Taupo, Rotorua and the Coromandel Peninsula

The last few days have been quite full with activities and travels. Wednesday afternoon was spent driving through Tongariro National Park, with my intention to visit mt tongariro, which many of you know as mount doom


Unfortunately the gps unit that we had believed that we wanted to go somewhere else, so this was as close as we got. No matter we found some Moari ruins and had a great time learning about the old settlement. We spent the night in the weirdest campground yet. They advertised the campground as animal friendly, well it turns out the campground was full of chickens, some ducks, and a bunch of other animals which aren't native to north america





The campsite also had thermal hotsprings which toured


Thursday was a day of bungee jumping for Kathy and I, and a great hike/run through A giant redwood forest in Rotorua.

We spent much of Friday in Rotorua with Kathy, Bev and Blane attending a Maori concert and tour of a thermal village, some afternoon shopping and then a bloody long drive to Hahei beach. It's easy to forget how long it takes to get anywhere in new zealand. A 200km journey does not take 2hrs here. With the very twisty roads, gutless motorhome that can barely break 90km/h and a mandatory stop for ice cream the drive took us just over 4hrs. Ugh!

Saturday I spent in the water getting in two dives. While the fish were abundant, the visibility was quite poor, due to everything getting stirred up from the tsunami wave, from the earthquake that rocked japan. Everyone else spent the beautiful sunny weather (24c) enjoying the beach and swimming in the ocean. Here is a shot of our campsite.





I know life is rough...


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