End of the North Island

---

I have one hour before I have to catch a shuttle to the airport, so here is a brief entry on my last two weeks.

Following Wellignton, Mom and I went to the Cormandel Peninsula. We almost had an adventure getting there when, at 9pm, the gas light went on and we were still 40k from the next town big enough to have a gas station. Luckily, I am an excellent driver (yeah, self-call. whatever) and managed to use just enough coasting to get us to the gas station rigt before the car stopped. After an unevenful night in the town of Cormandel, we got up early and drove through the mountains. Along the way we stopped at a hidden waterfall, a kauri treee grove and attempted to drive up a logging road before Mom got to scared and wanted to turn around. After some intensely windy narrow roads, we popped back out on the east coast of the penisnsula and drove to Hot Water Beach. It's basically a beach that has a hot water spring, so people dig themselves hot tubs in the sand. It was crowded, but fun. I started to dig one and then gave up when someone else abandoned theirs. That one was warmer anyways. We finished the day off at another beach further south. I've forgotten the name, but it was by far the best beach yet. It was a beautiful white sand beach-very long and no one else was on it.
The next day we drove into the center of the North Island, to Rotorua. Rotorua was developed last century to be a thermal healing town. It is situated in an active geothermal area and has hot springs all over, including right in the city's garden, next to the flowers and fountains. Also, it stinks- a lot. You can smell the rotten egg smell as soon as you drive into town and if you shower, you'll leave smelling like rotten eggs. But one plus of the hot springs everywhere was that all the hotels have personal spas for each room. The reason that I wanted to go to Rotorua wasn't the hot springs, but the Maori culture. Rotorua is also home to the extremely touristy culture shows. I really wanted to eat a hangi (food cooked in the ground for several hours), so we went to one of the Maori culture night tours. It's basically a big production with traditional dancing and singing and then a big feast. I was a little disappointed that it wasn't done on a marae (some are, but not our tour), but I still learned a bit and the food was fantastic.
The next morning we drove to Taupo to go skydiving (by we I mean me because I couldn't talk Mom into it). Unfortunately, it was raining and my jump was cancelled. booo. I need to go before I leave!!!!! Maybe on the South Island.
We finished the Mom's trip by a short day trip to Wentworth, north of Auckland. We stayed at a bed and breakfast on a farm and got to see all the animals. We also went wine tasting at a nearby vineyard.

It was really nice having Mom visit. She timed her visit just right- just as my roomates were leaving and I was about to get lonely. She was a good traveling partner too, despite a little disagreement over how fast we should be driving.

My last week in Auckland has been uneventful. I finished off my research as best I could and packed up. Now I'm headed to 10 days on the South Island. The plan is to fly to Queenstown and then drive up to Abel Tasman, where I'll spend a few days kayaking and hiking.

---