North Island of New Zealand

On the trail to Cathedral Cove

  Over the January school break we went to New Zealand. Sorry it took so long for me to do this blog. First term started busy and I never got around to it. Anyway we had an awesome time! We flew into Auckland (North Island) and got a big 12 seat van. We jammed all our stuff in the back. We brought 2 tents, camping supplies and all sleeping stuff so the van was pretty full! The first two nights we stayed at Tairua on the Coromandel Peninsula which is about 2 hours Southeast of Auckland. It was cold and windy the first two nights. Locals said the weather was unusual for that time of year. After that we headed inland to Rotorua known for the thermal activity. The whole town smells like sulfur but it was still very nice. We camped a few miles out of town on Blue lake which reminded us a lot of an Adirondack lake in New York. After two nights at Blue Lake we went south 4hrs to Tongariro National Park. We got to the campsite in a pouring rain! We couldn't see anything coming in. The next morning we woke up and saw huge snow covered mountains above us. Mt. Ruapehu was covered in snow which looked amazing! We went on a 14km hike to some neat blue lakes and Mt. Ngaurhoe was in the background. Mt. Ngaurhoe was Mt Doom in Lord of The Rings!

Cathedral cove...amazing!

   After two nights we drove down to Wellington which was a 6hr drive. The cross wind on some of the roads was crazy! We got to Wellington and went to the city museum which was impressive. The next day we got on a huge ferry to cross the Cook Strait from the North island to the South island. The trip was 92km and took 3 hours and 30 minutes but the scenery was amazing! We could just see the South island went we left Wellington. The strait was calm at about 2m but they don't cancel unless its over 8m! We got into Picton early afternoon and we walked around. I will do the South island in a blog tomorrow. Enjoy the pictures from the North island.
                                                         
                                                              North Island

Paku Hill Tairua NZ. Not bad for a 10 minute hike! Looking down on Pauanui.

Looking across to Tairua 

Waihi Beach

Blue lake 

7km hike around blue Lake

Thermal pools Rotorua

Flowers at the Government garden

Government gardens Rotorua

Almost to the waterfall

The next morning when the rain cleared at Tongariro. 

On the trail, 16km round trip. Mt. Ruapehu to the left 

Trail sign 

Lower Tama lake with Mt Ruapehu to the right 

Waterfall on the trail 

Crossing over a smaller waterfall.

Thanks for reading my blog. I will do one on the South island very soon.