My dad flew in to Auckland the last weekend in November and it just hasn't stopped - and even before that, time seemed to be getting away from us (hence lack of posts!)
We drove up from Palmy to Auckland on the Sunday - took about 6 hours. And it just doesn't feel that long at all, the scenery is amazing! We drove along the desert road which takes you into the mountain range, past Mt. Ruapehu which is an active volcano and was used as Mt. Doom in LOTR. And then through the Waikato region which is like Hobbiton!
Sunday night we went up the Sky Tower and Monday we took in the Auckland Domain gardens and Mt. Eden - an extinct volcano.
On Tuesday, we headed up North to our motel in Paihia. From Paihia we went out on a half day boat trip taking in the Bay of Islands - we saw dolphins and what at first glance, Graeme took as a HUGE dolphin - but no, in fact, it was a whale!
We also took an all day coach trip to Cape Reinga - the northernly most part of NZ. It was great, we tried Sand Toboganning, had lunch at a fabulous beach and drove back along 90 mile beach in the coach - FAB!
On the Friday, despite much misgiving on my part, we hired a wee boat and took it out to sea! Scary experience! Was fun, but scary.....and the sea gets awful choppy in the afternoons in the Bay of Islands! The true moment of panic was when the engine suddenly cut out and we didn't have a clue why....turned out we needed to change the fuel can over - phew!
On the Saturday we drove down from Paihia straight to Lake Taupo and another wonderful motel. It was a two minute walk to the waters edge - wow!
And then Sunday came and with it, our journey back home to Palmy - it was a fabulous week, we had a great time and we all got to see lots of beautiful NZ!
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