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Published: January 28th 2010
We left Melbourne on the 11th of January; it was expected to reach 43 degrees C so we were quite happy to be on the way out of the country. We spent the whole day at the airport after a lift from our kind housemate who was off to pick up a friend at 9am. We weren’t to fly until much later (after 4pm) but didn’t much fancy dragging our luggage across town and spending what little time we had left in Melbourne in our somewhat warm-non-air-conditioned-house.
We arrived in Auckland and picked up our hire car from the airport carpark - much less effort than the plan to buy a car. Then drove into Auckland proper where we spent the next few days.
Whilst in Auckland we spent one day on Rangitoto Island - a volcanic island which was created 600-odd years ago. Very interesting with masses of greenery interspersed with bare volcanic rock.
From Auckland we headed North to the Bay of Islands where we stayed in an excellent hostel with a very talkative resident parrot (his party piece seemed to be impersonating the cat!). We based ourselves here for visits further North to the Cape
Reinga where the Tasman Sea meets the Pacific. On the way we had fun sand-boarding down some enormous dunes…fun but neither of us have ever been so sandy in all our lives! On our return to Paihia we headed out for a night on The Rock (previously a car ferry)…thirty or so of us spent a pleasant day and night including having a go at shooting, kayaking, snorkeling, fishing and late night swimming. The kayaking was amazing with phosphorescence in the water glowing with every stroke.
Back on dry land we headed south and then North again to the Coromandal Peninsula where Caroline had a cold…but got through a lot of book. We visited the beautiful Cathedral Cove via an ill fated snorkel at Gemstone Bay which ended with some grazes and bruises on some pointy rocks (we’ll spare you the pictures!). Then off to Hot Water Beach where hot springs bubble up under the surface of a sandy beach…we dug our feet in long enough to establish that the water really was too hot for paddling.
The weather was bit dicey as we headed our way to the surfer’s resort of Raglan via the extremely sleepy town
of Te Aroha. After Raglan we headed to Waitiomo Caves where we saw glow-worms which were much cooler (until our guide told us they were actual maggots!). Still amazing to look at…lighting up a dark cave like the stars in a night sky.
From here we headed of to smelly Rotorua where the geothermal activity leads to a distinctly eggy smell in the air. We visited bubbly muddy pools and hissing gloopy vats as well as a beautiful volcanic lake.
A brief visit to Hamilton was next, where we took in a game of twenty20 cricket. Very entertaining…though low scoring and rather rainy (made us feel quite at home!). That brings us onto today - John’s birthday - we enjoyed breakfast out in Hamilton before driving to Taupo. Here in Taupo we’ve admired the roaring river, relaxed by the lake and filled up on curry and wine…the perfect evening!
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catch up time
sounds like you're enjoying yourselves. You're certainly moving quickly. Its all such fun, enjoy the rest, and we look forward to seeing some of the places we saw once again, on your blog!