Day 17

Day 16

Day 15

Explored the areas around Raglan - checked out the famous waves that featured in the movie Endless Summer.
Two excellent coffees in the township before heading out to Bridal Veil Falls. 261 steps down and UP - well worth it. The falls were spectacular falling 56 metres -higher than Niagra Falls! Just beautiful.

Hit the road again for the last time in the campervan - heading back to Auckland.
Dropped off the campervan- a bit sad - and taxied our way in to town to our home for the last two nights, Walforf Apartment, which seems huge compared to our home for the last 14 nights!

Delicious Indian take-away for dinner. Cameron is in heaven in front of the Sky TV!

Day 14

Big day in the caves! Started with a tour through the Ruakuri cave then onto the Aranui. Each cave was quite different. The amazing thing about the Ruakuri cave is the structures they have built to allow people in including a massive spiral down into the cave - absolutely amazing how they built it all. The builders had to swim in each day to do the work in the cave. Impressive.

We then did what is apparently one of the best short walks in the world and yes is certainly is very very beautiful.

After lunch we finished our cave adventures with a boat tour through a glow worm cave. Just beautiful.

Drove on to find a place to spend our last night in the campervan. Decided on route to stay at Raglan a small seaside town on the west coast known for the amazing surf. Totally gnarly dude.

Last night in camper!

Day 13

A very wet night and then the wind began to pick up in morning. Absolutely bloody crazy miserable weather.
Went into Taupo and watched a movie – Rio (loved it, hilarious!). Weather was still crazy when we came out of the movie so we made a decision to cut off a part of our planned trip down to Tongario National Park as the weather was really going to prevent us from doing and seeing much there.
So we headed off to Waitomo caves. We needed to take a detour along the way as trees were falling on the road causing it to be closed. The van is a bit tricky to drive in the wind. Watching the news this evening – apparently there was a “tornado” in a town not too far from here. It is really windy.
But thankfully it seems to have settled tonight. Stars are out and it is quite mild. Ready for a day in the caves tomorrow.

Day 12 Anzac Day

Day started with a thrilling ride on a jet boat on the Waikato river to the Huka falls. We were able to get very close to the falls in the boat and did heaps of 360's along the way. Very exciting. The rain added an extra level of pain to the ride. It really hurts when you are going that fast!

Afterwards we took it easy wandering around Taupo, having coffee and a snack before heading off on a more sedate boat cruise on Lake Taupo to see the Maori rock carvings. Very impressive. The kids got to drive the boat which was heaps of fun for everyone of board as we wove our way across the lake.

Back to a different base camp tonight which has natural thermal spring pools right beside it including a water slide and kids fun area. So despite the rain and the chill in the air we spent some time in the thermal pools. The hardest part is getting out!!

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Day 11 Easter Sunday

Day 11
Happy Easter! The Easter Bunny found our campervan!
Checked out the Sunday markets in Rotorua. Cameron learnt a valuable lesson about imitation toys purchased from dodgy markets. Ann bought some yummy nuts.
Looked at some more stinky steaming holes in the ground before moving on to Taupo.
First stop “The Craters of the Moon” – more steaming holes (technically craters and fumaroles) in the ground but these ones were not stinky (yay!) and also had lots of pretty vegetation which made it look quite amazing.
Next stop Huka Falls – lots and lots of water gushing over the falls. Enough to fill 5 Olympic pools each minute! Woah!
Into the town itself for much needed food and a stroll along the lake front. Chris had a go at scoring a Hole in One onto a pontoon placed in Lake Taupo. Apparently 772 people have done it before but Chris did not come away with the $10,000 unfortunately.
Back to camp for a swim, a kids movie, dinner and bed. Happy Easter.