JessicaRulestheUniverse.com

On an organic farm in Te Puke. Nobody laugh.

Stop me if you’ve heard this story. After seeing The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, my sister and I wanted to go to New Zealand. But we also wanted to go to Prague, so we asked Ted, who’d been to both, where we should go. He said, “But New Zealand is all nature.”

He’s right. I’m such a deprived urbanite, I spent several minutes watching some bugs on a tree. Later I found out they were cicadas.

Our hotel is along the historic Trinity Wharf in Tauranga. What will all this fresh air do to my lungs? Checking out in a bit, moving to Rotorua.

This friendly tabby lives at the Plant and Food Research center.

The driver, who apparently knows everything, says that unlike the entire history of colonization, the British who colonized New Zealand treated the native Maori well. New Zealand does not have the issues Australia has with their aborigines.

I know why the Brits had to get along with the Maori. They’re huge. It would be like oppressing a nation of rugby teams. (Although I’m told that the local passion for rugby has diminished.)