Adventures without bats

It's definitely time to post something about our recent adventures since you're probably completely underwhelmed by our recent book reviews. Bernie lost his transmitter last Monday so we got some time off to explore other parts of the North Island.



Kerry's family lives about an hour from Tokoroa and they invited us for dinner on Tuesday. On our way to their house we hiked up to a spectacular waterfall. There was a geocache hidden right under the viewing platform. The hike was awesome, too, but it demonstrated to me that I am very out of shape right now.

Before dinner on Tuesday we went kayaking down the river that runs right along Kerry's family's farm. They have a dairy farm with about 200 cows. Unfortunately, we forgot to take pictures of their place so you'll just have to take our word for it. Kerry's brother and sister-in-law also joined us for dinner. We spent Tuesday night at their house.


After we left Kerry's family's house on Wednesday morning, we stopped in nearby Te Aroha to see a hot geyser. This was the first geyser for both of us. This one was interesting, but not very big. I imagine Old Faithful is much more impressive. Nearby was a hot spring where you could pay to go sit in the geothermally heated water. There are commercial hot springs all over this part of the North Island. This particular spring is supposed to have excellent soda water. We tasted it from the public water fountain, but it was kind of gross.



The little town of Paeroa is most famous for the drink Lemon & Paeroa, known just as L & P, because it originated there. It has an excellent slogan: "World Famous in New Zealand." Since every country has to have its share of oversized objects-turned-tourist-attraction, we stopped to pose in front of the enormous bottle of L & P while drinking the real thing.



Next we stopped in the town of Thames to do a little bird watching. Thames is at the southern end of the Coromandel Peninsula. They have a nice bird viewing shelter on a mangrove-covered tidal mud flat.



We continued up the west coast on the Coromandel Peninsula. By Wednesday afternoon it was getting pretty hot, and we had a delightful swim at Waiau Falls. Apparently this is a well-known swimming hole because we definitely were not alone. I had a hard time getting a picture of Matt in the water when he wasn't surrounded by other people!



We stopped at a Department of Conservation (DOC) campground at Waikawau Bay for Wednesday night. We had a great time exploring the rocks and tide pools during low tide. We saw tons of hermit crabs, some sea urchins and star fish. Just like we did on our trip through the South Island, we slept in the back of Lu, our trusty 1984 station wagon.



On Thursday we continued down the east side of the Coromandel. The hike out to Cathedral Cove is extremely popular- for good reason. On the way we saw a beautiful whorl from a tree fern about to unfurl. I thought you should see just how big these things are so I wrapped my hand around it for the picture. New Zealand is full of all kinds of unique vegetation, but I think tree ferns might be my favorite.



This is part of Cathedral Cove. It was just a little too cold to go swimming, but DOC created a snorkeling trail at nearby Gemstone Bay to highlight the marine life. We'll have to go snorkeling sometime since Matt has never been.



At the far end of Cathedral Cove was a beautiful little waterfall that was like a natural shower on the beach. It was amazing! Unfortunately you can't see the falling water very well in the picture.



Next we stopped at Opoutere Beach. It's one of a few breeding sites for New Zealand dotterels. There are only about 1400 of them left. A large portion of the beach is fenced off to protect their nests (which they're currently tending) from foot traffic and dogs. We spotted 3.



We spent Thursday night at a place called Dickey's Flat. On Friday morning we did a few geocaches and went on an awesome hike in the Karangahake Gorge. This area was mined for gold and is still full of abandoned mine tunnels. They incorporated the old tunnels into an awesome trail system. They cut a series of windows into the tunnels going along the edge of a slope to let light in and to create scenic lookouts. At right is a picture of Matt in one of the windows.



This is also in the Karangahake Gorge. Can you see me at the entrance to one of the tunnels?

Friday afternoon was spent geocaching through the small towns along the coast of the Bay of Plenty. We spent the night at McLaren Falls Park where we were swarmed by insects. We invented a makeshift screen system using a sheet to keep the bugs out while having a window open. Definitely a major breakthrough for our car camping experience.



On Saturday morning we woke up and hiked to another scenic waterfall in McLaren Falls Park. This one was about the same size as the one we swam under but the pool below this one wasn't as inviting.



On the way back to the car from the waterfall, Matt spotted some excellent swinging vines. Lookout Tarzan and Jane! It started raining as soon as we got back to the car and didn't really let up for the rest of the day. This eliminated most of our plans for beaches and hikes.



In spite of the rain, we were able to find the ENORMOUS kiwifruit along the highway. Remember, a Kiwi is a person, a kiwi is a bird, and a kiwifruit is what you eat. This is the big icon for the orchard-turned-theme-park that gives tours and sells all sorts of kiwifruit items. The tours were way too expensive, so we just opted to take a picture of the huge fruit in the parking lot in keeping with our attraction to oversized objects as foreign tourists.

We were going to visit some free hot springs near Rotorua on Saturday and Sunday, but the rain really put a damper on those plans, so we drove back to Tokoroa on Saturday evening. Rotorua isn't far so we'll go some other time. Another volunteer, Kirsten from Austria, arrived on Saturday. Tonight we start catching bats again!

Carrie