Maori Word of the day: Te Papa – Our Place. This is the name of Nz’s very impressive museum of art, history, and science.
The last few days have been spent in
2007 12 17 – Big Trip – Day 230 – New Zealand – Wellington
December 26th, 20072007 12 13 – Big Trip – Day 226 – New Zealand – Tongariro National Park
December 14th, 2007Ohakune Top 10
Kiwi Word of the day: Tramping – Hiking.
On Wednesday morning the weather was kind of iffy, but we decided not to hang around Taupo any longer and drove down towards Tongariro. We took the turn to Whakapapa village, which is a year round attraction, ski in winter, tramping in summer. After Shir and Orr napped along the way, and after lunch in the visitor center parking lot, we embarked on a hike to
2007 12 11 – Big Trip – Day 225 – New Zealand – Napier and Hawkes Bay
December 14th, 2007The weather in the mountain area of Taupo was still bad on Sunday morning, so we decided to hit the east coast area of Napier for a few days. The 140km drive was scenic (as usual) and also supplied us a few tense moments with an almost empty fuel tank once we realized there will be no gas station till we reach the coast. Imagine our joy to find a gas station towards the end of the drive only to realize it is automated and won’t accept any of our credit cards. Argh! Read the rest of this entry »
2007 12 8 – Big Trip – Day 222 – New Zealand – Wet Wet Taupo
December 14th, 2007For Pictures Click Here and Here
Our luck with the weather ended a few days ago and now it seems we are doomed for several more iffy days. We left Whanganui on a sunny morning and headed north on a beautiful drive called the
Trampoline Fun
December 4th, 20072007 12 4 – Big Trip – Day 217 – New Zealand – Mount Taranaki
December 4th, 2007Wanganui Top 10
Maori word of the day: Pakeha – The Maori word for European New Zealanders. Once derogatory, now standard.
Hag Urim Sameach (Happy Hanukka)
After Waitomo we headed south to Mount Taranaki also known as
2007 12 2 – Big Trip – Day 215 – New Zealand – Waitomo Caves and Glow Worms
December 2nd, 2007Waitomo Top 10
We had a busy day here in Waitomo. Our day began with a 10am tour of the famous glow worm cave, a short walking distance from our campground. After we parted with a nice sum of money, we were led on tour of a very interesting cave. Sure, it has stalagmites and stalactites, but it also has an underground river running through it, and even cooler than that, thousands of little glow in the dark worms that hang from the cave ceiling. Read the rest of this entry »
2007 12 1 – Big Trip – Day 214 – New Zealand – “Stinky†Rotorua
December 2nd, 2007Waitomo Top 10
We spent several days in
2007 11 28 – Big Trip – Day 211 – New Zealand – Coromandel Pennisula
December 1st, 2007Kiwi word of the day: Chook – Chicken. As in – After Ron fed the chooks, he got an egg from the henhouse.
We spent the last three days in Coromandel Pennisula, a beautiful area just a few hours southeast of
Our week started with a Monday morning appointment at the RV rental depot. To our pleasant surprise, the RV was fixed very quickly, less than half an hour. My previous experience was a wasted day when we had RV trouble. Since we now had more time on our hand than originally expected, we decided to visit Devonport, Aucklands posh northerly neighborhood built upon two volcanoes. Read the rest of this entry »
2007 11 25 – Big Trip – Day 208 – New Zealand – Bay of Islands
December 1st, 2007We spent two days in the bay of islands, a beautiful bay with lots of islands dotting the horizon. Our first day was miserable because of the rain. The second was sunny and fun.
We woke up to a drizzly Saturday morning and drove from