North Island, New Zealand

As we head to the North Island of New Zealand we're looking forward to the geothermal activity and really just swimming on hot springs! Hot Water Beach has our attention and intrigued.

Day One:

We're on the North Island. We drove straight to Rotorua last night from the airport. Quite tired we went straight to bed and awoke ready for some geo thermal activity, plus really looking forward to swimming in a hot spring.

We started the day with a walk through Kuirau Park, it's a city park right in the middle of the city. So what? It's a park, most city's have a park right in the middle of Rotorua. But this park has geothermal activity. Hot Springs, bubbling mud and steam that you can see from blocks away rising. There are cones marking the spread of activity and steam is even rising up through street lights. OMG, there's a lot of activity here. Don't wonder off the path.

What's amazing to me, is that it's right in the middle of the city. When we say geothermal activity in Wyoming, we had to go into Yellowstone National Park to find it. Here it's just right smack in the middle of town. It's fenced off, so I don't feel unsafe, it's just wild that you can walk right up to it from town.

Kuirau Park, a no-entry fee to experience earth's amazing activity.

We visited the park walking from one hot spring to the next, to lots of pockets of boiling hot waters.

Watching the mud bubble is amazing. It's non-stop activity, and you see where it's shifting.

Conner checking out the sites at Kuirau Park.

The park has a foot bath with HOT water. It's so fabulous and really warms us up. It's not nearly as cold as the South Island, but there's still a bite in the air and my hot feet are so toasty and happy right now, it really warms up my body core.

A short, 10 minute drive from town you can get to a REDWOOD FOREST. Say what? In New Zealand? These are California reds planted in this region and they took off. These trees are babies compared to the Redwood National Park in California. They are in the 40's, 50's. They are big and impressive, but sill just babies It's fun to get a little taste of the USA right here in New Zealand.

We picked a short hike this day. We could only stay one night in our hotel in Rotorua, because it's school holiday and everything was booked. We had to check out and I had to hustle to get us the next reservation. We're ready to check in, so hike a bit and head over to our hotel. The hike, it takes you through some more hot springs. Wow, in the middle of a redwood forest, my brain is confused.

Checking out to see how old this falled redwood is. The guys assess 30 years after counting the rings.

I told you! Redwoods, here in New Zealand.

Conner has been craving and craving sushi. We keep putting him off, because it's either really pricey or the quality looks poor and I don't want any of us getting sick. We've managed to stay healthy, and I'm so thankful that no one caught any kind of food bug or diaseases. I get pretty stressed out when I'm sick or especially my kids are sick when we travel. And on this trip, the longest and most international travel that we've ever done...we gotta stay healthy. Alas, back to the sushi, we found a nice, locally owned, clean sushi place and Conner was thrilled.

Lake Rotorua, sits along the city and many walking paths. Pretty and the weather is just wonderful!

These kiwis love their extreme sports! We saw the bungee jumping on the south island and tomorrow we'll try "zorbing", you'll have to wait to read about that later. And here on the lake, there's this giant bubble ball that you can get inside and run like a hamster in a ball on the water! We didn't try it, it was entertaining enough watching other people do it.

After checking into our hotel, we left our items safely in the room. There's a lot of write ups not to leave your car loaded with valuables while hiking. So safety first! We drive about 20 minutes outside of town to check out this hot spring with a hot waterfall at Kerosene Creek. It's a really short hike to the creek from the "carpark"... We are loving our new words by the way, carpark = parking lot, telly = T.V., Bottle-O = liquor store.

Kerosene Creek, a hot spring with a hot waterfall. This creek is a blend of hot, hot water and cold mountain water to create a nice warm bath temperature. Mind you it's cold out, quite cold, I can't remember the temperature, but I'm thinking the high was 50 degrees Farenheit.

The bathers! Kerosene Creek, Rotorua.

I opted out of "swimming". I got in enough to expereince the hot water on my feet and keep my myself toasty warm.

You can swim along the creek, it's not deep enough to stand in on the upper part. Conner army crawls his way around, of course, cause it's warm in the ater and not out of it.

A bit of the falls. Kerosene Creek. I didn't take pictures at the hotel, too bad, I was too busy having fun though and enjoying a nice HOT bath in the backyard private tub with my kids.

Day Two:

Today is a road trip day. We'll start with zorbing (read on to see what the heck that is), Matamata (Hobbiton) and then drive through Corodomel to Tairua on the beach. It's a three hour drive, but we are going to take our time and go slow and steady enjoying the towns and sights in between. The area we are driving through has been mined for gold. There's a gold history and we'll even see a real functioning, still operating gold mine towards the end of the trip.

The first stop of the day is to OGO to go zorbing. Zorbing, well, it's a giant plastic ball, that's cushioned. It's got a bit of water, warmish water, they place you in it and the water keeps you centered at the bottom of the ball. Then they chuck you down a hill in either a straight or zigzag course. Oh my! The kids, of course, wanted a turn, or two. No, no, not three! Here's a look at the course.

Presenting the ball and yes, the boys are in it. This is the ball at the bottom of the course. They jump out of that yellow part.

Here are my nutty kids and it's chilly out. Not freezing, but definitely in the low 50's.

The straight course, they did both the zigzag and the straight course.

In between runs you get to warm back up in a hot tub.

You get a GoPro to re-experience the trip. We didn't buy the video, but it sure was fun to watch. Boy there is a lot of screams in here.

The town of Matamata is the where The Hobbit was filmed, cool, really.

Even the visitor center has a hobbit feel. We bought the book on tape, audio book, and the boys got really into the story, we watched the movie and now it's pretty cool to be here and experience the hobbit-ness of Matamata after experiencing the story.

My precious anyone?

Roadtripping to Corodomel...starts with the home of L & P, Paeroa. Neat history here in what became a major lemon soda. Paeroa started off as a restin ground for workers of the gold mines in Karangahake Gorge. Needing a refreshment, L & P was born. Now owned by CocaCola. A selfie was a must.

Karangahake. An old gold mining town. Now you can hike through the area that housed the gold mine buildings. Multiple swing (suspension) bridges and hiking along the gorge.

Boys fearless of heights love to pose for me in these areas. Huh, not my favorite.

Hiked to the gorge. It's awfully fast moving water. The weather is great, so happy with the sun out!

A look at the gorge. Pretty folks, look at that blue sky.

The swing bridge. You can see the abondoned gold mine building in the background.

Next stop was Waihi. Waihi has a real, active, currently operating gold mine. Imagine this being in the middle of your home town? This gold mine has been in operation still the 1800's. There's a plan to shut it down shortly, the town will have to reinvent itself after operating as a gold mining town for three centuries. Should be interesting...

This is an abondoned gold mining building. Operated as a lift to get folks in and out of the mine.

Completely lost focus now. Moving onto shadow figures. Oh, well, we tried. Off to Taurua to check into our beach front hotel.

Hello Taurua. So nice to be here. Lovely hotel on the beach on Pacu. Time for my new favorite beer, Mac's and a little time on the balcony.

Day Three:

Today we'll check out the area with some hiking and of course, the long awaited for Hot Water Beach, where we'll chill in hot water on the beach. We'll dig out hot water springs to collect hot water to lay in on the beach in well, COLD weather. 42 degrees Farenheit to be exact. Yup, cold.

Good morning Taurua. We hiked to the top of Paku Mountain. 60 plus floors up, on my step count and arrived. Rewarded with wonderful views.

Selfie. Yes, I know, I'm a selfie lover. It's so pretty up here.

During our hike back, a bit of shell art.

A short 30 minute drive away is the Cathedral Cove hike down. Apparently Chronicles of Narnia was filmed here. It's just amazing. It's a good solid hike in and what you get is a private beach with impressive rock formation. It reminds me of the Na Pali hike in Kauai, Hawaii.

My boys. It's so incredible.

Example of the rock formations that the ocean water has created over the years.

Aiden poses for me as we step through a tunnel to the other side of the beach at Cathedral Cove.

Family picture. It's really windy.

My turn to strike a pose. It's a great destination, a good reward to a hike in...

Good bye Cathedral Cove, we're heading to a late lunch before we head to Hot Water Beach.

Panoramic view from the top of the hike at Cathedral Cove.

Oh no! Our bar of of choice is not open for lunch! They don't open till 5:30pm. Bummer. I guess our bag of pretzel will have to cut it for lunch on our way to Hot Water Beach...

Arrived. Hot Water Beach. We put the boys to work. You can't tell from this picture, but it's really cold out. In the 40's, it's 42 degrees out.

My working boys. We have three shoves, so I take pictures and watch them work...not a bad job for me!

My beanie will have to keep me warm, as a I wait for my swim hole.

See the people in coats along with the people in swimsuits? The hot water really warms you up! I'd like to claim this swimming hole as our own, but we stole it from someone when they left. They were more successful with a plan. The hot water feeds in from the springs higher up and you always end up with really hot water. So lovely!

Time to put the coats back on as we head out. We donated our hole to someone else. Time for showers.

Oh wait, as we were leaving we spotting the cutest hedge hog, he was adorable and not scared of people at all.

Steve and I decided we needed a date night. The boys stayed in with a game Civilization Five, while we went out for what-turned-out-to-be an amazing dinner. We found, what I thought was going to be a dive and OMG, the food was fabulous. Winner-winner-fish-dinner!

Day Four:

Time to say good bye to New Zealand. We'll fly back to Australia today to snorkle in the Great Barrier Reef. We'll head for some time in Auckland before flying out this evening.

My only picture in Auckland. It was rainy and windy and rainy. We grabbed lunch and called it. Let's head to the airport and wait this out...

So our flight was delayed, VERY delayed. What started as a 30 minute delay, turned into an hour, then another hour. Before we left, it was a 4+ hour delay. Our airline gifted us all NZ$20 vouchers towards dinner. Look at what Aiden picked out. Seriously?! I just let him have it... He picked L & P for his beverage, at least one New Zealand local item.

Proof that the boys get along and play well together, even after waiting for a flight for hours and hours....