We spent two weeks in New Zealand and covered the north half of the north island. It isn't a big area but there are tons of things to see and do.
Travelling in New Zealand is easy and fun. We think this is because Canada and New Zealand are identical in so many ways.
The countries have some obvious similarities that we knew about before we arrived - both are former British colonies, English is the primary language and both have amazing scenery.
There are lots more similarities that we learned about during our stay. The people in both counties are are friendly, casual and always helpful. Both countries have a much bigger neighbour right next door (U.S. for Canada; Australia for New Zealand) who is a major influence on the country's economy, culture and politics. You can drink the water out of the tap in both countries - we've really missed this luxury on our world trip!
The first week of our stay in New Zealand was in an area known as the Taupo Volcanic Zone. The zone runs from the the east coast to the centre of the north island. The area has active and extinct volcanoes and plenty of geothermal areas.
We started on the east coast in the town of Tauranga. We visited an extinct volcano called Mount Maunganui.
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| The Mount is right next to a very nice beach |
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| There's a nice walkway around the Mount |
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| There's a great beach town at the base of the Mount |
While we were in town, we had two great dinners with Gary and Pam. Gary works with Vanessa and he and Pam love to spend their holidays in New Zealand. The meals they prepared were tremendous with Gary running the grill and Pam whipping up tasty salads and veggies. Dessert was great too as they introduced us to New Zealand ice cream which is unbelievably good. A big thank you to Gary and Pam for two nights of good food and conversation!
We made our way inland following the volcanic zone. The earth's crust is very thin in this region so there are lots of geothermal areas. It's easy to see evidence of the heat just below the surface.
We took a hot mud bath in the town of Rotorua.
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| Enjoying our hot mud bath |
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| After cleaning up, it was into the hot pool |
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| All the heat is supplied by Mother Nature |
Next up were two geothermal parks located between the towns of Rotorua and Taupo. One park is called "Craters of the Moon" (great name!).
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| A big but not very active crater |
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| Blake with a small but actively steaming crater |
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| There was lots of steam and smelly sulphur |
The second geothermal park was Wai-O-Tapu which means "sacred waters" in the Maori language.
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| Us in front of a steaming pool of water |
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| In case it isn't obvious that the water is really hot, there are signs to warn you |
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| This is called the Champagne Pool because of its colour and bubbles |
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| Vanessa beside a colourful stream |
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| Sulphates give this pool a cloudy green colour and bad smell |
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| The deep green colour is beautiful but it's a toxic mix of sulphur and arsenic |
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| An amazing sulphur pool |
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| Next to the thermal park is New Zealand's largest bubbling mud pool |
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| Sometimes the mud bubbles just a little |
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| Other times it explodes |
More to come from New Zealand!
Vanessa and Blake
