ROTORUA

day 7

Day 7 presents us with a full day of visits. Day 6 was easy going, which helped us recover from a lot of driving and walking of the pass couple of days.

An early start for me this morning, as I was hoping to capture sunrise. It was very cloudy but I got a break in the clouds just long enough to capture golden hour. The composition wasn’t great but glad I got something. It was overcast for the next few hours. I found myself on a sulphur plateau on Lake Rotorua near Puaranga Stream. There were thousands of seagulls, very protective of their environment. I had a few flying very close around me, screaming or what those birds do. It reminded me of a Hitchcock movie. There’s a path that leads into the bushes among the sulphur. It’s a nice walk and I got a couple of photos.

Our first visit of the day was Kuirau Park & Mud Pools. A beautiful area with ponds, hot waters, mud pools and flowers. There’s an area where you can dip your feet in hot water, which the girls took advantage of. 

Next, we took the Skyline to the Volcanic Hills Wine Tasting Room. Before the tasting we visited the Jelly Belly store, bought some lollies and ate some very bizarre tasting Jelly Bellies. Then Alain and I did a luge race before we stopped for lunch. Alain went back to do more luge afterwards while his wife, Manu, and I went wine tasting. A wonderful room with amazing views. And so is the wine. I didn’t know New Zealand had so many wineries and good wines. Our hostess was lovely, taking the time to chat with us yet giving us time to savour the wine. Very nice experience.

At the end of the afternoon, we visited the Ohinemutu Maori Village. Beautiful buildings with amazing carvings for decorations. We were the only ones there and it didn’t take long to visit. Worth the stop.

The Cosy Cottage Thermal Holiday Park is where we stayed for the night. We needed to secure a spot for the night as we intended to visit the Redwoods Tree Walk. Unfortunately, the weather turned grey and it rained heavy pretty much all night.

That’s it for day 7 my friends. Thank you for watching and, please, come back for the next video where we visit a wonderland and head to Taupo. Goodnight.

p.s.   a big thanks to Alain and Manu for the use of some of their photos and videos.

MUSIC :

Pokarekare Ana by Ukulele Mike Lynch

Pokarekare Ana from polkadotpants

AGRODOME

Photos from the Day 06 video are here with a few extras thrown in.

For the boys, our first morning in Rotorua started with a visit to the Agrodome. The girls spent the day shopping. We spent pretty much all morning here. We did the Farm Show and the Farm Tour. Both excellent and worth doing. They do have two other tours but we didn’t do those. Agrodome is well worth a visit for young and old but kids will especially love it for the hands-on experience with the animals. 

There aren’t a lot of photos from the afternoon as we joined the girls for a stroll and shopping. Nearing evening we made our way towards Lake Rotorua and and got to see swans and cygnets near the shore. On the way down here we discovered Eat Street. We came back here for dinner at Mac’s Steakhouse. Very nice food and the staff were excellent. We had a good laugh with them. We stayed at a free camper-van parking area that night, just opposite the Polynesian Spa.

Well that’s it for this quick post. I hope to see you for the next video, which should be out in the next two, three days.

p.s.   a big thanks to Alain for the use of some of his videos and photos.

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The Cathedral and The Gorge

day 5

I want to apologies for the time it took to get this video out. I’ve been having difficulties colour correcting the videos and am still not happy with the outcome. I thought I’d better stop fussing about and just get it out.

So here we are, day 5 of our little trip around the Northern Island of New Zealand. Again, picking up from the last video , today we do a small hike to Cathedral Cove, visit the Hot Water Beach and explore the Karangahake Gorge.

As with every morning, I got up early to explore the surroundings. Cooks Beach in this case. It was an overcast morning but warm nonetheless. It was sooo quiet and calm as I walked along the river to the beach. Even there it was surprisingly tranquil. Not a soul to be seen. 

Though it was a beautiful area, I had great difficulty finding a composition. So I snapped a couple of photos just to document the area. I did find a wild mushroom, which took all of my attention. I must have taken half a dozen shots of it. Trying out macro photography. I quite like the photos.

After breakfast we headed to Hahei Beach where the track to Cathedral Cove starts. An easy walk that anyone can do. A couple of small, steep hills but take your time and you’ll be just fine. The breathtaking views make it worth the effort. The first thing you see as you arrive at Cathedral Cove is the Smiling Sphinx Rock, seemingly floating in the water not far from the beach. Then you notice the hole in the cliff and wonder how it’s possible. At low tide you can make your way through it,to the other side, where the Te Hoho Rock sits, just like the Sphinx, in the middle of the water. The late morning and the amount of tourists, including us, didn’t make for beautiful photos. Quite happy with what I took but I’ll have to come back here to get the shots I was looking for.

By the time I got back to the campervan, where my friends were waiting in hunger, it was already past lunch time. We took off for Hot Water Beach for lunch and the hot springs, of course. Lunch was delicious and so was the local beer at Hotties. The hot springs though, we never got to try. Though the beach is, I don’t know, a kilometre long, the hot springs’ area is tiny. There were sooo many people there in a frenzy digging up holes everywhere that the wonder of it all had quickly disappeared. Don’t get me wrong, it’s a must do but maybe in a period of the year where there may be less people. What did amaze me though, were the large boulders on the southern end of the beach. That was beautiful.

Once over our disappointment of the hot springs, we made our way to the Karangahake Gorge. There are a handful of tracks ranging from an hour walk to eight hours. I can’t remember if we did the Rail Tunnel Loop or the Windows Walk Loop but, either way, it was absolutely amazing. A wonderful walk through tunnels with beautiful views down the valley and the Waitawheta River. It’s a pity we didn’t have more time, I would’ve loved to do the four hour track.

It was late afternoon and we needed to find a spot for the night. We chose the Paeroa RV Center because it was close and had powered sites and most importantly, a laundrette.

That’s it for day 5. I hope you enjoyed it. I know it’s not easy with the jumpy footage. I hope to see you on the next video where I receive my Masters in Milking, dip our feet in hot water, race downhill and visit a Maori village. Goodnight.

p.s. special thanks to Alain for the use of some of his photos and videos.

MUSIC

Kokiri from Waiora Celtic Connections

Te Hokinga Mai (Whanau) from Delma Rae

New Zealand Instrumental #2 / Port Charles Porch by Elizabeth Wise