Monthly Archives: January 2011

After doing the Tongariro Crossing on Wednesday, both of us thought a nice easy day would be great, so a drive through Tongariro National Park seemed a good idea.  Welllll, once we were out and about, taking a short walk … Continue reading →

New Zealand has been experiencing somewhat of a drought over the past four years or so, we’ve heard, so when it began raining in Taupo very early on Sunday a.m., we rejoiced with the locals and looked for indoor things … Continue reading →

Jan and Gerry are in Taupo, one of the geothermal wonderlands of the world.  Taupo sits in the Taupo caldera, one of eight large, nested erupted centers in the central part of the North Island.  Hot water pools, steam vents, … Continue reading →

Gerry had hoped to catch a boat Thursday to White Island (site of an active volcano) when we left Rotorua, but offshore winds had been strong causing the trips to be cancelled for several days running; soooo, we turned in … Continue reading →

The Rotoruans live in the middle of eight large eruptive centers that make up the Taupo volcanic belt.  Our hotel, for instance, is located about 300 ft from New Zealand’s largest geyser, Pohutu Geyser. Neighborhoods are built around, amongst, and … Continue reading →

Route to Rotorua – Our Sunday started with a visit to St. Andrew’s By the Sea where we joined a Presbyterian/Methodist combined congregation in worship.  We were two of six guests (two others of whom were the visiting preachers, a … Continue reading →

A Lonnnnng Day’s Drive – Friday’s goal was to reach Whitianga on the Coromandel Peninsula, so most of our time was spent enroute.  Of course, we took several scenic roads instead of the motorway, so that slowed us down some … Continue reading →

It is hard to tell one stunning beach from another in New Zealand because there are so many of them.  Being a long, skinny island, water is never far off and the coastlines are spectacular, but today we did something … Continue reading →

Cruising Northland’s center and east coast Today (Monday) was spent on the road as we drove from Wangerei to Paihia via central Northland.  Yesterday at the refinery, the attendant tried giving us all sorts of advice on what we should … Continue reading →

Part of the reason we scheduled two days/nights here in Wrangerei was to give us plenty of time to get over jet lag, rest and recover.  Since our bodies have absolutely no idea what time zone we’re in, we awoke … Continue reading →