the traveling continues

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We started off our week on Monday by heading out to the Coramandel Peninsula, just east of Auckland. Our first night was spent camping at the trailhead to the Pinnacles, a very cold night, where we seemed to be the only people in the entire park camping. The trail to the Pinnacles the next day was an 8 hour hike, which despite camping at the trailhead, we got a late start and made it back right at sunset. The trail was awesome with scary suspended footbridges, many beautiful rock staircases, and steller views.

The next day, Wednesday, we went to the Waiau Waterworks, a quirky little tourist trap with all of their main attractions powered by water. The best part about this place was the children’s area though, with rides such as flying bicycles, a hamster wheel whose speed could kill you, a couple flying foxes (ziplines), and several others which entertained us for a while. After being sufficiently entertained here we carried on to the eastern shore of the Coramandel where we hiked down to a beach called Cathedral Cove for sunset. This was a beautiful beach with a cave going through it. After sunset we decided to drive to Matamata, famous for the filming of Lord of the Rings Hobbiton, which they bank on only in their very expensive movie tours of the farm where remains of the movie set exist. We did not go on this very expensive movie tour for obvious very expensive reasons.

The next day, Thursday, was spent in Rotorua, a town situated in a geothermal area with different businesses banking off the several different features in the area. Imagine Yellowstone owned privately between several owners and having to pay separate entrance fees to see each geyser and geothermal area. Friday we toured one geothermal area, where the coaxed the geyser to go off at a consistent time by dropping two bars of soap into it. Hmm…. A sight to behold. The geothermal area was cool with some beautiful features and pools, but wish we were able to see some more areas without having to pay extra entrance fees. The town of Rotorua itself was littered with tourist shops, day spas, and an overpowering smell of sulpher. Thursday night was interesting in itself though. It was Ryan’s battle to watch USA in the World Cup. A sad sight to behold, not because they lost, but because despite his best efforts, all forces worked against him and he ended up missing the game. It really was a disaster ending with the TV in our hotel going out just as the game came on…and this was at 2am. Anyway, maybe you had to be there, but it was pretty sad.

After Rotorua we headed back to Auckland where we spent the next two nights partying it up at a bar called Descarga Cubana on K Rd, a Cuban bar with great owners, great music, awesome dancers, and an overall wonderful time. We also ended up meeting up with an old college buddy of Jeanette’s from her Oregon days who was living here in New Zealand.

So now we are heading down to the South Island. We are on the west coast right now and will be on the south island in a few days. So we will fill you in on our west coast adventures soon.

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Photos

Bridge
Jeanette was not a fan of these crossings

Bridge
Jeanette was not a fan of these crossings

Hobbiton
I wanted to visit my hobbit friends, but this was as close as i would get

Geyser
Feeding the geyser, i guess you would consider it faithful still...

Comments

[Amber]

hi
do they really feed the geyser soap