Lake Taupo and Wairakei park.

A day out with our friend Dave today who is going to show us the sites of Lake Taupo and its surroundings.

First picture is of a Tui bird.

 

 

We head into the Wairakei park to see the Huka falls.

An incredible volume of water goes over these falls.

 

 

The jet boat trying to drown everyone on board as it tries to get in close to the falls.

 

 

From there we head to the Aratiatia rapids.

Not much happening at the moment but on the hour they release the sluice gates from the reservoir and the whole valley is transformed.

 

 

Told you so.

 

 

Stormy views over Lake Taupo.

 

 

Our last stop of the day is a view point for Mt Ngauruhoe, better know to some of you as Mt Doom in Lord of the Rings.

 

 

Final shot of us with our host and good friend Dave at his home.

 



Rotorua and Waimangu volcanic valley.

Today we head off for a day to Rotorua to see the thermal activity at Kuirau park in town.

 

 

At the bottom end of the park we head across the road to visit St Faiths church at Ohinemutu.

 

 

Meeting house

 

 

After a nice cup of coffee and homemade cake we return to the park.

 

 

From Rotorua we head to Waimangu volcanic valley. This the youngest thermal valley in the world formed at the beginning of the nineteen hundreds.

There are many notice boards showing old photographs of the valley before and after when it became a tourist attraction for the Victorian gentry.

 

Northland

A very early start today as we intend to travel to the northern most point of North Island.

First we head up to Mangonui.

 

 

The land mass gets quite narrow now as we head  straight to the top and Cape Reinga.

Out at sea we can see where the Pacific and the Tasman sea meet with swirling currents.

 

 

 

We now cross to the other coast and to the sand dunes at Te Puki.

This is also an exit point for vehicles leaving the Ninety mile beach.

Ninety mile beach is actually only ninety kilometres long but it is a roadway when the tide is right.

 

 

We backtrack slightly and take a side dirt road to Spirit Bay.

This is a sacred Maori site where the spirits of the dead are said to depart from to there spiritual home.

 

 

View of Ninety mile beach.

 

 

On our route home we visit a gallery which possesses a spiral staircase carved out of a Kauri tree.

An amazing piece of craftsmanship.

 

 

This is our last day in the Bay of Islands and tomorrow we head back to Te Kuiti for our final week.



Harbour cruise and Russell

This is the view from our balcony at The Retreat.

 

 

No driving today, we were collected from our villa by a minibus to take us down to the harbour for our trip to the Hole in the rock and the islands offshore.

 

 

We found a pod of Bottle nosed Dolphin early into our trip and they gave us some wonderful displays chasing the boat.

 

 

We had some great views of the islands as well as a short walk on one of them.

 

 

Now approaching the Hole in the Rock.

Which we are about to go through.

 

 

Just before this we saw a Hammerhead Shark cruising around the boat.

 

 

Through we go with inches to spare.

 

 

Back to Russell for lunch of fish and chips at the Duke of Marlborough.

And a little bit of retail therapy.

All in all a lovely day out.