our trip

Here are some pictures from our trip to Boracay, Philippines.

First up, the beach!

This is what I did the bulk of every day we were there.
Dinner with my love!
 These are some friends of our's from school, Becki and Elise, who were also in Boracay the same time as us.  It was fun to see some familiar faces and grab a meal together.

 Classic Korean pose with my fake Ray Ban sunglasses.

 Sharing a decaf coffee beverage.  Korea doesn't serve decaf drinks, so this was a special treat we enjoyed every day on our trip.

 A different part of the beach on a gloomier day.

 Maybe I should start spelling my name, "Bomy"?

Overall, I think the Philippines were a huge win! We really enjoyed the people, the beach, and the relaxation.  I'd go back in a heartbeat.

The journey

It seems like every time we go somewhere interesting travel experiences always come our way.  This trip was no different.  On the way to Boracay we left Seoul at 10:15 PM and landed in Cebu at 1:15 AM.  We had to pick up our bags and walk outside to the domestic terminal and wait for our 5:30 AM flight to Caticlan.  Here is Bonnie passing the time in the shutdown Cebu airport.

Caticlan was definitely the smallest airport I have ever flown into.  They had a really sophisticated baggage handeling system though...

 After we landed in Caticlan we took a tricycle ride to the port.

We then caught a boat to the island of Boracay.

On the way back to Korea we were supposed to fly out of Caticlan again.  I said supposed to because that isn't what happened.  When we got to the airport we found out our flight was cancelled.  The airline's solution was to put us in a van and drive us to another airport 1.5 hours away.  Thankfully our original layover in Manilla was a little over 4 hours so this arrangement was feasible.  We felt really blessed that it actually worked and we were able to get back to Korea safely and in a timely manner.