2008, 2/29 NZ, Paihia to Auckland

Wow! It's the final leg of our adventure and we've made our way from Paihia to Auckland for the final 3 nights of our tour. The drive was 4 hours through pristine coastal areas - a thousand shades of green on the hillsides, incredible mountain vistas, stunning golden beaches, and more colors of blue sea than you can imagine - spectacular and really amazing!

The weather forecast for tomorrow (for the whole of New Zealand) is calling for torrential rain and gale force winds. We're not sure how much sightseeing will be in the cards, but if the weather does turn to crap, we'll be content to read, watch a bit of TV and catch up on email.

We enjoyed a brief visit to Auckland as a port of call during the cruise to Sydney. We really enjoyed that day - an incredible city. Let's hope we get to explore a bit more of it.

We head back to the States Monday afternoon and we're not especially looking forward to our flight - it will be quite a long journey. We depart from Auckland on Air Tahiti Nui Flight #102 at 3:00 pm and stop-over in Papeete, French Polynesia for a 2 hour lay-over. We then depart Papeete on Air Tahiti Nui Flight #22 to Los Angeles, arriving around 10:00 am. From LA we Board Delta Air Lines Flight #1194 around 12:45 pm, arriving Cincinati at 8:00 pm.

Heather and Nancy's mom, Joan, will gather our bones and take us home. Although we will be glad to see everyone - we won't be looking forward to the snow and ice on the other end.

Most of all though, we will miss this incredible place and the Kiwi people. We'll be planning a return trip soon.

2008 2/27 NZ, Sailing the Bay of Islands on Gungha II

We enjoyed a day cruise on the Gungha II sailboat in the Bay of Islands. An incredibly beautiful place, great for snorkeling, scuba diving, kayaking, swimming, walking, or just sailing! We had a great skipper and the boat was a lot of fun. It was a great day!

2008 2/26 NZ, Paihia

We are spending time in the Bay of Islands area of New Zealand, the top end of the North Island. What a gorgeous place. Every bend in the road offers another bay with spectacular view of the ocean and the numerous islands this area has to offer. Every sport imaginable is available here. There is also a ferry service that will take you on a short commute to other small communities on the opposite side of the bay - takes all of 10 minutes. Great spot to chill or get in the water.

2008 2/26 NZ, Russell

We hopped on the Ferry for the 10 minute ride to Russell, another little community filled with cafes and souvenier shops, a small convenience/grocery store, and of course a post office and bottle shop. There were a couple of museums and churches if you're into that sort of thing, but just a nice little place to fill a couple of hours out of your day.

2008 2/22 NZ, 90 Mile Beach Sand Boarding

After enduring a long bus ride and lots of wind of rain we arrived at the sand dunes. There are many tour operators who will transport you to 90 Mile Beach. This is a snapshot of one group making their way to the top of an extremely big dune. We weren't game to be out in the rain and blowing sand, but a few from our group were. When they came back from their adventure they all remarked that they had a blast. We would love to come back when the weather is beautiful and do this!

The second photo is the stream (river) of water from the rain we had to drive through on our way to the beach. It was an interesting journey - a lot of fun too!

2008 2/22 NZ, Cape Regina - The Northernmost Tip of the North Island

The weather today was a challenge to say the least. The Northland experienced wind gusts of 148 km/hr which almost blew me off the ridge and down the cliff to the sea.

I wasn't going to go all this way and not make it to the lighthouse!

2008 2/21 Ahipara / Kaitia / Northland

View from Shipwreck Lodge, Ahipara

We are here at Shipwreck for the next 3 nights. The weather has declined a bit, lots of rain and wind predicted so we may be playing on the internet for fun.

We did manage to get on the beach for a walk this afternoon. No rain yet, but the wind was quite strong. Ahipara has a terrific beach, huge when the tide is out.

We plan to take a bus tour to 90 Mile Beach and Cape Regina tomorrow. Cape Regina is as far north as you can get in New Zealand - so we certainly couldn't miss that! More to come....

2008 2/20 Matakana, Pakiri Beach, Tawharanui Reserve and Goat Island

Matakana is located just a few hours from Auckland. It's a quaint little place, perfect for anyone who wants to get away from it all.

Agriculture is big, farming, sheep and cattle, lots of vineyards and olive groves. The farmland and surrounding hills are just beautiful, absolutely gorgeous. The area offers lots of options for walks, plenty of gorgeous beaches, and lots of wineries and vineyards to tour. We didn't go for the vineyard tours (been there - done that) however we did take a couple of really nice hikes which enabled us to check out the great beaches.

The Northland has a reputation for drawing people from the city who want to escape the hustle and bustle - we can certainly see why.

2008 2/18 On the Road Again

We're wrapping up our final night in Rotorua and it's been an interesting stay. The region is quite unique and the vastness of the geothermal features is incredible. The city is large, but not so much so that you can't maneuver through it, although we haven't had to as everything is within walking distance.

In the morning we will drive north and west toward Auckland, continuing on to Matakana where we will spend the next 2 nights. Richard and Liz (friends we met while tramping over the Christmas holiday doing the Routeburn Track) recommend a drive to Pakiri Beach. This is really a stopping point on our journey to the Northlands (Ahipara and Kaitaia) and 90 Mile Beach and Cape Regina.

2008 2/18 Mt. Tarawera Hike

During the 1800s the world-famous Pink and White Silica Terraces at Lake Rotomahana were regarded as the eighth wonder of the world and became New Zealand's first tourist attraction.

On May 31st, 1886, a phantom canoe or apparition was seen on Lake Tarawera by both Maori (native islanders) and European (white settlers).

When the great Tohunga [priest] Tuhoto was asked what it meant he replied, "It is an omen, it is a sign that all this region will be overwhelmed." Tuhoto believed the local people had desecrated their sacred mountain and values.

Eleven days later, June 10, 1886, Mt. Tarawera erupted, destroying the terraces, devastating the surrounding landscape and villages with a loss of over 150 lives.

Mt. Tarawera lies over one of the most active faults in the world and as a result, New Zealand experiences an averge of 14,000 earthquakes each year. Mt. Tarawera is not one but a series of eleven individual Rhyolitic dome volcanoes that have been created over the previous 20,000 years from five separate episodes.

Today we hiked Mt. Tarawera today and took a few photos of the aftermath of that eruption as we know it today.

2008 2/18 More Photos from Mt. Tarawera

Thinking of Papaw

Justin was thinking about Papaw's birthday long before Feb. 14th. He asked his mommy to send it to him by email. Papaw loved it!

2008 2/17 Hells Gate Geothermal Park, Rotorua, NZ

More amazing Geothermal sites!

2008 2/17 Canon and Nikon

While touring the thermal park at Hells Gate WaiOra Spa, we came upon this couple while we were walking on the trail. They were photographing a bird eating in the stream.

Aren't they cute?


Love her pants......

This will be me and Joe in a couple years.

2008 2/16 Waimangu Thermal Reserve

We wrapped up the day by visiting another amazing thermal area, Waimangu Reserve.

A bit of history: Dominant on the skyline is Tarawera mountain, a restlessly sleeping volcano which has erupted five times in the last 18,000 years. Before the latest eruption on 6/10/1886 this area was rolling scrub covered hills with no surface hydrothermal actifity. Then, during that night a line of craters from the northern end of Tarawera all the way to the Waimangu Valley was formed by violent eruption. This event completely destroyed all plant, animal and bird life in the whole of the area of country visible from here. All the vegetation you now see has resulted from plant recolinisation since that date.

Three important dates dominate the history of the valley: 1886, the Tarawera eruption; 1900-1904 when the world's largest geyser was active 1 km away, just beyond the hot lakelet visible here; 1917, the Frying Pan Flat eruption which burst out at hot lakelet and sent a surge of steam and debris up to this very place, destroying everything on this site.

2008 2/16 Wai-O-Tapu Thermal Reserve

Today we explored the vast thermal region around Rotorua. We began our tour at Wai-O-Tapu (Sacred Waters) Thermal Reserve. This thermal area covers 18 square km and is covered with collapsed craters, cold and boiling pools of mud, water and steaming fumaroles.

The area's volcanic activity dates back 160,000 years (or so were told) and is located right on the edge of the largest volcanic caldera within the active Taupo Volcanic Zone.

Be sure to take a look at the photo album online for more photos of this area. It is really amazing and quite a sight to behold.

2008 2/14 NZ, Rotorua

We wrapped up our stay in Hawkes Bay and have moved on to the Bay of Plenty area of New Zealand. We drove North through Taupo are have arrived in Rotorua. We've found it to be interesting and unique - with a heavy odor of sulphur in the air.

We read a magazine article that remarked "it's the only town you can break wind in the middle of Main Street, and not a single person would know."

Rotorua is located in a thermal/volcanic area, home to a number of lakes, hot springs, bubbling mud pits, lots of steaming ground, expansive vistas and huge volcanic craters. You can watch the Lady Knox Geyser erupt each day at 10:15 am with heights up to 20 meters.

We've settled into our quarters at the East-West Apartments in Rotorua. The apartment is nice, but Nancy is beginning to think of home. It is probably a good thing that our trip is winding down, just a little over 2 weeks to go, so we'll be back in the Bus soon.

There are lots of walks we look forward to exploring, weather cooperating. We had a bit of rain today on our drive North. The skies are cloudy and breezy, but no more rain so far. Tomorrow is projected to be clear in the morning, so cross your fingers we'll be able to get a walk in - then go for a soak in the thermal spa here in town.

2008 2/13 NZ, Hawkes Bay - Clifton Beach Walk

The beach is us just outside our door!

Here are a few shots of the limestone cliffs as we walked along the shore. We had to wait for low tide to be able to access this area - but it was well worth the wait. The cliffs are Amazing!