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

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

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

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

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

Imagine being lowered by harness into a hole in the ground tight enough that you have to wriggle your way through. Once free of the narrow spot, it’s a free fall until you are about 100′ down. It’s very dark, but there is still light coming in from the hole above. You then scramble down deeper into the cave, over slick rocks. After about 5 minutes, it’s much cooler, and almost totally pitch black.

You are hooked up to a zipline, and without so much as a warning, you are flying through the cave in total darkness! After a big swing at the end, you are unclipped from the zipline, given an inner tube, and pretty much pushed off the edge of a 15′ drop to land in the frigid water below. You drift along in total darkness, and because by now you have been underground for 1/2 hour or so, your eyes have adjusted to the pitch blackness, and you can start to see little blue threads on the roof.

These are the glow worms. They glow to attract the various bugs that find their way into the cave into their webs. There are thousands of them; they look like blue stars. The guide bangs his inner tube on the water every once in a while, as the sound makes the worms glow brighter.

After listening to an explanation of why the worms glow (which I wont repeat, so as not to ruin it for you should you decide to do this yourself one day), we leave the inner tubes behind. After warming up with chocolate and hot juice, you begin your underground hike, splashing through the underground river, lit only by your headlamps. You jump into pools, crawl your way through tight and twisty tunnels, climb underground waterfalls, and generally have a blast.

When you finally emerge, you are greeted by the warm sunshine, which feels great after 3 hours of being underground and, frankly, cold.

How’d I do?

In case that wasn’t enough, here are a few scenics taken along the way

…Mike

It started off cold…this is us wearing basically everything that we had brought.

It was very windy…just under the wind speed at which they close the trail for safety reasons. We went anyway because, you know, we’re dumb. We only got almost blown off the mountain twice, so it was cool.

The first part of the hike was through a volcanic wasteland. That mountain in the background is? named Mt Ngauruhoe, but is better known as Mount Doom, the evil mountain in LoTR.

Once we had scaled the lava rock cliff (after 2 hours) we crossed our first crater:

You can see the path we walked on to cross the crater. Next up was the coolest part of the trip: cusping the top of the ridge, and looking down into the red crater.

From this point, it was downhill all the way. Here is a shot of the emerald pools, as seen from the edge of the red crater. A photo of this scene was the initial reason I wanted to go on this hike

Another shot of Mount Doom, from across the third crater.

The rest of the trip was downhill, winding through tussocks of grassland.

Fantastic tramp, very worth it. We were even treated to a Mt Ruapehu lit up by the setting sun

We slept well that night! :

…Mike

This was supposed to be a waterfall, but it was dry due to the drought that has gripped the area for months. This is also why many of the scenic shots are a lot browner than we were expecting.

This was also a filming spot for LoTR. Like I said in earlier posts, the islands are loaded with locations for these movies. The base of this waterfall? was use for the scene where Boromir nabs Gollum.

Here are a few more scenics from along the way, including the requisite sheep shot.

And then we arrived at the thermal springs. All I will say is that, if you are in the area, you have to go here. The photos don’t come close to doing it justice. The Lonely Planet calls this one of the worlds top five thermal areas, for good reason. Kepp in mind while you look at these photos that the water is about 110? and all the colours are hot-water algae and stuff. Amazing stuff.

You get to the spot by boat, and this was our first glimpse:

See the steam coming from the geyser at the top?

This one looks like a waterfall eh?? It’s actually made up of crystals of some kind.

Bubbling mud

This is a cave, the waters of which are warm too!

After cruising around here for a few hours, we left to find another hot spring…but this one was for us to sit in!

The hot water comes right out of the side of the mountain, and they mix it with colder water to make it tolerable ? We’ll liking the hot sprints

…Mike

That evening we went for a movie at the Embassy Theatre…the spot where the world premiere of “The Return of the King” was shown. Each seat has a small brass inlay with the name of the person who sat there at the premiere…Christine sat in Elijah Woods’ seat

We saw “No Country for Old Men.”

…Mike

The trip took about 3 hours and deposited us at Wellington.

Hard to believe that our trip is half over!

…Mike