Easter on Waiheke island
We bade farewell to Asia after 3 and a half months and stepped off the plane the next morning in Auckland. We had been generously invited to spend Easter weekend with Rochelle's family on Waiheke island, a short ferry ride from downtown.
The island was beautiful - a Martha's Vineyard without the attitude - and the house we were staying in had a spectacular view over the water.
It was wonderful to enjoy a piping hot shower with clean, fluffy towels followed by a splendid home-cooked meal. We were thoroughly spoiled for two days, and very grateful.
After much research and deliberation, we managed to book a cheap rental car for the trip down to Christchurch, and then a campervan for the rest of the time in the south island.
Our first stop was the Waitomo caves, which are famous for their glow-worms. We went on a 4-hour tour that involved a fair bit of scrambling, crawling and slithering through narrow, muddy openings and splashing, swimming and inner-tubing along a chilly underground river (we were wearing chunky 5mm thick wetsuits).
It had been raining hard all night and morning, so the water level was high, and at one point we had to dive below a submerged ceiling to continue down the passageway. Good fun, but Katie's feet suffered quite a bit from the rubber boots we were wearing which has jeapordized our plans to go hiking in a few days.
We drove on to Rotarua that evening and thoroughly warmed ourselves up with a visit to some thermal pools - a bit smelly, but very pleasant with views out onto the lake and a few stars overhead.
In the morning we did a little grocery shopping and I had a proper bowl of cereal for breakfast for the first time since London. Then we were back on the road again (slowly getting used to driving on the left again) to Lake Taupo - the site of one of the largest known volcanic eruptions ever (25,000 years ago).
The lake's setting is beautiful, surrounded by rolling green hills and snow-clad volcanoes in the distance. We decided to sign up for sky-diving lessons the next day.
The island was beautiful - a Martha's Vineyard without the attitude - and the house we were staying in had a spectacular view over the water.
It was wonderful to enjoy a piping hot shower with clean, fluffy towels followed by a splendid home-cooked meal. We were thoroughly spoiled for two days, and very grateful.
After much research and deliberation, we managed to book a cheap rental car for the trip down to Christchurch, and then a campervan for the rest of the time in the south island.
Our first stop was the Waitomo caves, which are famous for their glow-worms. We went on a 4-hour tour that involved a fair bit of scrambling, crawling and slithering through narrow, muddy openings and splashing, swimming and inner-tubing along a chilly underground river (we were wearing chunky 5mm thick wetsuits).
It had been raining hard all night and morning, so the water level was high, and at one point we had to dive below a submerged ceiling to continue down the passageway. Good fun, but Katie's feet suffered quite a bit from the rubber boots we were wearing which has jeapordized our plans to go hiking in a few days.
We drove on to Rotarua that evening and thoroughly warmed ourselves up with a visit to some thermal pools - a bit smelly, but very pleasant with views out onto the lake and a few stars overhead.
In the morning we did a little grocery shopping and I had a proper bowl of cereal for breakfast for the first time since London. Then we were back on the road again (slowly getting used to driving on the left again) to Lake Taupo - the site of one of the largest known volcanic eruptions ever (25,000 years ago).
The lake's setting is beautiful, surrounded by rolling green hills and snow-clad volcanoes in the distance. We decided to sign up for sky-diving lessons the next day.
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