Day 48 Auckland Airport

Well this is it... the start of our last day in New Zealand. We drive back to Auckland airport around the Coromandel Peninsula on some narrow roads for some more great views. It has been great !!
We drove nearly 5500 kms, cycled nearly 700 kms, walked on various tracks for over 235 kms, been on trains, and boats and rafts , Thank You New Zealand !

Day 47 Hahei

Hahei is right on the beach...  350 permanent residents but explodes to over 7000 during the summer. We are here at a great time.. not tons of people but still enough that most services are open. After a look around town and a couple of flat whites at the Hahei Beach Cafe we head out on a hike to Cathedral Cove. We stop to visit Gemstone Bay and Stingray Bay , where we meet a couple from Halifax. We continue on to Cathedral Cove and we are rewarded by beauty. A sheltered cove where the rocks have been formed into odd shaped pillars and even a huge tunnel through the rocks that you can walk through to the other side of the cove. The water looks so inviting that we go in for a swim .. a little cool at first but we quickly adjust. Probably my first swim in the Pacific and if not definitely my first swim in the Pacific in April. We go out to the Church Restaurant , for our last New Zealand suppertime meal. Tomorrow we will have two suppertime meals, one on the plane and the other in Vancouver after we land. Neat !!

Day 46 Hahei Beach

We have 2.5 days left so we decide to visit the Coromandel Peninsula on the way back to Auckland. We pick Hahei Beach to spend 2 nights. It is right on the beach and close to Cathedral Cove, a much see in New Zealand along with a hot water beach that you can visit at low tide. Before we head out to Hahei we hike up to the lookout for the highest waterfall in NZ North Island, Wairere Falls and then continue on up to the summit looking down over the falls. We climb continually for about 75 minutes, on man made steps and over natural rock steps. We meet several local hikers and get some local info.

Day 45 Matamata

Before we leave Rotorua we take a hike through the a Redwood forest, 5600 hectares of Southern Californian Redwoods. We are heading north toward Auckland but we must stop in Matamata for a night. This is close to Hobbiton where Peter Jackson produced many of the scenes for the Lord of the Rings movies. I must admit that I have only watched one of the movies but after visiting this attraction I want to see the rest. The tour takes us through the middle earth complete with 37 Hobbit holes and the Green Dragon Inn where we got to enjoy a cold beverage. A complete day!

Day 44 Rotorua

Today we are going Zip Lining for 3 hours. deep in a native New Zealand forest. A great adventure but also very educational about the conservation efforts of this company to bring back native breeds of birds and vegetation. We get to zipline up to 22 metres above the ground in trees up to 500 years old for up to 220 meters in length. We go frontward, backward and even upside down. A Blast ! We see and hand feed NZ robins and see blue mushrooms..  a first for us. Many native birds sing for us including the Tui. For supper it's back to Eat Streat !

Day 43 Rotorua

Rotorua is well known for its geothermal activity and tourists flock to its hot pools. One of the down sides to this activity is the strong rotten eggs smell. We walk along the lake shore and witness water boiling up through the mud all over. We walk through the Polynesian Spa on or way to the museum. The government had built an elaborate building for bath houses . Although not used for a bath house any more it is now a museum that tells the story of the original building including a tour of the original baths and mud treatment rooms in the basement. We then make our way to " Eat Streat " , a street of only eating establishments, for supper.

Day 42 Turangi

Today is our last day in Turangi . We get a few photos with our hosts for the last week, do a much needed lau

ndry and walk into town for a last look around.

Day 41 Tongariro Crossing

We are up early this morning and in the car heading to a car park at the end of the Tongariro Crossing, the best one day hike in New Zealand. A shuttle will pick us up and transport us to the start of the trail and then we will walk back to our car. It is an Alpine crossing so we will climb from 1100 meters to 1900 meters over the top of Mt. Tongariro along the ridge of a volcano and then back down to 700 meters on the other side. When we arrive at the car park there are already over a 100 people there so we have no fear of being alone on the trail. Several 100 do the crossing each day. We get started on the ascent around 8 am , the first hour being fairly easy along boardwalks and stairs. After that however we start what they call the Devil's Staircase, a hard ascent of about an hour to the South Crater. We walk over the South Crater for 10 minutes and reach the start of a difficult ascent to the Red Crater ridge. At the top we are rewarded with phenomenal views. We can see 360 degrees as we begin the walk along the ridge of the Red Crater an active volcano. Soon we can see over the other edge and get views of Emerald Lakes. The initial descent is steep and the soil below your feet is loose so you practically slide down the slope but you are on a narrow ridge with cliffs on either side so it requires caution. The day is sunny and clear but the temperature is ideal for hiking.. not overly hot! From here it is all downhill to our car but it is still about 12 kms. We descend the side of a mountain on zigzag trails cut into the landscape. Going up was hard but this constant steep downhill uses different muscles so it proves just as difficult. With about 6 kms to go we stop at a hut to eat our lunch. The last 3 kms is through a forest along an active volcanic area. Near the end we overtake a young couple, probably early 30's, . As they stop to let us pass he asks, "How are you doing this ? ". and gives us the thumbs up. My first thought is , he is wondering how 2 old geysers like us were able to do this crossing and still be standing , and I am deflated but quickly my second thought takes over, he was giving us a compliment and I feel inflated. We complete the crossing in 5.5 hours. Simply a very rewarding day !!