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Published: April 25th 2007
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Us in the Cave
A great adventure, shame about the outfits... Another week has passed and time for another blog!! Its going so fast now. Only three weeks left!! AH, then what are we going to do?
We took the ferry from Picton to Wellington in the North Island to begin our trip back to Auckland. From Wellington we headed north to get a few hours of driving done before our stop at Levin. Up early the next day we had a lot of driving to do to get to New Plymouth, On the way we had a couple of very important stops...... Firstly the Rugby Museaum in Parmerston North, we were expecting good things here being the national game and all that, It was intresting!! Not quite what what we expected, a couple of small smelly rooms with tons of very old rugby memrobilia. We got this from our AA guide Titled '101 things to do and see in NZ', How about the next thing on the list a 'hill elevator'. What is that I can hear you saying, but in Wanganorie the famous local attraction is this elevator which they built in the centre of a hill to get the residents and workers to the top of the hill..
Rugby Museum
An interesting visit. Simon with all the South Island rugby kits. Maybe they were all to lazy to walk! I don't know. We paid our $1 and took the ride to the top of the hill Quirky is the word i think!!.
We Felt better knowing that we had been to the top attractions on the 250 km drive to New Plymouth. We arrived here late on the night so we settled into our campsite right on the beach.. Nice. The next morning We did the 7 km coastal walk a nice stroll, it took us past the 'wind wand' an really weird sculpture. Imagine a 25m bendy lampost with a giant beach ball on the top, that bends and swings in the wind pretty cool but weird. We met up with Catherines friends the Meeches, whose son Sam way sailing here. Its was good meeting them and Catherine enjoyed catching up with them.
While at our beachside campsite we had time to set up Herbies EZY cafe van, well every little helps and we could do with a few more dollers.
Mount Egmont dominates the skyline here and provides an amazing view with its snow covered top. We drove up it a to get a closer look and check out
Herbie's EZY Cafe
Well start selling out of the van!
Check out the menu. the veiws.
From here we drove to Waitomo, famous for its caves. We planned our trip for the next day. The 5 hour trip had it all Abseiling, Black water rafting (which involves slowly drifting through pitch dark caves), and caving and a climb. This was a brilliant action packed trip, untill Catherine got stuck in one of the holes caving!! I told here not to have the extra chocolate cake the night before!!.
From here it was back to Roturua a place we have seen on the tour but wanted to go back to, The Wai-O-Tapu thermal wonderland is a must see in the North Island, the photos will show it better but it looks like a film set with special effects. With all this smelly eggy steam rising from the ground, boiling mud and rainbow coloured mineral deposits. A real sight.
We stumbled accross a great campsite nearby that had thermally heated hot pools, and swiming pools.. The Water simple flows from the ground at 98 degrees they cool it down and then fill the pools with water that is nearly 40 degrees.. toasty!! No Cold 5min showers at this campsite!!.
Next day after all that relaxing in
Meet the Chef
Simon's poached eggs are the speciality! Watch out Dad, he is opening a restaurant. hot water we headed up the Roturura gondala for some views and a luge Grand Prix.. After the 2km scenic track we got down to some seroius racing (being the non-competitive types we are CATHERINE) Lets just say those few extra kilos helped and I(si) won 3 races to 1.
Heading accross the North Island we went to visit the Meeches in their home town of Mt Maunganui, a lovely place known as the bay of plenty. Here we enjoyed the novelty of sleeping in a house!! after 22 days in the van.
with just two days left with the van we headed up the coromandel penisula to hot water beach, here at low tide you can dig your own hot water spa!! how cool is that. It was like being a kid at the beach. We rushed to the beach designed our 4 person spar with steps and seats etc then started digging frantically, we got our spa about 1 ft deep when we started to realise ours had run out of hot water (or we had dug in the wrong place!!) no one told us you had to find the hot spots under your feet then start digging!!
Mount Egmont
The Highlight of New Plymouth never mind. Undettered with quickly moved house and started MK2. Some areas were sooo hot you could not stand on the sand. A very funny sight.
So back in Auckland we handed our home for the last 25 days back, and reflect on what has been the best leg of our trip so far.
Well off to Fiji in a couple of days, three weeks left. Get the beers and wine in the fridge we are nearly comming home.
Simon and Catherine.
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