Around the world with 80 gadgets - Around the world with 80 gadgets

View of Auckland from Mt. Eden

My only day in Auckland was unfortunately spent in bed with a cold, but I hear there's not much to see there anyway. My flight from Christchurch was delayed the night before, so I arrived quite late as well. The next day the weather was beautiful when I got back on the Kiwi experience bus heading northeast. First stop was Cathedral Cove, a beautiful limestone rock formation on the beach. The water was too cold to swim in (at least for me, the Viking), but we enjoyed the scenery and the steep walk down to the beach. It really looked like an island in Thailand or Greece. Too bad we only had a few hours here!

The north island of New Zealand has a lot of geothermic activity and several active volcanoes as well as one of only three geothermic parks in the world. In Rotorua we visited the park and got to see a geysir about 30 meters tall. It was very impressive, so I think I will need to go to the other two parks as well!

Another popular thing to do in Rotorua is going to a Maori cultural show. They have an entire village in the forest for tourists to come and see how they lived before the European settlers arrived, and it was a great experience to see the fierce fighters, the intricate tattoos and craftwork as well as having a genuine Maori meal (Hangi) steamed with coal underground for hours.

We also visited a farm show with 19 different breeds of sheep, sheep shearing and trained sheepdogs as well as cow milking and lamb feeding. Look at this guy!

The evening was spent in a genuine Kiwi pub full of friendly locals. It got late and the bus was quiet the next day ...

After some sunny days we had a bit of rain, but that didn't stop us from going down to one of the little streams used in the filming of Lord of the Rings (Gollum tries to catch a fish here) in the Tangaroa National Park.

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