How's the bathroom going Dad?

That's it for now!!

Craters of the Moon, another thermal park.

Horses! NO fence separating me and them!

Contemplating life.

Cows!

I love clouds.

The extinct volcanoe that overlooks Taupo

So pretty

I need to figure out how to rotate these.

Stretch your neck and enjoy the view.

foamalicious

More of the huka.

Huka Falls. Huka is Maori for foaming.

More of the waterfall that I don't know the name of.

The first waterfall I ever saw in person

The geiser erupted for 45 minutes.

Steamy

More geiser action.

Me and the geiser.

Park of Thermal

Th Th Th Thermal Park

More Thermal Park

Thermal Park

Mud pools at the thermal park.

Thermal park with geisers!

A Maori carpenter carving something that will eventually look like the other carvings.

More carvings.

Maori carvings from a cultural center that the bus stopped at.

Laurie and I before we luged.

Self explanatory

The view in Rotorua before street luging.

Rooster!

The view from the bridge.

The bridge after the windowless caves. It was not the sturdiest of things.

The bus crew after we got throught the windowless part

Again, no windows

We were at the caves that created their own windows, except we were at a windowless part so we had to use our cameras to give us light. None of us thought to bring a flashlight.

This is Whitianga and this beach was two minutes away from my hostel. Whitianga is where the first Polynesian explorer landed.

Stretch that neck

More of the Cove

This is just sticking out of the water at Cathedral Cove.

The land masses sticking out of the water are tops of eroded volcanoes.

Cathedral Cove

At Cathedral Cove

Taking a break from walking.

Walking

First stop on the bus is a 45 minute walk to Cathedral Cove. This is the start of the walk.

Done with Rangitoto, now it's time to go out and celebrate.

Very excited that I walked up the summit ( It took an hour and a half).

Guess where I am?

Still there

Top

Still at the top

For my BFF...still at the top.

I was really excited to get to the top

More pics from the top

I like how on one side of the picture the clouds are white and puffy and how on the other side the clouds are dark. Still at the top of Rangitoto

The view from the top

At the top of Rangitoto!

The picture doesn't do it justice but halfway up Rangitoto there is this bowl of dense trees.

Walking to up Rangitoto.

The pathway up to the summit of Rangitoto. It is all just broken up, cooled down lava.

These trees ( I forget the name of them, maybe Coromandel?) are New Zealand's christmas tree. In December, which is summer, they bloom red flowers all over.

Rangitoto Island. This is the view from the ferry before I walked up to the summit.

Our failed attempt at a funny self timed picture.

My Nova Scotian friend Vicotria in our posh six person hostel room in Auckland.

More Maori carvings from the museum. I can't figure out how to rotate pictures. Just consider it my way of helpling you stretch your neck while at work

I went to the Auckland museum one day. This is a traditional Maori boat with hand carved designs.

Look at him go!

My Kiwi bus driver, Andy, skiing at One Tree Hill. It had just rained so he went pretty fast.

Me on top of One Tree Hill. Auckland is in the background. I do love the clouds in this country.

This is One Tree Hill. In the background is Auckland and those dots one the green are Sheep!! For real!! No fences or anything! They just wander around like the people.

This is the free Auckland bus trip I took. The city behind us is Auckland. The bus I am on from Kiwi Experience is like coach bus but it is just as green as this one.