The Obis and the Kiwis

Matilda discovered the floating stones at the lake 😂 and kept throwing those into the lake...

We took the road on the Eastern side of the Tongariro NP to head South. The road was less winding and steep as thought (by far not as worse as in the Coromandels). Passed by Rangipo dessert (some scenes of LOTR were filmed here), while having Mt Doom (= Mt Ngauruhoe) and Mt Ruapehu on our right handsight.

And finally some hiking! Waitonga Falls Walk. To be honest it‘s not really hiking, it‘s more walking on well formed tracks. But it was still nice and the highlight was to see the snow covered Mt Ruapehu (NZ’s 2nd largest skiing area) from a close distance.Read more

While Matilda enjoyed her cuddly home, which she built in the bed Greta and I went to the beach. Black sand again and fascinating as always! Just the wind was quite strong, but could therefore witness seagulls which just glide right above us.

After the easy morning our next goal‘s Egmont Nationalpark and Mount Taranaki. Another volcano! Some tramping‘s on today‘s to do list. We started at the Dawson Falls Visitor Center and headed first to Wilkies Falls then further on the loop, took a turn to Ridge Loop and continued on the Kapuni Loop via the Dawson Falls back to the car park. We crossed numerous streams, walked through goblin forests, climbed lots of steps and saw a couple of smaller warerfalls. It was a beautiful tramp and Matilda almost walked all on her own, only a couple meters we offered to carry her. Well done big girl!

On the way down we ordered online a pizza in the next village and we were able to pick those up as soon we arrived 😅Read more