• Nancy and Tim's Big Adventure
    1Viaduct Harbour in Auckland, a nice but very windy day
    One of the boats in the harbour, it must have been 300ft long (with a Cayman Islands flag!!!!)Taking a rest at the Auckland DomainMãori sculpture in Auckland Central Business DistrictAuckland City HallNZ North Island country sideNZ country side, rolling hills and lots of cattleLake RotoruaOhinemutu Mãori village in RotoruaOhinemutu Mãori village with geothermal sourcesGeothermal sources all over the cityKuirau Park with geothermal ponds all aroundWhakarewarewa (Redwoods) forestA baby bird watching us having lunchA large Fern tree in Whakarewarewa forest300ft tall Redwoods in Whakarewarewa forestA Tui bird with his 2 curled white throat feathersLake Taupo with snow capped mountains in the backgroundHuka Falls outside Lake Taupo

    NZ - Auckland and Rotorua

    January 7 in New Zealand ⋅ ⛅ 23 °C

    We made it to New Zealand!
    Our stay in Auckland was shortened by 2 days but we still managed to see most of the city which is the largest in NZ. We visited the central business district, Viaduct Harbour and the Auckland Domain (large park and gardens with greenhouses). Beautiful scenery by the ocean. The climate is very comfortable around 20C with no humidity but variable and quite windy.
    On Sunday (Jan 5th) we left Auckland and took the bus headed to Rotorua. The scenery on the way is very pretty with rolling hills. We saw only a few sheep but lots of cattle (dairy and meat being their top 2 exports). Rotorua is a pretty town and is a centre for Mãori Aboriginal Culture and geothermal activity (we could smell the sulphur in the air from the hot springs as soon as we got off the bus). We stolled along the Lake Rotorua walkway, visited Ohinemutu, a living Mãori village, and dipped our feet in a thermal foot bath in Kuirau Park. Yesterday we visited the Whakarewarewa forest (aka the Redwoods) and hiked an 11.5km trail, going 500m up for a nice view of the town (trail took nearly 4 hrs to walk).
    Today we took a day trip to Lake Taupo, the largest lake in NZ, hiked to the Huka falls and strolled along the lake.

    Tomorrow we head to Wellington, the capital and our last stop on the north island.    Read more