North Island Photo Extravaganza

I'm back! The North Island was amazing. We flew into Auckland in the rain and spent most of the time walking around and getting really wet, but then we got our rent car and drove out to the Coromandel Peninsula, and things started to pick up.


By far the best things we saw on the trip were the random sights pointed to by little brown signs on the road. Sailor's Grave was the first. I totally secluded beach dotted with smooth stones and giant rock formations standing out in the water.
The next day we resolved to go to the hotwater beach, despite the forecast of 13C and drizzle. This is what I get for traveling with an Englishman.


Before the hot water we hiked down to Cathedral Cove (featured in numerous postcards) and took in the scenery. Numerous yoga poses were attempted from this rock, with hilarious results.


On the way back from the cove I figured out how to use my panoramic photo-stitch feature. Unfortunately, just as I started to take a picture Pete saw an endangered kiwi bird drop from the sky into a ravine below and ran off to rescue it, which sort of muddled the shot... yeah, we're dorks. Shutup.


We got to the hot water beach in the early afternoon and paid our obligatory $4 for a shovel, then headed down to the beach in our swimsuits and windbreakers (or togs and macs, if you prefer). It was a total scene-- people from all walks of life digging holes in the freezing sand and then sitting in the steaming water. It was actually kind of complicated getting just the right mixture of really hot spring water and freezing cold ocean water, but it kept us entertained, along with the other tourists.


The next day we went to Rotorua and things got totally "geothermal." There's more smoky, stinky, colorful stuff coming out of the ground here than you can shake a stick at, and after a couple of days we had definitely overdosed. To the point that "geothermal" had become a lauding term in our personal vernacular.


Peter maintains that Diamond Geyser means something in the east London vernacular, but despite several attempts he was not able to explain exactly what it means. Something to do with being solid and a character, I think. I've given up.


There was bubbling mud. It made a great noise. That's really all I have to say about that.


We rounded a corner at the end of one of our tours and discovered this pool. "Whoa! Look at that color! That's just stupid!!" Truer words were never spoken, and so we took a picture.


We were going to go to the Buried Village, purported to be the kiwi Pompeii, but it turned out to be 3 houses from the 19th century, so we decided not to shell out $20 a piece for that one. However, on the way there (or maybe it was the way back) we came upon this playground. It had a really scary merry-go-round that involved chains and a maypole (I've purposefully left that one to your imaginations) and this slide that, through some miraculous feat of engineering, it was impossible to actually slide down.


This tractor was also on the playground-- clearly it is child safe, as they carefully removed all the engine parts and the seat, leaving only hard metal and sharp edges. This was taken shortly before Pete stood on top of the tractor, put on his best town planner face and said solemnly, "This is probably the most dangerous playground I've ever seen."


Napier looked sort of like this, but more art deco. But none of my art deco pictures (that would be the other two) came out, so you get this one. Ooooo, aaaaah.


Our hostel in Napier was actually a renovated school. I could tell because every time I went up or down the stairs I had the urge to take them two at a time and jump the last four or five. For all those who ever wished they could just lay down in the middle of class and fall asleep, we were living the dream.

By far our most impressive sign-following incident. An unassuming road sign read "scenic overlook." This is what we got. Absolutely breath-taking series of cataracts, and there was no one else up there since the sign was so innocuous.


One of the Australian pensioners on our wine tour told us about this sign and this town. Or perhaps he was trying to warn us, it's difficult to say. At any rate, we were unprepared for the hodge-podge of architectural schemes that accosted us in Dannevirke, but I was relieved to see on further inspection that the Viking is in fact wearing trousers.


This bridge appears in the Lord of the Rings tour brochure. There, I did it. Are you happy?


This is the location they used to shoot the Rivendell scenes in LOTR. I'm an elf. Actually the stream is really beautiful, although not as magical looking as it was in the movie.


Not sure where this was, but it's cool-looking, eh?


New Zealand fern tree, from below. Outside the caves in the hidden valley. Totally geothermal.