North Island

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Auckland is cold after coming from Hawaii - I had to buy an extra fleece! Not too many photos to show you, I spent most of my time getting organised with bank accounts and tax numbers and planning what to do next. Finally left on the Magic bus a week later, and headed down to Rotorua for a couple of days and then Taupo, with various scenic stops en-route - including Huka Falls, and a lot of thermal pools and sulphurous mud, as this whole area is volcanic. Lakes Rotorua and Taupo are both crater lakes in long-extinct volcanoes. Met some good travelling companions on the bus, so it was a fun few days. Bus drivers generally crazy adrenaline-junkie Kiwis. Sweet as :-)


After Taupo we drove east to Mount Maunganui, which is a surf town - beautiful beach, and a hill (the mount, obviously). Not a huge amount else, but a good place to relax for a day. It was a bank holiday weekend in NZ, and the weather was as you'd expect for a UK bank holiday, so I spent a lot of time taking my goretex on and off.

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Photos

Tamatekapua
meeting house at Ohinemutu, a Maori village on the shore of Lake Rotorua

Champagne pool
Thermal pool at Wai o Tapu, near Rotorua

Magic travelling mates :-)
Ernestina, Jane and Jess at Huka Falls