Several days

Wednesday, January 18
This morning we flew from Christchurch to Aukland. It's only a 1 ¼ hour flight for Hugh, Sandy, Cindy and I but the others have a 4 hour layover until their flight back to the US. We will pend the next seven days on the north island with Hugh and Sandy.

We picked up our rental Subaru wagon but it still wasn't large enough to carry all our luggage to our hotel that was in downtown Aukland. We left two bicycle cases at the car rental and after getting checked into our hotel Hugh and I went back to the car rental to pick them up. We will be staying at this hotel the night before we fligh out and they have agreed to store our bicycle cases until we return.

Aukland is a large city and in area is the largest city in the southern hemisphere according to the Kiwis. We took a nice walk down to the wharf and stopped at the grocery store to eat dinner in. Not eating in a restaurant was a nice change.

Thursday, January 19

Aukland to Hamilton

We left the hotel at about 9:00 this morning after eating breakfast in our room. We got off the main highway (Rt 1) and took the back road that turned out to be a beautiful drive. The agapanthas, hydrangia, day lillies, gardinias and many other plants and trees were absolutely beautiful. The rolling hills and forests were right out of the Hobit. We got to Hamilton about 12:00. After lunch we check into the hotel and then went to the Hamilton Gardens.

We had dinner at a great restaurant a couple blocks from our hotel.

Friday, January 20

Hamilton to Taupo

We over slept this moring but were on the road by 8:30. We first went to the Hamilton Gardens to see the rose gardens that we missed yesterday. It was a little late in the season to see the full bloom of roses but there were some nice roses and I took several pictures.

We drove to Otorohanga that was a very nice little town. While having a coffee at the train station we met Bill the shuttle driver who gave us some great advice. He recommend that we go to Waitomo to see the glowworm caves, natural bridge and Marokopa Falls. Glowworms are actually magits that attach themselves to the cave ceilings and their bioluminescence create a small spot on the ceiling of the cave. There are thousands of them. The interesting part of the glowworm is they secreat a string that hangs down about 6 inches that has a sticky substance that is poisonous to small flying inscets. They then draw up the string and consume the insect. The natural bridge was a short walk off the road. As with many of the natural formations that we have seen in NZ the paths and access are beautifully maintain and there's no one there. The waterfall was the same, short walk off the road and spectacular. We left Waitomo at about 4:30 and got to our hotel in Taupo at about 7:00. We are in Taupo for two nights.

We had a great Indian meal in town.

Saturday January 21

Taupo to Taupo

Beakfast at the hotel and then we went to the I-site in Taupo to find something to do for the day. First we went to a market where Cindy and Sandy satisfied their shopping needs. They each bought and top and Sandy bought a dress, both very nice.

We then drove about 1 ½ hours to Tongariro National Park. This is a volcanic area with three primary cones, Mt Ruapehu, Mt Napauruhoe and Mt Tongariro. Needless to say we are in the heart of Mauri country, they are the indiginous people of NZ. The drive was absolutely beautiful along Lake Toupo and then into the national park. We went to Whakapapa Village inside to the park to start a walk that was 6 kilometers to Taranaki Falls. There is snow up on Mt Ruapehu and they are skiing at the top. Our hike took us across the volcanic fields and into the forests along the base of the mountain. After lunch and a brief visit to the park chateau we headed back to Taupo.

Today is laundry day so while Cindy is doing the laundry I'm catching up on the blog.