We've been away for 5 weeks today and already managed to do so much. We added exploring the island on a scooter (& doing a driving test); getting dressed up for a Maori island night; and learning how to husk a coconut to our highlights from Rarotonga.
We're in New Zealand now and although we've had a few mishaps, we're really loving it. Wet weather meant we only passed through the Bay of Islands, but we've had sunshine ever since. The North Island is stunning, there are non-stop photo opportunities; we visited a forest of Kairi trees where one was 51m tall, 4m diameter and 2000 years old - the tallest tree in the Southern Hemisphere! We went to the top of the Sky Tower in Auckland & watched the abseilers freefalling to the ground (crazy people), then we had headed to Rotorua & slid down a hill in a giant hamster ball filled with water (zorbing) - great fun! Rotorua is very smelly because of the thermal activity in the region & and steam & bubbling pools of mud all around - they look pretty cool though.
Continuing with the volcanoes we went to Taupo & Tongariro next, then to Mt. Ruapehu (the tallest & most recently active volcano - last year), which sits next to Mt. Ngauruhoe (Mount Doom from LOTR), and Mt. Tongariro. For Mike's birthday we took a scenic flight over all three; they were magnificent, we were able to look right into the craters at the top! We had a lovely meal out for Mike's Birthday - a welcome change to cooking on the campervan stove.
Our last stop in the North Island was Wellington - we preferred it to Auckland, it's a more compact city with more character. Our trip to the zoo was excellent, seeing Kangaroos and a Kiwi for the first time, and the giraffes and chimps came really close.
We took our ferry to the South Island this morning and are excited as we've heard it's even better than the North!
