This was a rough day. Knowing that the vacation of a lifetime is almost over…lots of great memories, but still, we could have stayed in New Zealand for another 5 weeks and not missed a thing! Anyway, we spent the day winding our way down from the Bay of Islands to Auckland.

Along the way, we played in one of the coolest water­falls we’ve found yet. Check it:

See that cave behind it? How can I not go explore a cave behind a waterfall!?

(BTW that pose is called the “intrepid explorer.” Now you know.)

Yes, Mom, I did check the water I was jumping into first for deadly rocks and spiky branches.

After our swim, we drove on to a spot called Goat Island, where, again, we had high hopes for snor­keling. The water was so rough though that is stirred up too much silt, and the waves made Christine a bit sick, so we spent time on the shore, and had a picnic lunch.

And then, the adventure part of our honeymoon was over. We drove back into Auckland, found a nice restaurant in the harbour area (near an America’s Cup sailboat that was mounted like a statue) and ate a nice dinner. Our flight was early the next morning, and after a couple hours we had converted our stuff from “car mode” to “travel mode.” It was a depressing night, knowing it was over. This photo of Christine in the plane watching New Zealand slip away behind us pretty much sums it up:

We have one more day of fun left, but the NZ part of our trip is over.

…Mike

Way back when we first arrived in NZ (seems like forever ago, but really it was only 3.5 weeks), we had planned on visiting Akaroa to swim with dolphins. However, due to the bad weather that had followed us from Rarotonga, none of the tour oper­ators were running tours, so we made a beeline for Queenstown instead, hoping to get another oppor­tunity to see dolphins later in the trip.

The cruise in the Bay of Islands promised dolphin sightings, and swimming with them too as long as no baby dolphins were present. It didn’t take long until the dolphins showed up!

We couldn’t swim with them though, due to the babies that were with them. Dolphins have to eat quite regu­larly, espe­cially young ones, and the babies get so distracted by playing with swimmers that they forget to eat, and can drown So, disa­pointing that we couldn’t swim with them, but totally under­standable too.

Next, we cruised around the islands for a while, and visited a spot called “the hole in the rock” which, as its name suggests, is a hole in a rock, but big enough for our twin-hull cruise ship to drive through

We stopped for lunch along a beach, and we thought that maybe here, the snorkling would reveal some colourful fish.

Alas, we didn’t even see a single fish! So instead, I performed my very special under­water ballet. I give you: Ode to a Summer’s Day:

Thank you, thank you. One show only.

…Mike

Our drive up through the Northland started with a visit to the giant kauri tree. It’s difficult to get a sense of the size of it, but it was huge.

Next was was a tourist trap that had a tree stump so big, they had carved a spiral staircase inside the tree!

Then we drove all the way to the northern edge of the island, to our camp spot, here in Tapotupotu Bay. I can’t imagine a more idyllic camp spot…less than 10 people there, right on the ocean, secluded bay…perfect.

See how close we were to the beach?? For $7 a person!

The sand­flies were murderous however, as they are in most remote areas in NZ. So I took this photo of the night sky by running my remote shutter out through the zipper of the tent!

As you can see I’m no astro-photographer, but the streak of the stars as the earth spins is kinda neat.

The next morning we wandered among the tide pools…

…played in the big surf…

…and then, regret­fully, packed up the car to continue this last stretch of our trip. It was very hard to leave this spot.

The next stop was Cape Reigna, the north­ernmost tip of the North Island, watched over by a small lighthouse.

Next up: sand­surfing! The area on the western coast just south of the cape is called the 90 Mile beach, and there’s a spot you can go to toboggan down the giant sand dunes. The walk up the hill is tough, as you tent to slide back as you try to get to the top, but it’s fun to slide down! We did it three times each I think.

No pictures of the actual slide down though…a bit too fast for the G9 to handle.

We ended the day with dinner at an appar­ently world famous fish shop. We were told by no less than 5 people inde­pen­dently that this was the place to go for fish, so go we went. And the fish was fantastic! You pick the fish you want, buy it by the pound, and they cook it up for you. Yuh-mee.

Our intent was to camp for the night along another beach that we saw in the guide book. The beach itself was great…

…but the camp­ground was a few km away from it, so we decided to just keep going south to be in a better position for our cruise through the Bay of Islands the next day.

…Mike

This was a travel day. Before we left, we had spoken to many of our friends who had been to New Zealand, and almost none of them made it to the top of the North Island. We were deter­mined to get there, and that meant driving. We compro­mised though, and drove up from Rotorua to the Coromandel, another park/wilderness area.

We saw a bunch of water­falls along the way:

…but it took most of the day to get there, so we camped for the night in another almost empty field at Cook’s Beach. The next morning, we found a spot called Cathedral Cove, so named for the natural bridge and other formations.

As you can see it was kind of a dismal grey day. So on we went, stopping for the occa­sional waterfall along the way…

By the end of the day, we had made it to our camping site, and were treated to a beau­tiful sunset:

A long day, but we are now north of Auckland, ready to tackle the northlands.

…Mike

We spent two nights and one day in Rotorua, where we were lucky enough to stay with one of my Dad’s univeristy buddies, Brian and his family.

It was such a treat to spend time with someone who my Dad talks so much about! Kind of like a glimpse into his youth. They fed us and watered us and generally were excep­tionally gracious, and in the middle of a trip far from home, made us feel like family. Thanks, guys. I hope Tane and the child TBA make their way to this side of the world, so that we can repay the hospitality.

We had done the hot spring thing in Orakei Korako already, so instead we took the gondola ride up the hill for a view, and another round of street luge riding! We did this in Queenstown too…basically, you get on a prim­itive ground-level go cart of dubious safety and no speed control, and rip your way down one of three tracks that wind down the side of the hill. Wicked fun!

Following this, we tried the giant swing ride…we were strapped into a cage, hoisted up, and dropped, swinging out over the side of the hill! Fun! Here’s a shot of some other suckers doing it:

Later that afternoon, Brian took us for a sail on his sailboat. We got to a hot beach, acces­sible only from the water. A hot beach is one where geot­her­mally heated water mixes with the lake water, creating a strange set of sensations…standing on the sandy beach is fine, but if you sink in at all, it gets really hot, really fast. The strangest part though was to lie in the water…the top layer was just under scalding hot, and the lower layer felt in comparison like ice…the trick is to slowly rotate! Our poor bodies didn’t know quite what to do.

That’s the hot water hitting the lake water

Tomorrow we head north to the Coromandel. We’re sorry to leave, but there’s still so much to see, and we are beginning to feel the pressure of time.

…Mike