Our destination was Rotorua, but we left with the intention of stopping somewhere along the way. We decided to pick this somewhere based on what peaked our interest on the way. The weird but awesome thing about this country is that it has pretty much every landscape in one compact area. As we drove we passed through mountains, forest, more mountains, farm lands (sheep mostly, along with cows and some horses), rolling green hills (filled with even more sheep), more mountains, and even a desert! The desert really threw us off because we didn't expect it. There were rolling green hills and mountains and then out of nowhere the landscape completely changed. Not a sheep in sight! We made a few road side stops to take pictures and stretch our legs. Of course there was a very old, very high, very scary looking train bridge, so we had to stop and take pictures of that. Anyone who knows the Koop boys knows you pay attention to things train related. Here is a link to some of the pictures we took along the way. Nothing too exciting, but we did get some sheep for you!
http://www.flickr.com/photos/eandleenz/sets/72157627596325578/
When we arrived at Lake Taupo we were drawn to the water. The time of day and the clouds were just right to make it look almost like a mirror. It was very pretty. That was all we needed to see and we decided to find a motel. There was no shortage of choices, there was a whole street of them right by the lake. The problem here we had one thing that makes people with empty motels still turn us away...
http://www.flickr.com/photos/eandleenz/sets/72157627596309726/
DAY TWO - Lake Taupo to Rotorua
As we started our drive we found ourselves easily distracted. We would see a sign along the highway talking about a sight or attraction and turn off the path to go see it. It was nice to not have a plan or a schedule because it allowed us to stumble upon some great sites! First we followed signs leading us to a waterfall. Once we got there we got out and walked around, and it was beautiful. The water was high, and the rapids were rushing. It was very pretty and very loud. We found a bridge over the main part of the water just before the falls and stopped to take some pictures. If you stared at the water well below you for too long it kind of made you dizzy. Here are a few of the photos
http://www.flickr.com/photos/eandleenz/sets/72157627471923453/
Then, after leaving the falls, we got enticed once again by a sign for a Geothermal park. This part of the country is ripe with geothermal activity, which is pretty cool. Basically, this is where the earth is hotter than the surrounding areas due to the presence of hot rock or magma near the surface. This heats the ground water and you find hot springs, geysers, and boiling mud pits. It's pretty cool. So, we followed some signs to a geothermal area and found "Craters of the Moon". It's a park where they have built paths around and between many craters that release steam, have boiling water spots, or a boiling mud pit. It was really cool because they created the paths so you could get as close as was safe. It takes about 1.5 hours to walk through. Here are some pictures we took
http://www.flickr.com/photos/eandleenz/sets/72157627596191890/
After a very long detour, we got back in the car and headed up to Rotorua. One important note about Rotorua is that it is nicknamed "Sulpher City". Basically, there is a side effect that comes with a city full of beautiful spas, mineral bathes, and geothermal activity... it smells like eggs. Certain spots were worse than others, but the smell lingered in the air no matter where you went. I can't imagine living somewhere that smells like sulpher all the time. Regardless, it is still one of the most highly touristed places in New Zealand, so we were ready to find out what the buzz was about. Once again we were faced with the motel situation. Luckily, I had found a place online before we left that said "Small Pets Considered". They allowed us to have Belle and then pointed out some cool stuff to do in the area. We planned on staying 2 nights, so we actually got to see more while we were there. Once we got all our stuff unloaded into the motel room we headed off to "The Redwoods Whakarewa Forest" (say that three times fast) for a walk through the giant redwood forest with the dog. This forest is known for it's towering Californian Coastal Redwoods with lots of hiking paths to suit all types of people. 170 tree species from all over the world were also planted in this forest, starting in 1899, which made it the first exotic forest in New Zealand. We picked one of the shorter walks and got the dog a little exercise. The water in some of the streams was very strange. Everything under water was the same color as the water. There was obviously some algae or something that stained anything under water, because if there was a branch partially in the water, the section under the water was stained the same color and the section out of the water retained it's normal color. One of the ponds we saw turned everything a gray-blue, and another section appeared more like a mud red. Here are some pictures
http://www.flickr.com/photos/eandleenz/sets/72157627596318630/
After that we headed back to the motel room and freshened up we headed off to dinner. We tried to go to a place we had read about in the Lonely Planet book we have, but once we got there we saw how formal it appeared and felt entirely under dressed in our jeans and jackets. So we turned around and went to a place called "Breakers". We had some food and a bottle of wine and then went back to the motel for some much needed rest because we had some sightseeing plans for the next day!
DAY THREE - Still in Rotorua
On the advice of the Motel Desk clerk, we decided it was high time we saw a Kiwi Bird! Now, the problem is Kiwis are not only a small population in the wild, but also nocturnal. This means you pretty much have to go to a wildlife reserve if you ever want a chance to see one. We headed off to the Rainbow Springs Kiwi Wildlife Park. In addition to the Kiwi, there were also lots of other animals including native birds, reptiles, and fish. One of our favorite birds was a kea named Jenny. She was a total ham. When you walked up to her cage she would show off with squaking, wing flapping, and funny movements. Then, as you tried to walk away she would jump down and follow you all the way down the fence and stare at you "crying" in a way as you left. It was so cute. Now, since Kiwis are nocturnal there were two parts of this experience. We saw the Kiwis in the nocturnal room, but they are behind glass. The other part of the experience includes returning at night where they allow you to go into the enclosure and the only thing separating you from the birds is a shin high wooden fence. Obviously we couldn't take any pictures, you had to be quiet and move slow to even get them to come out of hiding. One of them came all the way up to the fence and stuck his long beak out checking us out. It was pretty cool. So here are a few photos from the reserve where we were allowed to take pictures
http://www.flickr.com/photos/eandleenz/sets/72157627471921157/
The other activity of the day was a trip to the "World Top 10 Spa" up the street. The "Polynesian Spa" had anything and everything you could want in a spa... for a price. And because of that price we stuck to a hot mineral bath. We did spend a little extra to get the Deluxe Private Pools that offered panoramic views of the Lake and had its own shower and heated changing room. It was really nice. We were dumb and forgot to take the camera, so I am just pasting a picture below from the website. It is as pretty as it looks too!
DAY FOUR - Rotorua to Napier
We knew we wanted to stop somewhere between Rotorua and Wellington, but we weren't sure where. As we were checking out we asked the desk clerk if she knew of anywhere worth going on the way back to Wellington. She suggest Napier. Napier is a town on the coast with wonderful vineyards and great scenery. On the way to Rotorua we passed a sign for the "Rainforest Highway" that peaked our interest. We decided we would check that out first then head to Napier. Technically, according to the map, we could travel down that way instead of the main highway and still get to Napier. As we headed down the "Rainforest Highway" we we passed a sign warning of "95km of Winding Unsealed Road". We figured it would just be another part of the adventure. Boy were we right. First, I'm not sure what justified that as a rainforest, it just seemed like a regular forest on a mountain, but who knows. Next, by unsealed they mean winding, mountainous, sometimes gravel, hard to drive on road. If a sign warns of winding roads in New Zealand... where most the roads are super winding compared to anything I'd ever driven on, believe it. Their "winding roads" are our "if you don't have an SUV please skip this area" type of roads. We drove for about 2 hours and decided to stop for a leg stretch. According to the map, we were close to half way down the road. Oh, were we wrong. We decided to put Napier in the GPS and see how much longer it would take. The GPS kept telling us to "turn around" and backtrack the whole winding 2 hour drive. It would take us 5 hours to get to Napier that way. We decided to put in the name of the city at the end of the road on the map to see how much longer until we would be off those roads... The GPS estimated 6 hours!! To go 50km!! We knew that could only mean one thing, the road ahead of us would be far worse than what we had already traveled. Unfortunately, that meant we had to go back 2 hours on those crazy roads. After this grueling day of driving, we did finally make it to Napier, where we ran into the same motel issue we've had the rest of the way. After finding a "pet friendly" Motel we tucked in for the night. We were exhausted!
DAY SIX - Napier to Wellington
We woke up in the morning expecting to just get on the road... then we walked out to our car. We had a flat tire! That bumpy, windy, gravel road did more than just delay our drive getting here, it cause what we later found out was not just a nail in one part of the tire, but an actual hole in the side of the tire! In other words, we couldn't get it repaired, we had to buy a whole new one. It sucked. The good news is, as always, it lead us to something fun before we left. Elliot put on the dinky little spare tire and we headed off to find a tire place
When we got to the tire place he asked us to give him an hour. Luckily, there was a little farmers market going on right next to the place in their park. It was a beautiful sunny day, so we leashed up the dog, took her for a walk around the park, and then hit up the farmers market. The torturous thing about going to a farmer's market with fresh meat and seafood is that when you have a 5 hour drive ahead of you, you can't buy any! It was hard to resist. In the end we bought a bottle of Sauvignon Blanc from a local vineyard that had a stand and 6 fresh chicken eggs. I've never bought eggs from a farmers market. It said no egg was older than 7 days, and they looked like Easter eggs. With no dyes or bleaches to make them look alike, it was cool to have a blue-green egg, a pink egg, a white egg, and a brownish egg all in the same package! Can you tell that I am easily amused. So, with our fresh eggs in tow, a new tire, and pretty day for driving, we headed home to Wellington!
Now, it's time to get a job.
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