Surfing

The boys and I took a surf lesson one cloudy day. Liam as usual got up with ease. The instructor worked with Rory who also did very well. I was very happy actually surfing small waves for once. We all had a great session together. The highlight for me was all three of us catching the same wave to shore. Loved it. Nigel

Cook's Cove

Just north of Gisborne is a little town called Tolaga Bay, with the longest wharf in the Southern Hemisphere, 660 meters long. We drove there, not only to walk the length of the wharf but also to hike the Cook's Cove Walk. This was a fabulous walk up hills through sheep and cow pastures ('cow pie minefield'), to lookouts over the ocean and cliffs, down through the bush (jungle!) to one place called The Hole in the Wall and to the sheltered little harbour where Cook landed in 1769 after leaving Poverty Bay. The hole in the wall is a natural arch through the cliff side framing the sparkling ocean and rock formations on the other side. Cook's Cove is a beautiful bay with a little group of islands and arches where it meets the open ocean. A catamaran was anchored just off the islands making our views even more perfect! We had our picnic lunch while watching the tide start to fill the bay, before heading back.

More East Cape

One fun excursion we made from Mary and Rich's place, was to go rock sliding on the Rere river. The boys loved it! A natural rockslide with just enough water for a boy and a boogie board to go flying down! The slide is over 100 feet long with a mellow grade that picks up a lot of speed especially after you hit the bumps! We rented a type of inflatable sled for the day and the boys took turns for hours, trying to hit the bumps just right! Even Nigel gave it a try, but I wasn't in the mood, I was happy taking photos! Rory was best at going backwards, not necessarily on purpose though!

East Cape

We've been staying with Rich and Mary Davis, who used to live in Mosier until they moved here three years ago. They live in Wainui Beach just outside of Gisborne, on the East Cape - the first place in the world to see the sun rise each day! And boy, do they have a good thing going here!
The beach is on their doorstep, fresh lobster (called crayfish here) all year round, great wines and wonderful friends to share it all with! Mary says there is a club for every interest - she belongs to a Waka ama (outrigger canoe) club, a wool knitting/ felting club, and they are both in a wine tasting/making club. Gisborne produces about 1/3 of the Chardonnay in NZ. We've been enjoying some of the great wine and food here as well as meeting a lot of their interesting friends and seeing some impressive sights.

Turangi - a week under Mt. Doom!

IWe finally left the coast and headed inland, to the town of Turangi, at the southern end of Lake Taupo. We left the ocean and found warmer waters to swim in! Lake Taupo is a vast, sparkling sea of clear blue and since it is off season, we find ourselves swimming alone in the warmest water we've encountered so far, just us and a few black swans in the distance. We are staying in a charming little cabin near the Tongariro river, a world renowned fly fishing destination.
Liam and I mountain biked the Tongariro River Trail, crossing a few suspension bridges and spotting a few fly fishermen along the way, while Nigel taught Rory how to fly fish for his first time, further downstream.
The boys had been excited about seeing Mt. Ngauruhoe, otherwise known as Mt. Doom, so we did two great hikes in the Tongariro National Park to get as close as we could to the perfect dome of 'Lord of the Rings' fame. The first hike took us 5 hours round trip to the upper and lower Tama lakes, at Doom's southern base. The lakes were a spectacular emerald green and the ridge where we had our lunch was stunning - in front of us was the upper lake with Mt.Ngauruhoe behind it, and behind us, the lower lake and Mt. Ruapehu! On our way back we stopped to cool our feet off at the base of the 20 meter Taranaki Falls and followed the river back to the Chateau Tongariro where our hike began.
The next hike in Tongariro started at the Whakapapa ski village where we took 2 chairlifts up to 2020m, giving us a head start to the 2797m summit of Mt. Ruapehu. This hike took almost as long and the uphill scramble over rocks and boulders and up scree fields proved quite challenging! Rory made it within 10 minutes of the craters edge, saying he had had enough of the climb, the rest of us climbed the last few hundred feet and were rewarded with incredible views. Being a beautiful clear day, we could see Mt. Ngauruhoe, Tongariro and all the way to Lake Taupo as well as Mt. Taranaki in the west, as well as the view into Ruapehu's crater and the pale blue crater lake! The journey back to the chairlift took almost no time, glissading on snow fields and jumping down the sandy, scree areas, to a well deserved picnic lunch.

Whiritoa and the Coromandel Peninsula

Last Monday we drove up the coast from Mt. Maunganui to Whiritoa near the eastern base of the Coromandel Peninsula, our new home for a week.
Our first afternoon here, we walked down the beach and hiked up the bluffs to a really cool blowhole, walking along the edge of salmon coloured cliffs and looking down at the surf crashing far below.
We explored the Karangahake Gorge which included an incredible hike through old gold mining tunnels, lots of swing bridges and the funnest swimming hole yet! Then we spent a day with my friends Penni and Steve, (who haven't changed a bit in 20 years!) at Waihi Beach and hiked a stream-criss-crossing trail to a funky waterfall. Fortunately for us the weather has been gorgeous but since it has been very dry, some waterfalls have been quite sparse, including that last one.
Yesterday we hit two great spots in one day: Hot water beach and Cathedral Cove! I think it ranks as one of our best days so far!
At hot water beach we arrived just right - within an hour or two of low tide, and parked in a fairly empty car park. Because of this, I thought there was going to be hardly anyone there especially since school break is over.... But once on the beach you could see the crowd from a distance! Probably mostly tourists like ourselves, about 100 or so people with shovels and buckets all digging holes on one particular stretch of beach. We looked around for a good spot and Nigel started digging- he was the only one of us who could since he had shoes on. The water from a spring 100's of feet below the sand seeps up at 64 degrees Celsius - about 150 Fahrenheit! It literally burns your feet when you step in it. Rory stood in our bucket filled with sea water and Liam and I stood out of the way of steaming water or in the ocean! Eventually we had a little hollow with walls to sit in and the boys jumped in, adding buckets of cold water from the sea to get it just right. It was kind of like an instant hot tub, and Nigel and I gave it a try too, before playing in the waves and cooling off. The boys built their own pools a little ways down the beach and were having a great time until the tide started coming in and washing away their pools! It was time for Cathedral Cove.
Just up the coast from there, near a little town called Hahei (that had the biggest ice creams ever!) was the start of the 30 minute hike to Cathedral Cove. This is a cove with sand sculpted cliffs, sea caves and islands to jump off, swim in and explore! It's also incredibly beautiful with it's white sand, turquoise water and white cliffs! We swam to the islands, jumped off, swam into the sea caves, played in the waves, picnicked on the beach, and rinsed off under a fresh water waterfall before hiking back at the end of the day.
Liam and Rory agreed, it was definitely one of their favorite days!

Mt. Maunganui

After leaving the beautiful beach home of the White family in Mangawhai Heads, we drove south to our next destination, Papamoa Beach, near Mt. Maunganui. We spent a busy Saturday on the beach at Mt. Maunganui watching a Billabong surfing competition for kids under 16 (groms), then a secondary school beach volleyball competition further down the beach and finally a Jr. Surf Life saving competition at the base of the Mt. We took the steep hike up to the summit and were not only rewarded with wonderful views of the town and harbor below, but also watched a helicopter rescue half way up the hill. (Some unfortunate hiker needed to be lifted off the side of the hill in a basket).
The next day we drove to Kaiate Falls. Hidden away in the jungle at the end of a very short hike, we found a multi tiered waterfall with numerous swimming holes! Liam and Nigel jumped off a cliff at the first spot, while Rory found a more suitable jump spot for himself at the next falls. There was something for everyone!