As most or all of you know, we are back home now in wintery St. Louis. We want to finish telling you all about our trip though, so hopefully in the next few days we'll get too! And if it keeps snowing and sleeting like it is today, I just might get to send out some of our pictures as well! So, to continue on with the blog, I believe I 
left off with our arrival to the North island of New Zealand so that is where I will begin.
We left Wellington after a short stop-over to download pictures and do some research on Fiji and headed for National Park, a small town just outside of the Tongariro National Park. We planned to do the Tongariro Crossing the following day and so we did! The Tongariro Crossing is an 18.5 km/11.5 mile hike across volcanic terrain, past thermal vents pouring steam from below the ground, beautiful Emerald Lakes and out through a bit of rainforrest. It's quite challenging
and takes about 8 hours to complete but boy was it worth it!We started about 8am and our bus picked us up from the other end at 4pm, we just made it! We took an extra side trip to hike up Mt. Tongariro which gave us great views across the national park and to other volcanic mountains. One of the highlights was feeling the steam bellow out of the earth's crust
and smelling the sulfur which indicated thermal activity. The hike came highly recommended to us and we would definitely recommend it as a must-do to anyone going to New Zealand.From National Park, we spent one night in Lake Taupo and then headed up through Roturura and into the Coromandel Peninsula. The whole North island seems to be harbouring thermal activity
just under the serface so there is a huge focus on thermal baths, steam vents and volcanic activity in general. It's also a great place to experienc some of the Maori culture which unfortunately we ran out of time for.
just under the serface so there is a huge focus on thermal baths, steam vents and volcanic activity in general. It's also a great place to experienc some of the Maori culture which unfortunately we ran out of time for.By the time we reached the Coromandel Peninsula, we were in need of a sun-tan top-up and some beach time again! Luckily we had the opportunity to hang out on Whangamata beach for most of 
the day and then made our way to Hot Water Beach in the afternoon. Hot Water Beach gets it's name b/c at low tide people come to dig holes for themselves to sit in and enjoy the thermal waters that bubble up under the sand. We were there at high tide so we didn't get to experience this but the beach was pretty and the waves were strong so it was a beautiful site
nonetheless.
the day and then made our way to Hot Water Beach in the afternoon. Hot Water Beach gets it's name b/c at low tide people come to dig holes for themselves to sit in and enjoy the thermal waters that bubble up under the sand. We were there at high tide so we didn't get to experience this but the beach was pretty and the waves were strong so it was a beautiful site
nonetheless.After Coromandel, we headed to Auckland where we returned the van (sad to see it go...), caught up on laundry and prepared to relax and adjust to "Fiji time", a term we were getting quite familiar with. We opted to fly to Fiji w/o a plan and see what sounded good once we got there. It ended up being a good way to enjoy the blissful Fijian life!
Love,
Renee & Chuck
Pictures from top to bottom: (Mt. Tongariro w/ kiwi sign, beginning of the Tongariro Crossing, Mt. Ngauruhoe, Emerald Lakes, steam vents behind us (and the next installment of Chuck's FFH), Whangamata Beach, sunset on Coromandel Penninsula, FFH in Auckland)
No comments:
Post a Comment