What can I say, New Zealand is a land of beautiful landscapes and plenty to enjoy outdoors. Last week we spent a couple of days on the Coromandel Peninsula, two hours north of Auckland along the coast, where we had a fun day at the sea. The beach we visited has hot water bubbling up through the sand and where people dig pools so they could sit in their own natural hot tubs. On the way south, we were fortunate enough to see our good friend Liz, who Nadia worked closely with in Eritrea and who treated us to a delicious brunch (thanks Liz).
Once on the west coast of the north island, we stayed three days at a surf hostel which is situated high on a hill with a spectacular view of the coast and the beach we surfed on for 2 days. On the first night there we slept in a tent in the forest shaped like the inside of the I Dream of Jeannie's bottle. The following two nights we stayed old converted railway cars. The surf at the beach was perfect so the kids really had a chance to improve their skills by riding lots of ways.
Today we hiked into two very large caves in a place called Waitomo and even took an inflatable boat ride through a river cutting through one of the caves deep underground. On the ceiling of the cave their were thousands upon thousands of glow worms which glow a bright green. With the headlamps on our hardhats off, and without and talking we silently drifted through the tunnel with only the light of the glow worms - a truly magical sight.
Tonight we're bunking down near Lake Taupo, which is a volcanic crater lake created from the largest volcanic explosion ever recorded (i.e. 2000 years ago by the Italians and Chinese who recording dust settling down in villages). We've traveled here because tomorrow we've scheduled to go white water rafting. It should be fun.
After Taupo, we head south in a couple days to New Plymouth where I'll run in the Mountain to Surf Marathon which I've been training for over the last four months - running through towns, villages and along the coast in India, Myanmar, Cambodia, Australia and now New Zealand.
Cheers, Rob
Our friend Warwick teaching Mira how to tend bees
Maya jumping off a high rope swing
Hot springs right on the beach with Mira making her own hot tub from sand
Our digs for an evening at Solescape surf hostel in Raglan Beach
Waterfalls to be enjoyed everywhere
"Ah Papa, it's too early to pull out the camera"
Nadia listening to surf stories from the girls
Maya at a raging, deep blue river we came across while driving from somewhere to somewhere else
Not a bad view to have while doing school work or planning future legs of the trip
No comments:
Post a Comment