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.

Day 10

Visited the Wai-o-Tapu Thermal Wonderland! The first stop was the Lady Knox Geyser which goes off at 10.15 everyday with a little help from some soap placed in the top by one of the guides. They say it will erupt every 24-72 hours anyway – they just like to make sure of it. It was impressive but so is mentos in a bottle of coke. Then we explored the whole park which is a large area of geothermal activity with a walking path guiding us through. Very interesting and very smelly.
Had a delicious late lunch at Lime in Rotorua and then walked through the Redwood Forest. Absolutely beautiful. Amazingly huge and very tall and very straight trees. It was drizzling with rain but it was so sheltered in the forest that it did not matter at all. Loved it. And it did not smell.
Dinner at camp and early night.

Day 9

Rained all night and still raining in the morning – but we decided to go for a swim in the hot pool anyway! We were going to get wet either way and it saved having a shower!!
The rain also made it a bit of a challenge to get our campervan off the site and Chris got some fellow campers to help push the van off leaving them covered in mud!
After all that excitement we hit the road to Rotorua. First stop the Rotorua Museum of Art & History- very interesting and well presented museum and a good way to spend some time on a rainy day. Next we went for a walk and checked out some of the sights and SMELLS of Rotorua. Souvenir shopping and then back to camp to get ready for a night out.
Tonight we went to a Maori cultural experience at the Tamaki village. We were taken out on a bus and greeted in a traditional way and then explored the maori village. This was really special being dark with the fires blazing and all the people in traditional dress explaining the maori culture. Really well done. Next they move us on to watch the Hangi being pulled up from the ground. It smelt amazing! Then we watched some performances including the Haka of course, followed by eating the Hangi. The Hangi food was almost as good as a Kangaroo Valley Hangi! Almost. Great night out.

Day 8

Up early for breakfast before heading out on our White Island tour. Very exciting day. White Island is about 50km off the coast from Whakatane (note wh is pronounced f – more laughs!) and is an active volcano. There are vents constantly releasing gas and we are issued gas masks and hard hats before stepping on to the island. They warned us that the island could have an eruption at any time which would have meant rocks being thrown into the air and falling on our heads! This did not happen thank goodness but it was still very exciting and a bit nerve wracking being inside a volcano. There is a lake in the crater with water temperatures up to 68 degrees! And it was pretty smelly in certain places so we were glad to have the gas masks as it did sting the eyes a bit. Really cool.
Afterwards we drove just a bit further North to Awakeri Hot Springs to camp for the night. The campground has a thermal pool which is 38 degrees! So we all soaked in there for a while before cooking dinner, having a game of cards and going to bed.

Day 7

Waihi Beach to Ohope
Took it easy this morning and spent some time swimming in the lovely pool at the Waihi Beach Resort. The kids fed the eels that were swimming in the stream running through the campground. There were so many of them all sitting on top of each other- it was a bit freaky.
Drove on heading east towards the Bay of Plenty. Stopped off at Tauranga and Mount Maunganui for fish and chips and a fabulous coffee (at Providores Urban Food Store) and a cool playground.
Visited Kiwi 360 at a town called Te Puke (many laughs along the way at the funny town names). A kiwi farm and packing plant with lots of kiwi products to sample including kiwi wine and kiwi spirits (this is the fruit not the bird or the person).
Next stop our camp ground for the night at Ohope for dinner and bed.

Day 6

Day 6
Woke up to the full moon setting over Shelly Beach. The Coromandel Peninsula is absolutely beautiful. We checked out Coromandel town and bought ourselves some smoked products including mussels that North Island seems to be famous for (they sell them fresh in every supermarket!). Not huge fans but we will try some other varieties as we go along...
After leaving the town we headed up to a stunning lookout which gave us ocean views in both directions. Next stop Cathedral Cove where after having a picnic lunch (the mussels) we headed off on the walk to Cathedral Cove – the natural arch formed in the sandstone. Absolutely beautiful walk and amazing beach when we got there. Paradise.
Kids had a play and a swim there and then walked back UP the hill to get back in the van and drove to Hot Water Beach. It should be called Extremely HOT Water Beach. The water is so hot you can barely stand it! That is only in certain places after people have dug a hole with a shovel (too hot to use your hands). Once you have found a good hot spot and dug a hole and mixed it with the right amount of sea water you can sit and enjoy the warmth for a while until the waves come crashing in and ruin your lovely hole! It was well worth it 
After the hot dip we drove on to our park for the night Top 10 Waihi Beach Resort. Very flash caravan park. They have eels swimming throughout the resort in a stream! We will be checking it out thoroughly in the morning as when we arrived the full moon was rising again...