It's getting pretty autumnal here now, so thought we should update you on what we've been doing to make the most of the last of the summer.
About a month ago, just after we last updated you, we went away with a couple of friends on a camping weekend. It turned out to be a more luxurious trip than most of our usual camping, Mike and Jody are fairly new to the idea, but their huge tent and lots of food and alcohol helped them settle in! We camped further round the south coast from Wellington, at the base of the Putangirua Pinnacles (we visited there last June, but the weather was much better this time, so photos included!). The weather was great for the trip and we had a beautiful sunset looking over the Cook Straits towards the South Island, followed by toasting marshmallows over an awesome campfire.
We finally got around to visiting Karori Wildlife Sanctuary, on the edge of Wellington, which we had been meaning to do for a while. It's a pest free, fenced nature reserve to encourage breeding of rare native species. Although most of the native species there are birds, the other highlight are the tuataras, ancient lizard-like reptiles that live til they are over 100 and do everything slowly...it helps with photographing them!
At Easter, we had a bit of an epic road trip to go and explore the Waikato and King Country (northwest of north island, south of Auckland) as we hadn't previously made it that far. On the way we took advantage of great weather to go and climb Mt Ruapehu (the one we ski on in the winter). We got the ski chair lift up part way, but it's still a good climb above that. Its the most active volcano in the country (erupted last in 1996) and has a beautiful crater lake at the summit. Yes, we do go up quite a few volcanoes, and yes being geology geeks we love it!
Easter Saturday was spent underground. We decided to do the touristy thing and go and explore the limestone cave systems around Waitomo. But rather than just walking through we went 'black water rafting' - sat on a tyre inner tube floating/paddling down the water ways. Got to see thousands of glow worms and amazing cave formations, as well as jumping off underground waterfalls! The afternoon was above ground, visiting the waterfalls in the area and a huge natural arch.
Sunday we explored the coastline around that area, including the little surfing town of Raglan, and then inland to another fenced nature reserve, with loads of native parrots and parakeets...and loud annoying Americans scaring them off!
On the drive home on Monday we went via a geothermal area just south of Rotorua - called Orakei Korako. Again being geology geeks, but the steaming pools, bubbling mud and colourful silica terraces are awesome.
Last weekend, we made the most of some free flights up to Auckland for Ben (it turns out training courses have some uses) and went to see the Coromandel Peninsula. It has really beautiful coastline and beaches, but the highlight for Kerry was that we finally saw some dolphins! A pod was swimming along the coast as we drove north, sticking just off shore for about 20km.
We were staying in hostels, which was pretty weird as we haven't done so since we werre travelling, but met some interesting travellers (some were nice, some just interesting!). In fact after that we have become hospitable Kiwi-like people and have Nicole, an American girl who is cycling round NZ staying this weekend (she was one of the nice ones!).
Think that's about it for now, this may well be the last blog from our current flat as we're planning to move out in about a month. No, we are not moving back to blighty, just across town to a more leafy inner suburb. We'll update you on any changes when they actually happen. Hope all's well back home / wherever you are stranded...damn Icelandic volcanoes!
