New Zealand comes to an end

Feb 29 – Piha

It rained quite heavily in the night and we had a heck of a time trying to dry the tent and fly out. It was pretty overcast but we did get a few glimpses of the sun. We finally got everything mostly dry so we could pack up. No one showed up to collect our camp fees so we had a free campsite last night. We headed into the little town of Piha to check out the beautiful beach there. It was spectacular even though the weather was not promising. We walked along the beach and saw a bunch of starfish, birds and surfers. We had some fun with tripod photos, Beau and I goofed around a bunch. We really enjoyed our beach walk and took a ton of photos. We decided that because of the weather we would head back to Auckland early and arrived at Elaine's around 12:30. We were very luck because both Elaine and Shane were home. We were also very lucky because their neighbours had recently moved out and we were able to park in their empty spot. Beau and I were starved so we went to a nearby food court and got some Indian food for lunch. Mine was a little bland but Beau's was pretty tasty. We then did some grocery shopping at the Asian food store, Countdown, and the Auckland fish market. We caught the free shuttle most of the way back to Elaine's. We did some laundry then I started on Tabouli salad to go with dinner. We made green curry muscles, they were amazing. I made up a green curry sauce then put the muscles in to steam. We also had focatia bread to dip in our curry sauce. I will definitely be making muscles like that again. We finished the evening with a movie called Tower Heist which was quite funny.

Piha Beach

Mar 1 – Goodbye Wingroad

Today we had to return our trusty Wingroad. We'll be sad to see him go, he was a good little car. So we dropped the car back at the rental company. They were a little surprised by the car being returned there since when we rented the car the computer systems were down and when the rental later got put into the system it was entered that we would be returning it to Christchurch. Of course our paperwork said otherwise and we returned it no problem. We got a ride back to Elaine's place and Beau popped out to pick up some avocado, tomato and chips for lunch. We did some laundry and got the tent, tarp and sleeping bags aired out. Later I went to go get a hair cut. I went to a hair academy down the road and got a $25 hair cut. The guy that cut my hair was not what I expect of a hair stylist graduate. He was middle aged, possibly middle eastern (his name might have been Housain), and barely said a word. He did an alright job but I just ended up with a blunt cut. One of the teachers asked me if I was going to be in the area for a little while because he was wondering if I could be a hair model. But obviously I'm leaving in two days so that wasn't going to happen. When I got back Elaine was home from school and I had almost forgotten we were supposed skype Mom and Dad soon. We all had a nice chat and I got to see and say hello to my monster Monty. I kind of miss the little bugger. Shane and Elaine made tacos for dinner and then we watched the first episode of Game of Thrones. Afterwards Beau and I skyped a couple in Melbourne, Monique and Ingo, who we might be house sitting for. They were very kind and offered to pick us up from the airport and said we could stay there until we started our HelpX placement.  We took the up on the offer.

Mar 2

This morning I skyped with Grandy for little bit. We had a lovely chat but the next time we talk she will be living in Kelowna. It's too bad we weren't able to visit her at her house in Wales but ca la vie! Beau and I got all our stuff packed up and ready to go for the morning. We have to catch a very early bus to the airport tomorrow so we want everything ready. Beau needed to exchange his snorkel since it was a little leaky and then Elaine came home from school. We were all going to go out together, Elaine and I had some shopping to do but then we realized we were going to be skyping cousin Kate soon. So Beau went and did his thing while Elaine and I got to have a great chat with Kate. We were meeting up with Shane for dinner and since Elaine and I didn't have a chance to go shopping earlier we decided to do a little before hand. Poor Beau got dragged along with us. We didn't do too much shopping, at least we didn't think so, but we were able to find me something for my birthday. We met Shane at an Indian restaurant and the food was super good. We split four different dishes with some naan and rice. Yum. We headed back to their house and watched another episode of Game of Thrones. We were up pretty late chatting and will probably only have about 3 or 4 hours of sleep tonight.

Snorkeling and Hiking

Feb 25 – Cathedral Cove

Our plan today was to snorkel at Cathedral Cove. We headed up around 10am and already the parking lot was packed. We ended up parking down the hill a little on an empty lot. I was a little worried at first about parking there but then about 6 other cars pulled in beside us so I figured we'd be fine. We walked down to Gemstone Bay which has a little snorkel track. There were buoys set up for you to follow. We hopped in the frigid water and started swimming. We saw a ton of snapper. They were actually following us around. We saw quite a few other fish too. We were quite chilly at this point so we started swimming for shore. I looked up and Beau was swimming full tilt in the wrong direction. Turns out he saw a ray and swam after it taking video. We warmed up in the sun for a bit and then Beau decided to go out again. I decided against this because I was still cold. While Beau was out I had a brief chat with a couple and it turns out the boats will fee the snappers which is why they were following us around. They were hoping to get fed. Beau came back out of the water and we decided to head out. The sun had been in and out from behind the clouds and didn't look like the clouds would be clearing. We parked down at Hahei beach and had some lunch. Then we casually walked into the holiday park we had stayed at last night and borrowed their showers. Once we were nice and clean we headed to Thames. In Thames we stopped into the i-Site for a little info on the Pinnacles hike then went to the grocery store. We headed into Kauaeranga Valley and set up camp at the DOC site right before the start of the hike. We had bought venison sausage to have in our dinner and I wasn't a big fan. It had a very strange texture. Beau tried to get a fire going but the wood was quite damp and our fire pit had a permanent grill on it which impeded his efforts. One side of it was a flat metal plate so the smoke just kept blowing in our face. We gave up on it and headed to bed. We hope to be up early so we can get a reasonable start on our hike.

Some Snapper

Feb 26 – The Pinnacles

We had planned to get up relatively early this morning but it was so chilly outside our sleeping bags that we put it off and didn't get up till about 8 am. After having breakfast we got our hiking stuff together and set off at about 9:30am. It was as beautiful day. The track started off fairly steep. It was a bit over grown too. There was some very rocky sections and a bit of water was running down the path. We crisscrossed some rivers and along the way there were some historical information sign post. This area used to be a huge kauri forest but in the early 1900's it was almost totally deforested. The track we were hiking was once used to by pack horse to bring supplies into the loggers. In some areas there were carved stone steps. I'm not sure if they had been warn down like this from the horses or if they were man made. We also crossed a few little suspension bridges that cautioned only 1 person at a time. The track was pretty forested for the first 2/3s until we hit a stop called Hydro camp. Then it opened up and we could see some of the scenery around us. It was pretty spectacular. We also got a glimpse of the Pinnacles peak which looked a little daunting. We reached the Pinnacles Hut by about noon. You can camp over night at the hut which we would have done if we had done a little more research prior to the hike. We set off for the peak after a little break and snack. It was a lot of up hill climbing, about 542 steps to be exact. Once you had completed the stair master there was some more up hill but it was similar to rock climbing. There were ladders to get up some areas and bars that had been secured into the rocks to help you over some of the steeper bits. It was intense! At the top there was an incredible view. You could see either side of the Coromandel Peninsula. We enjoyed our lunch up at the top in the sun shine. Then we started the descent. Man were my knees aching by the time we got down. Back at the hut we took a little detour to a historic kauri dam. The loggers built many of these dams to help send the logs down stream. Apparently about 20% of logs were destroyed in these log drives. We took a slighlyt different track at Hydro camp down Billy Goat Track. Some how we ended up going up hill again! Even though we couldn't see the mountains anymore parts of the forest were quite interesting. There were many palm trees growing, it was hard to believe that we were in a mountain range in New Zealand. We finally made it back to our camp around 4:45pm so we had a 7 hour and 15 minute hike in total. We were hot and sweaty so we went for a rejuvenating dip in the river. It was pretty brisk but felt amazing on the feet. It was really nice to rinse all the sweat off too. We made another fairly interesting dinner of just whatever there was. We'll probably never be able to recreate any of these meals but for the most part I'm not disappointed. The sun had set so we had another stab at having a fire tonight. We used a different fire pit that had a removable grill. We enjoyed a lovely campfire some some drinking chocolate and chocolate chip cookies before we bundled up for bed. It was another very chilly night.

The Pinnacles

Almost at the top

Crazy Climbing

The view

Feb 27 – North of Auckland

We had were pretty slow getting moving this morning, the tent was wet from all the condensation so we moved it into the sunshine to dry. After the usual breakfast (sans coffee press, it broke), clean up and pack up we headed back into Thames. We went into McDonald's to try to use their internet and got a coffee. The internet wasn't working well at this McD's so it took forever to check our e-mail. We then went to Pak 'n' Save and picked up some groceries and goodies for lunch. We went a park in town to eat our lunch which was cheese, crackers and smoked salmon pate. After our yummy lunch we hit the road and headed towards Goat Island again. We had a brief detour to get cheap gas. We reached Goat Island and were going to stay at the camp ground next door but it said Closed for a Private Function. So we had to go in search of another camp site. The next place we checked out cost way too much money so we vetoed that. We ended up a bit of a ways from Goat Island at a nice, reasonable holiday park in Mangawhai. There was a pool so we went for a swim but then it started to rain. So we got out of the pool, grabbed stuff out of the car for dinner and had a nice hot shower. There was a lovely covered patio area outside that we sat in while it rained and we started chopping stuff for dinner. It poured for awhile then cleared up for the rest of the evening. We weren't sure if it would rain again overnight so we opted for sleeping in the car.

Feb 28 – Goat Island Again

Turns out we could have slept in the tent last night since it didn't end up raining. We had breakfast and got reorganized with our snorkel gear handy. We drove back to Goat Island along the gravely road we took to get here. It took about an hour but it wasn't too busy at Goat Island when we arrived. We got set up on the beach with our camp chairs and sunned ourselves for a bit before getting wet. The water was pretty chilly but we decided against renting wetsuits. The tide was high so it was pretty easy to get in the water. We saw lots of fishes including large snapper, some goatfish, and several schools of some pointy nosed fish too. We got out of the water and warmed up in the sun some before heading up to the picnic tables to make some lunch. We had some nice tuna sandwiches on buns. After we headed back down but moved ourselves over to another spot where we went for another snorkel. We saw much of the same but got lucky and saw a ray. I was so excited I popped my head up and yelled at Beau to get his attention but then forgot to stick my snorkel back in my mouth so I ended up with a mouthful of water. We followed the ray for a short ways before the visibility became awful and it disappeared. We were happy with our two snorkels so called it a day and got rinsed off in the cold outdoor showers. We also got our equipment all cleaned off too. We were headed to Waitakere just west of Auckland and stopped into an i-Site in Orewa to get some info on where to stay tonight and the best way to get there. Unfortunately our maps suck and we made some wrong turns but McDonald's wifi came to our rescue and we Google mapped our way to Karekare, a tiny beach village south of Piha. We arrived shortly before sunset so headed to the beach to watch. We walked across some dunes and arrived at a huge black sand beach. I was having fun goofing around on the beach and we watched the sunset while snacking on some very spice Doritos. We went to our campsite and started setting up in the dark. We had been told there would be an honour box to drop our camp fees off in but there was no such thing just a sign that camping was by permit only. We were the only people there, it was dark so we figured we'd deal with it in the morning if a camp ranger came by. The mosquito were the worst we had experienced. We struggled to make dinner in the dark while being attacked by mosquito looking for their dinner. We made the strangest meal which was fitting for our last camping. We went to bed in the tent shortly after dinner.

Karekare Beach

The sunset at Karekare beach

Raglan, Te Arhoa, Coromandel

Feb 22 – Rotorua to Cambridge to Raglan

It was still raining on and off this morning. We weren't too bright last night either and left our camp chairs under the tarp so they were quite wet. We ate breakfast out of the back of the car then got packed up while trying to dry things out. We headed into town and did a quick internet weather check at the McD's. The weather doesn't look promising anywhere. Then we got on the highway and were headed for Raglan. Along the way we stopped off in the little town of Cambridge. Mom and Dad had suggested we stop here in my charm hunt but alas we had no luck. We made ourselves lunch under a covered BBQ area since it was still raining out. We then drove onwards through Hamilton into quaint little Raglan. We checked out the info center and got the details of the holiday parks in the area. We had a little walk around the town, it didn't take very long, and discovered free wifi at the library. It seemed faster than McD's so we'll try it in the morning to see if Beau can successfully update his site. We headed down the road to the holiday parks on the map and decided to stay and the last one we checked. They had a sauna, hot showers and were the cheapest. We had a nice sweat in the sauna then took a hot shower. We made dinner and enjoyed the rest of our wine sitting outside, it was a rain free and warm evening.

Feb 23 – Bridal Veil Falls and Te Arhoa

It had rained all last night but let up when we woke up this morning. We had placed the tarp over the back windows to keep some light out of the car. It of course was soaked so we had to mess around trying to dry it out. We had our breakfast and after the tarp was reasonably dry we got on our way. The weather was very grey and dreary. Not conducive to going to the beach to check out the surfers. We headed to the Raglan library so Beau could up date his website. We hung out there for about an hour, I read, and then decided to leave town. On our way out we detoured to Bridal Veil Falls. It was a huge water fall falling 55 meters. There were several view points and about 20min to the bottom or 200 odd steps. While the falls were beautiful it would have been more incredible if the water had been a nicer colour. It was a brown muddy colour from all the farms in the area. After the falls we drove back into Hamilton. We were pretty hungry and needed to pick up some groceries. We saw a Countdown and pulled into the lot, but instead of shopping on an empty stomach we set up our camp chairs on a grassy median and had our lunch there. After that we picked up a few groceries and continued on through Hamilton towards Te Arhoa. We found a reasonably priced camp ground and step up in the car there. They had free wifi, a lounge, and a spa, but sadly the spa wasn't open. While we were cooking dinner Beau noticed the beautiful sunset and grabbed the camera for a photo. Also at the camp ground a bunch of construction workers were staying here and Beau had a chat with a few of them while I was cooking. We ended the evening watching Project Runway and writing up the events of the past few days.

Bridal Veil Falls

Us at the bottom

Our sunset in Te Arhoa

Feb 24 – Back to Coromandel Peninsula

For breakfast we had a nice change and enjoyed eggs and potatoes. We were a little late heading out of the park and got a dirty look from the owner for it. It's not like we were in the way or taking up space since the lot was pretty empty. Our plan was to head back to the Coromandel and Cathedral Cove. We stopped into the Karangahake Gold Mines along the way. We went for a really nice walk through the gorge and saw the ruins of some of the buildings that used to be here. We also got to walk through some of the tunnels that the miners carved into the hillside. One part was quite interesting as the miners had carved “windows” into the tunnels so they could dump the goldless rocks out of them. We spent about an hour or two walking around the mines and then hit the road. We stopped into Matamata and had our lunch by the harbour and wharf. We then had a quick peek at the beach but decided to get closer to Cathedral Cove before stopping for the day. We reached Hahei (the little town that Cathedral Cove is in) and checked out the local holiday park. We felt it was over priced so we drove over the Cooks Cove for a price comparison and were appalled by their prices too. We opted for the first place since it was really close to Cathedral Cove. On the way back we stopped in Mercury Bay Estates and shared a flight of wine. It was another board of 5 wines that was brought out to us but they were sizeable tastings and we got to enjoy the beautiful view overlooking Cooks Cove. I really liked their Sauvignon Blanc but we didn't feel like paying $20 for a bottle. We checked into the Hahei holiday park then had a little walk on the beach. We decided to make dinner using our camp stove since the kitchen was a little ways away and was also very busy. We had a nice cup of tea after dinner and clean up and read our books in the car for a little while since it was chilly out.

One of the old batteries

Looking out a "window"

Looking down the gorge

Old mining parts in the river

Taupo and Rotorua

Feb 19 – Taupo

Breakfast was as usual, oatmeal and coffee. We got to sleep in the tent last night since it wasn't rainy and it was a welcome change. It did mean that we had to dry all the condensation out of it. Once we packed up we headed off to see Huka Falls which had been suggested to us by Dan and Gabrielle as well as the receptionist at the holiday park. While the falls aren't particular high there was a massive amount of water flowing over them making them quite spectacular. Obviously the Kiwis have harnessed the awesome power of these falls with a dam downstream that provides 15% of NZ power. We checked out the falls from either side of the river and took a bunch of photos. We were planning on exploring Taupo today and on our way back into town from the falls we saw some signs for Reid's Farm. We stopped to check it out and it seemed to be a riverside campsite but we couldn't find anywhere that said the cost. We continued on to the Taupo i-Site and asked them about this place. Turns out it's a free camp ground, Sweet!! We got some info on a geothermal site called Craters of the Moon which had also been recommended to us by Dan and Gabrielle. We wandered around town a little bit then picked up some groceries before heading back to Reid's Farm. We enjoyed our lunch by the river with a beer in hand. It was still gorgeous out so we figured we should take advantage and check out Craters of the Moon while we had a nice day. We drove up to the thermal area and paid the $6/person entrance fee. All the workers are volunteers and the fee is to keep up the facilities. Previously it was free but there were a fair number of break-ins in the carpark. We had an hour long walk along a well marked path. We saw bubbling craters, mud pools and steam vents as well as explosion craters and colourful soils. It was pretty hot out but you could still see steam rising. We enjoyed the walk and seeing the thermal area but we were ready to head back to the river for a dip and a beer. We got back to the farm and set up the tent, then took our camp chairs down to the riverside. The wind cooled us off quickly so we didn't end up going for a swim, just read and enjoyed the scenery. We noticed the river level started rising quite quickly. We think this is due to the closing of the dam at the end of the river. We had to keep moving our chairs back from the water. Once the sun left us we made our dinner then just relaxed peacefully by our campsite for the rest of the evening.

Huka Falls

Lake Taupo

Craters of the Moon

Bubbling Mud Pools

Craters of the Moon

Feb 20 – Taupo and Rotorua

The day didn't start off too nice, it had rained last night. We eventually got dried out and packed up. The sun was playing hide and seek with the clouds. We started towards Rotorua but stopped off at a glass blowing studio. They were charging $5 a head to watch the glass blowers which I thought ridiculous as you can see them for free in Victoria. We just had a look around the show room and while there were some lovely things most were out of the common persons price range. Further along the highway was Aratiatia Rapids. There was a hydro electric dam at the start of the rapids and when we arrived there was only a tiny trickle going through. We had arrived with perfect timing as they open the gates for about 15min 4 times a day and it was almost time. It took only seconds for water to start raging through and only minutes for the rapids to fill to their natural capacity. It was fascinating to see the water over come all the rocks in the ravine. The gates were closed back up and it took no less time for the water to reduce to a trickle. At this point the sun had come back out so we decided to return to Reid's Farm and go for a swim. After a refreshing swim and bath we had some lunch. Our sun had hidden it's face behind some large grey clouds so we decided to try our drive to Rotorua again. It rained on us a bit on our drive and we had some window wiper malfunctions, which Beau fixed easily. We decided to check out Kerosene Creek, a free hot water steam about 20km outside of Rotorua. We chilled out in a pool area below a short waterfall for a little while. The creek was quite hot and a little bit smelly. We chatted with kiwi sitting next to us for a bit then we all decided we had had enough of the heat. Back at the car park we were approached by two guys who were hoping for a ride back into town. We were happy to oblige and gave the Dutch guy and Canadian a ride. We stopped into the towns i-Site, which is also where we let our hitchhikers out, in hopes of getting some info on what to do in the area. Unfortunately the i-Site also doubles as a booking agency and was very busy. We picked up some pamphlets and took a walk about the town. We walked through the central park which is also a thermal area. There were some smelly, bubbling lakes and mud bogs. We also walked by the lake which was quite pretty. After our walk we headed to the McDonald's for wifi and then to Pak 'n' Save for some essentials which included wine. We had a little trouble getting back on the road as there kept being medians in the way of our turns! We finally got where we wanted to go, after a few U turns, which was a lovely DOC site 15min out of town. I was quite thankful for the distance as Rotorua has quite the sulphurous smell. The DOC site was on Lake .... and was very full when we arrived. We got lucky with a primo spot at the end right next to a grassy area for the tent. We made some tinned potato and bacon soup for dinner with loads of extra veges added. Later while enjoying drinking chocolate and cookies we heard some rustling in the woods behind us. I shone my light over and we saw several wallabies! We weren't entirely sure what they were at first but it was obvious they weren't possums with their kangaroo like hind legs. We had confirmation later that they were indeed wallabies.

Aratiatia Rapids without water

Aratiatia Rapids with water

Bubbling Mud Hole

Steamy lake in Rotorua central park

Lake Rotorua

Feb 21 – Rotorua

It was a beautiful morning. We decided to stay another night in Rotorua since we had such a gorgeous day and chill by the lake. We had to nip into town for of course beer as well as fill our water bottles. While Beau went into Pak 'n' Save I went to McDonald's and updated my blog. We were happy to head back out to our DOC site, Rotorua has quite the stinky sulphurous smell. At the campsite almost everyone had left. We drank a couple of beers in the sunshine then went for a refreshing dip in the lake. After our swim we made up some guacamole to have with chips for our lunch. Once we started eating the heavens opened on us...noooooooooooo. Gone was our beautiful sunny day. We took refuge under the covered cooking area. The rain stopped and the sun came back out for a little bit. We made a judgement call so we packed up the tent once it dried. We figure if the weather cleared we could always reset up the tent. Glad we made that call since it rained on and off the rest of the afternoon. We concocted a way to set the tarp up with the car to give us more of a rain shelter. That evening the rain stopped but we didn't have high hopes for throughout the night.

The lake looking right

The lake looking left

Napier and Tongariro

Feb 17 – Napier

We slept late this morning and were the last to leave the campsite. We weren't in a rush so that was fine by us. We drove towards Napier and turned off at the first winery we saw. Esk Valley Estates was a very large winery. The guy who served our tastings was very friendly and we got to try quite a few different wines. They were pretty good but nothing caught our fancy. We headed into the town and took a nice walk along the harbour. Then we went into the town center which is known for it's Art Deco buildings. We saw quite a few people dressed up strangely and as it turns out it is Art Deco weekend so there were tons of 1930's cars about and many people were dressed in 30's clothes. We was quite an interesting day to be in Napier. I went into a cool bead store that had tons of beads but they were pretty overpriced. I did pick up a couple of Paua Shell pieces. We had a wander around the town center and stopped in to Opossum World. Opossum World was interesting... they had stuffed birds and showcased their songs while stuffed opossums were stealing their eggs. I guess it was bringing attention to the negative impact that opossums have on the native birds of New Zealand. There was internet in the town center so we checked on the weather in Tongariro and it turned out only tomorrow was supposed to be nice all week. We decided we needed to take advantage of this little window of opportunity. We stopped into Pak 'n' Save for some groceries then started the 3hr drive to Tongariro. Our drive turned into a torrential down pour with a little bit of thunder and lightning thrown into the mix. This gave me heart palpitations thinking it would be like this tomorrow. We arrived in Tongariro National Park around 7pm and started the arduous task of finding transport for the crossing. There were a few options that took you from the hostel to the start of the crossing, picked you up at the end and took you back to the hostel for $30pp. We eventually, after stopping into 3 different places and calling two others, found a company that will take you from the car park at the end to the beginning and you just walk back to your car for $25pp. We had the ingenious idea of dropping one of us off at the start then the other taking the car to the end and grabbing the shuttle back so we only have to pay for one way. After sorting that we went to the DOC site nearby and made a late dinner. The rain was letting up though so it was looking up for the weather tomorrow. I guess we'll find out at 4:30am when our wake up call is.

People dressed up for Art Deco Weekend

One of the many old cars

Feb 18 – Tongariro Alpine Crossing

The alarm going off at 4:30am sucked! We got our little packs organized, lunches ready and headed out in the dark. While we drove to the start I made peanut butter and banana sandwiches for our breakfast. Once at the beginning we decided I should drive to the end since I had been looking at the map and knew more or less where to go. I drove speedily to the end to make it in time for the 6am pick up. The shuttle was there when I arrived and I was able to snag one of the few parking spots. Once in the van I ate my peanut butter and banana sandwich and chatted with the an older American couple. We waited a few extra minutes so another couple could climb aboard. They were Canadians too. We arrived back at the beginning just as the sun rose around 6:45am. It was quite foggy out and we couldn't see too much of the landscape yet. We started our walk and the landscape was quite barren, with scrubby bushes and volcanic rocks. The clouds were covering the mountains and that made me a little apprehensive about the visibility but luckily as we walked the sky started to clear. It started off with a fairly benign incline until we hit Soda Springs, after that it was very uphill. There were numerous stairs until we reached the foot of Mt Ngaruruhoe more commonly known as Mt Doom. Many of the clouds had cleared by this point but there were still some moving over the mountains and obscuring our view. All you had to do though was wait a few minutes and the scene changed into a spectacular picture. From Mt Ngauruhoe we walked cross the south crater. The crater looked very alien and barren much like the lunar surface. The sun had popped out at some point and had us cooking in our layers. Shortly after shedding some we were layering back up as a very frigged wind was blowing. We had a very vertical climb to the highest point of the crossing at 1887m. We had ascended 800m from our start point. The view up there was incredible. Beau and I balanced our handy dandy bending leg tripod on the sign and got a picture with us and Mt Doom. You can take side trips to the top of Mt Ngauruhoe and Mt Tongariro but I felt that a 6-8 hr hike was plenty without adding on a couple 2-3 hr side trips. From the the red crater, the top, we descended a slippery scree slope to the Emerald Ponds. The ponds are amazing shades of green due to their high sulphur content. They are also geothermal and not safe for swimming. We headed across the central crater to the Blue Lake. The lake was a lovely turquoise blue. There was only a brief up hill then most of the rest of the hike was down. There were a crazy amount of switch backs that zigged and zagged you down the other side of the crossing. Most of our hike down was through scrub land again with some larger plants thrown into the mix. At one point the whole ecosystem changed and it became rainforesty with ferns, mosses, trees, puddles and mud. It was pretty wet in so we were dodging lots of mucky spots. After descending over 1000m we finally reached the car at about 1:15pm. We had taken lunch with us but never felt like stopping for it, we did have lots of snacks though. We slumped into our camp chairs, shucked our shoes and had our lunch. Man did it feel good. We decided to head into Taupo and made a scenic look out stop along the way. We stopped lake side at one picnic area and went for a much needed swim. It was refreshing. While trying to get into town there was some sort of charity relay race going on all along the highway. It slowed down traffic some but it was good to see so many people out although I don't know what the relay was for. We checked out 4 different motorcamps in town and were shocked and appalled at all the prices. We settled on the cheapest one which didn't have a free pool or spa but showers were included and that was the main thing for us. We had some dinner and got cleaned up, the shower felt very good. We got to watch the finale of X-Factor Australia which we had started watching in Christchurch.

Mt Doom/ Mt Ngaruruhoe

Emerald Ponds

Blue Lake

Looking down on Lake Taupo from the Crossing

A pretty waterfall near the end

East Coast and Gisbourne

Feb 14 – Pacific Coast Highway

Lucky for us that we slept in the car last night, it meant we didn't have to struggle with drying the tent this morning. I was lucky enough to be up in time to snag the one shower while Beau lolly gagged about in “bed” and ended up missing out. After breakfast of oatmeal, we added cereal to it for some texture and the berries, we packed up then went for a short walk along the beach behind our campsite. The day looked promising but it just wasn't quite there yet. I was driving today and we had a few nice spots to stop for pictures while on our way. One beach was very tempting to stay longer at but we decided to keep moving instead of chilling for a bit. In Opotiki we went into the i-Site to get some info on the Pacific Coast Highway. This is the long way to go around to Gisbourne taking 6hrs to go about 330 km if you drive without stopping. We had some nice spots pointed out to us on the map and then we were on our way. Our first photo stop was a school some very nice carvings on the outside. We made multiple scenery stops along the way as well. One in particular was in Whanarua Bay where we stopped at Pacific Coast Macadamias and tried their double chocolate macadamia nut ice cream. We then drove down a one lane hill to a beach. It claimed to be the most beautiful bay in NZ. It was nice but I'm sure we've seen prettier. Our next stop was a quaint old church in Raukokore. It made a lovely scene on it's own little point. Our next stop was Lottin Point which had a very interesting drive down. We went through sheep pastures and had to watch for sheep running across the road then down a twisty turny road to the water. We climbed over a bunch of the larger rocks there and were hoping to see some muscles but no such luck. This apparently isn't a bad spot for snorkeling but we didn't go in. We were driving along and spotted a sign for a water fall. We decided to go check it out even though it was an awkward spot to park and we had to traipse through a field together. My what a traipse it was, the field was really wet and our feet got muddy and wet. YUCK. The waterfall was pretty but the walk did nothing for my temperament. We started the look out for a place to stay around Te Araroa the closest town to the east cape. We were under the impression there were two campsites around but could only find one. Looks like the other closed up shop. We checked in to a basic holiday park but they did have free hot showers! We opted to sleep in the car again since the ground was quite wet and the sky was threatening rain. We over ate at dinner time with way too much pumpkin fried rice. It was also a little dry so I don't recommend it!

Maori carved school

Whanarua Bay

Raukokore Church

Lottin Point

Waterfall

Feb 15 – East Cape

Beau and I both woke up pretty early this morning, around when the sun was about to rise, we thought of going up the the East Cape Lighthouse at this time but opted to go back to bed. It's apparently one of the first places to see the sun rise. We did get up later on and after showers and breakfast we headed off to check out the lighthouse. Turns out we should have taken advantage of the pretty nice weather this morning and gone early because it started to rain once we hit the car park. It was a bit of a hike to the lighthouse and it was raining fairly heavily so we decided against it. We drove the scenic, gravel twisty 20km back to Te Araroa and reconnected with the highway. We drove for a bit and then stopped at St Mary's Church. From the outside it just looks like your average church but inside was completely Maori. The walls were covered with Tukutuku woven flax panels and intricate carvings. It was incredible and a taste of what the inside of a marae would look like, a traditional Maori meeting house. We popped into the town of Ruatoria in hopes of an ATM but alas while they boasted a bank there was no ATM. We were getting peckish so at Tokomaru Bay we stopped by their historic wharf and ate our lunch. I was hopping to take a nice picture after we had finished eating but typically it started raining hard again. I should know better then to expect the weather to hold out for me! We had several torrential down pours while we were driving and our wipers had a hard time keeping up. We had some other plans for the day but with the bleak weather we decided against the Cooks Cove walk and snorkeling around Tolaga Bay. I was really disappointed since these two activities had been suggested to us. We got into Gisbourne and headed to the Wine Center so we could get a map and some information on the wineries in the area. Afterwards we thought to have a coffee in a nice cafe while using the internet. But we ended up being redirected to McDonald's to get wifi. We got money, groceries, coffee and wifi then headed to a holiday park for the night. We stayed at an okay priced one with a lounge and kitchen facilities. We had bought a frozen pizza for dinner and watched some tv while charging our various electronics. It was kind of rainy still so we slept in the car again. We met an older Canadian couple in the lounge and it turns out her brother lives in Brockville! Small world ehh...

East Cape Light house, the most eastern lighthouse in the world

St. Mary's Church

Maroi wall carving

Feb 16 – Gisbourne Wine Tasting

Breakfast today was a breakfast sandwich on a cheese bun but without the cheese. We eventually got our selves packed up after watching the news. There was a Green Stone shop I wanted to check out where you can see the stone carvers at work. Unfortunately there weren't any carvers carving while we were there but they did have some info on the process of carving jade. We went back to McD's to do some more updating although again I ran out of bandwidth! We then went wine tasting. Our first stop was Bushmere Estates and it was amazing!! It was a $5 tasting fee and we tried about 7 different wines. The wines were really nice but they also had food parings with most of the tastings. It was really interesting to try the wine then eat the food and see how it alters the wine. Their Vidal went amazingly with blue cheese! We bought a bottle of their Gewurztraminer which was nicely chilled then wrapped in bubble wrap in hopes it'll still be nice and cool later. We moved on to another winery and were disgusted by their tasting prices. It was $15 for 5 wines and they served them to you on a platter so I doubt you would get the same experience. We left after we used their facilities. Our next stop was Kirkpatrick Estate Winery. We were served by the proprietor and wine maker. The guy bought the winery about 8 years ago and his wine maker, who still works for him part time, taught him the ropes. He is also looking into breaking into the Canadian wine market. Beau and I shared a tasting and while his wines were quite nice we didn't buy anything since we already had our bottle. We drove down the road a little ways and then Beau took a sharp left down a road towards the ocean. We ended up at a peaceful little ocean lagoon. It was gorgeous. We ate our PB&B and had a nice walk on the beach watching the little crabs scuttle about. Later on we stopped at another beach which wasn't as pretty but still very nice. A guy was fishing off the beach and his grey lab was romping around. We ended up at a lake side DOC site that was pretty but not well maintained. The grass was super long and it looked like it might rain again so we opted to sleep in the car. There was a covered picnic table area that was great to cook under and was right next to the lake. It was very peaceful with the lake, the ducks and the black swans. It had a very Huntsville feel to it. Beau and I finished dinner while it was still day light so we played a game of crib but by the time we finished we were having trouble pegging in the low light and it was getting chilly.

Our first beachside stop

Our second beach stop

Our lakeside campsite.