Well we took Paggie Waggie on her first road trip! We drove down to Waitomo to see the glow worm caves! It was so cool you had to be completely silent (we all know how hard that is for me) and it was like looking at a million starts but inside a cave. They are one of the coolest animals. There is another species of them that live outdoors and not in caves found on the south island which we might try to go and find. Our tour was only about an hour so we were going to meet Ru and Dr. Emma after but poor Dr. Emma had to have a root canal, so their 4 hour tour got pushed back a couple hours. This gave Mags and I time to hike and explore, our favorite thing. We found the Marokopa Falls, a waterfall that covers lime stone. Then we found the Piripiri Cave and did some amateur cave spelunking. Our final stop before we met up with Ru and Dr. Emma was the Mangapohue Natural Bridge. It’s a 17 meter high limestone arch which is all that remains of an ancient cave system. This hike also brought us to fossilized oysters that date back 35 million years! After all of this hiking we made perfect time to go back and meet up with the Williamson crew! Net stop was Raglan, a cool beach town with lots of surf.

We got to Raglan and we snuck a quick shower at the b&b the Williamsons were staying at then headed to Orca Restaurant, where Ru treated us to dinner, and man it was soooo good! The next morning we did a little walking around Raglan including the beaches and play scapes, I never pass up a good play scape. We said our goodbyes and then Mags and I were off to Rotarua!

The 1st stop in Rotorua was the Hamurana Spring. Hamurana Spring is the deepest natural fresh water spring in the North Island. It produces 4 million liters of clear water per hour of 50 degree temperature. The spring is surrounded by volcanic rock. All around the spring are Redwoods, while they are not native to New Zealand they are still pretty impressive!

That night was our first time freedom camping! We made it to our parking spot and then the real adventure began. Rotorua, because of all the geothermal activity, smells like sulfur so you know immediately when you have made it. We used our stove (mostly Maggie), water basin, and refrigerator for the 1st time. Turns out we are really good at freedom camping! Maggie really is a master chef; every meal we had was delicious and you would never had known we did it on a tiny little stove on the back of our van.

We found a pretty good website bookme.co.nz where you can get discount deals for a bunch of stuff in NZ. We took advantage of this and bought discounted tickets to the Waimangu Volcanic Valley, the world’s youngest geothermal system, because who doesn’t love a good volcano. The park is a series of geothermic activity from the eruption of Mt. Tarawera. It was so cool, we went on a rainy cloudy day so we started the walk chilly but as soon as we got to the geothermal parts we started to shed layers fast, it got so hot. We got to touch volcanoes, and not dormant one either!

The rest of our day was dedicated to honey!! New Zealand is known for their honey specifically their Manuka honey, it has healing properties and tastes amazing and is hell of expensive. We knew we wanted to go to the Huka Honey Hive but on the drive there we ran into Arataki Honey factory which the brand of honey all the Kiwis have in their homes. Thank goodness we did because one, the woman in the store was so knowledgeable and helpful; two, this was the only place were you could get honey from the south island; and three, it’s the only place were the price of honey is factory price. Everywhere else is quite expensive so we were able to purchase Manuka honey along with 3 other jars that didn’t break our budget. Then we were off to the Huka Honey Hive! It was beautiful and super educational. We got to do taste samples of all the honey they had in store and there were a lot! They also did taste tests of all of the liquor they had in store so we did that too! We only ended up buying a few gifts to bring back home because the Arataki woman was right, they really jacked up the prices on the honey.

By the end of our time at the Huka Honey Hive it was time to set up camp! This time we got to park right on the water of Lake Taupo! The next morning we had Crepes and our first flat white (good job lonely planet for the great suggestion)! We packed up all our things and headed off to Huka Falls! By the time we got there Maggie’s tummy was killing her because she is lactose intolerant but had the flat white anyway, so if she doesn’t look the happiest in the photos its because she is dying. Huka Falls is gorgeous, the water is a stunning aquamarine blue color that pours into a body of water that is teal, which makes for a crazy photo. Just before the Huka Falls the Waikato River enters a shallow ravine of hard volcanic rock, which results, into the pressure of the falls, which releases more than 220,000 liters of water per second.

yes I realize this is too many pictures of the exact same thing... but look it's so blue.

Next up were the Aratiatia Dam and Rapids (Sorry Sarah Donaher, I know your thoughts on dams but we had to!) The gates of the dam open 4 times a day and releases 80,000 liters of water per second. We stood on the bridge and waited for the dam to release, however they fail to tell you that there is a very loud alarm that sounds before the dam is opened! The Aratiatia Rapids are beautiful and apparently it is where some of one of The Hobbit movies was filmed (I personally find those movies a bore but I guess if you are into that stuff… https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M0ok0PdtACE#action=share)

On our way back up to Rotorua we stopped by the Kerosene Creek where hot spring and freshwater streams meet. It is a geothermally heated body of water! We tried to get in but hot damn the water! I’m surprised we still have skin on our feet! The crazy part was that people were fully submerged in this boiling water!

The best part of the entire holiday was we got to see kiwis, like the bird! We got discount passes to the Rainbow Spring Nature Park. They are nocturnal birds so they have them in a dark room and be very quiet for them to come out. This unfortunately means that we don’t have any pictures of the kiwis. They are actually the cutest things ever!! Why we aren’t doing more to save these birds that are going extinct I have no clue! They are docile little animals that have no arms and are basically all butt. How can you not love that?! To say we freaked out is an understatement! Inside the park there was a very basic boat rollercoaster type ride… of course we rode it!! This ride goes slow, I’m talking 5 miles an hour, maybe and the amount of times we screamed on this ride is ridiculous. To be fair there was a large dinosaur and at some point a screaming person so I’m going to say it was ok! The best part was there was a slide like in Splash Mountain!! We were the only ones on the ride so the man asked if we wanted to keep going, we didn’t think we could go through the terror again!! We went through the rest of the park to see all the other nonessential birds and reptiles and exited through the gift shop! We both helped save the kiwis with our purchase of a kiwi and I got a souvenir for Amanda (I bet she never guesses what it is). After we paid we found out we could come back to the park after dark to see the kiwis with only a meter high fence between us!!! Unfortunately because we got discounted tickets we were technically not granted re-entrance. However I think the front desk lady saw how excited we were about the kiwis that she gave us the stamp anyway. Now all we had to do was wait until 9pm to go back.

No one is in NZ but us... we got a boat to ourselves.

We went to set up camp to make dinner real fast, Maggie made really good apple cinnamon pancakes, they tasted like Christmas! We also stopped by warehouse, our favorite store here in NZ! They were having a sale on stockings so of course we each got one! Then it was finally time to go back to see our favorite animal!!! Oh my gosh it was a magical experience! I can’t even tell you how cute and adorable these birds are!! They are also surprisingly fast on their 2 little feet!

Turns out Mags got a picture. But they really are so cute in person look up a picture!

The next day we headed back to Clevedon, but this time I was the driver, this was my first time ever driving the van and holy hell the wind. I’m not sure how Mags kept the van going so straight. The wind is so strong and we are such a large vehicle that we blow all over the place, it’s actually a very good arm work out. On our way back we stopped by the Blue Spring. This water is so pure that is supplies 70% of New Zealand’s bottled water. It is so clear and blue it’s stunning!

We finally made it back to Mikes where we found 2 new Germans and 2 new French, always making new friends!