New Zealand Day 4: Driving the northern island

Today was our long drive from Rotorua to Wellington. The drive was beautiful but it still was a long drive that was exhausting. The trip took us through Taupo which is situated on a large lake with a great backdrop. We had lunch here, checked out both the volcanic activity center (a nice little educational treat) and Haka Falls. The volcanic activity center is pretty much a tiny museum for everything involved in volcanoes, earthquakes & tornadoes. My favorite was the earthquake part and reading matrial/watching film on the earthquakes in Christchurch. Christchurch will be our last stop in New Zealand before heading home and it faced so much devastation last year. 3 earthquakes each 4 months apart struck. The second one, which occurred the closest to the city, was the most devastating- many buildings literally crumbled to the ground including the famous church in the cities center. 188 people died and so many hundreds of families are left with homes that have major cracks running through them and they are forced to live there. They even had an earthquake simulator where you got to feel what an earthquake of that magnitude would feel like. They had a ton of educational things on geology aspects of both earthquakes and volcanoes. So anyways- When we finally did arrive in Wellington, it was a bit cloudy and much more of a working city than any other we have been to. There was rush hour traffic and one way streets downtown- the combination of which made finding our way around a bit difficult! We ate dinner at the Lone Star Bar and Grill (had to!), and then when we passed the cinema on the way home it tempted us to check it out. Soooooo..... Guess who got to see Breaking Dawn Part 2 in New Zealand?!?! THIS GIRL!!!! Okay so here is where the story gets fun. We go to buy tickets to a 8:15 show (we got there at 8:20 which seemed perfect) however there is no one at the ticket counter. Literally was like a ghost town. So the theaters are up escalators so we go up there thinking maybe you buy them there. Can not find anyone to help us figure out where to get them, and the guy who would tear off the stubs to go in has disappeared as well so Kyle says "let's just go in- no one is around!" This kind of rebellion is very foreign to me, and the whole idea freaked me out but I also was annoyed that we would be missing the movie so I eventually agreed to do it. The only problem is the theaters didn't have the movie titles outside the doors like home so it took about 5 theaters before finding the right one. Not sure how much of the beginning we missed, but it couldn't have been too too much. About 5 minutes in a guy walks in looking at the people in the theater with flashlight in hand and I definitely panicked a little, but all ended up being okay. I'm sure Kyle was thrilled to not have to pay for that movie, too (although he did say he thought it was the best so far and I heard no sighs from him like usual so I think he actually enjoyed it!). That concluded the night. Here are a few pics from our drive...