Visitors from 'Bama

After bay of islands, we cruised back to Auckland to pick up Kim’s parents who were enjoying themselves in Queenstown for a few days. We had a great dinner at Tolcher’s place with the crew, where southerners were the majority. And headed back up to the Bay of Islands after replacing Kev and Laura with Steve and Margaret.

On our way up, we got some fishies!

We took some nice hikes around Russell. The weather seemed to cooperate with us in the mornings, and got worse at night.

But we made the best of it with views like this.

We stayed at a really nice backpackers near Russell the next day, with great views and access to the water with kayaks available for us to use… which was the first thing I did when we got there.

And the next morning when we woke up.

From Russel, we took a short ferry across (and got our windshield cleaned too!) and crossed over to the west coast… past the Hundertwasser Toilets…

… and on to Kauri Tree Territory.

The Kauri trees are giant trees that was a main part of the northland economy. With straight, dense trunks with no branches on the lower portions, these trees were perfect for logging. Too bad they took 1000s of years to grow to that size.

That night we found a backpackers that had some glowworms you could see on a short (but treacherous) walk.

… as well as a pig.

These boots were not made for walkin’… but climbin’… climbing big Kauri trees.

We stopped by the Kauri Museum, which explained much of the history of the area as it related to the Kauri trade.

Oh, and Kimbo got a crick in her neck that night… maybe from looking up too much?

Funky café on the way back to Auckland… Kim and I had passed it 3 times in the last week… so we decided we had to go in this time… long wait, but I guess the coffee was good.

Back in Auckland.

And on to Rotorua… where our holiday park had a steamer (for cooking).

… and a hot tub

… as well as access to another hot water beach on the shores of Lake Rotorua

Rotorua… is unlike any other place I’ve been. It was as if they put a city on top of Yellowstone. The city parks had areas closed off because there were hot mud pots boiling…

… though the town does smell a bit… so we went just outside of town to the Agrodome, where they put on a show to teach tourists about the types of sheep, shearing, sheep dogs, etc.

I didn't know they use the same language in Thai and Spain...

There was a sheep dog there that just gave birth to a litter 2 days ago…

… oh and we got to feed some baby sheep.

… and Kimbo turned into a Kiwi.

… and a Lamb.

… I think this is my favorite.

That night Kim’s folks treated us to a Hangi, which is a Traditional Maori feast. Although it’s obviously re-created for tourists, you learn about the culture, dance and music in a very entertaining way. We also got to see a Haka that we had been hearing so much about...

… the next day Kim got her booster shots for Typhoid… Kim felt a little woosy during the process, and felt poopy for a few days after.

Then returned to Ohakune.

The next day, Warwick and Jan took us on a walk. Warwick used to teach botany, so we got some great insight into New Zealand forage.

Grabbed some yummy meat pies for lunch.

Then drove up Ruapehu (to the ski area parking lot) for sunset. Kimbo was excited.

After bidding farewell, Kimbo and I took a quick snooze, got up early and drove back to Auckland, where Tolcher, Kevin and I played some soccer (due to my rusty skilz I did a good job helping the other team win 2-1… I missed a PK and a few 1 on 1s… d’oh).

But the double rainbow we saw after the game was cool. See Alex’s Band?

We went to a dinner party later on…

Oh, here’s the last group shot of Kev, Laura, Kimbo and I in NZ.

… and went to the casino at the Sky Tower where Kevin and Tolch raked in the winnings at black jack… They need to take a few more hints from Vegas though, as drinks weren’t free, you can’t split aces twice, and black jack beats 21… the kiwi casino rules heavily geared the odds toward the casino.

The next day, after another quick snooze Kevin and I went to the Ellerslie Parkway to sell our van.

After selling our van, we went straight to the airport and waved bye to New Zealand… for now.