Okere Falls, White Water Rafting, NZ

Bob picked us up with his amazing Stag 1974, V8, grrrrrrrrrr. What a sound. It was freezing but we had the top down, for sure.

Today was the day, we got excited to do a White Water Rafting , inclusive the highest commercially rafted waterfall on earth, how high do you think will this be? Yes, 7 meters!



And in between, some “smaller” ones. Gosh we had tons of fun in and outside of the boat! The water was freezing but the adrenaline kept us warm. Amazing.







On the way back, Bob sat in the back of his car, for the first time.
We were allowed to drive this baby!! Yeahhhh!! He had to cool down so we stopped at a very yummy ice-cream station.

White Island Vulcano, Bay of Plenty, North NZ

“Housten, we´ve got a problem… “ that’s what you are thinking while walking on the only active marine volcano of NZ. Dressed with an helmet and a gas mask you walk over the moon landscape, smoking things, lots of pschhhhhhh and psssssssssss , sulphuric gasses + bubbles with it’s yellow coloured crystals and it stiiiiiiinks like hell.

When you reach the crater you can see the bubbling lake in it. Nasty green, sometimes dark grey.

They once had a sulphur mine on it, but of the high wastage of workers ( unfortunately they all died ) they closed it. There are still some silhouettes of buildings and machines on it.
The rough sea makes it hard to eat the free lunch on board. :)

Tongariro National Park, Central North Island

Taupo, Waikato Region, North Island

This is one of my “ .. to live when I am old .. ” places. An amazing area, with the biggest lake in NZ , with a panoramic view to the Volcanoes of the Tongariro National park in the back and the beautiful Waikato River.

Lots of adventure sports were offered. We decided to take a plunge in the river, jumped 50 meters deep. This is New Zealands highest water touch Bungy. They forgot to take the pictures so we jumped again, for free. Yihaa!

Tongariro National park, Central North Island, NZ, November 2007

This is a place to be. We were totally impressed by the size and the high of the 3 volcano’s, they look so innocent, covered in snow they look like pie, growing out of the ground.

But they are still active and one of them, the Mt. Ruapehu, just had a hydrothermal eruption 2 weeks ago, without warning. It´s a famous ski area so a few people got hurt. He´s also the highest point of northern NZ, 2.700 m above sea level.

We took a flight with a small plane, had sunshine and the best scenic flight ever. Three volcano’s. You fly over the crater and still can see the ashes of the last eruption ! That was just WOW.
We flew with a very young pilot and just paid for 2 of the vulcanos, but because we were so nice, he flew with us over the third one as well. Very very nice!

Mt. Tongariro + Mt. Ngahruhoe

Also known as “Mt. Doom” from Peter Jackson´s “Lord of the Rings”. Isn´t he beautiful with his snow covered cone??

You can do walks around them for days, it´s the best hiking in northern NZ. We just did a few hours, walked through dark forests, bushes, caves and waterfalls.
This is definitely my favourite place on the northern Island.
Till now. :)

Chateau Tongariro, Tongariro National Park

Once it was a hospital, now it is a very luxurious hotel with the panoramic view over the volcanoes and right next to the Whakapapa Ski region.

Rotorua, Bay of Plenty, North Island

This town is freaky, nice and full of geothermal activity’s. in between the city you find bubbling mud pools and around it some geyser.

We took the Gondola on top of the hill where you have a nice panoramic view over the lake and the city. Downhill we took the Luge. Had tons of fun while loosing control about the speed, jumped over hills and nearly crashed into a rabbit while speeding 30 km/h or more.

Mitai, Maori Village, Rotorua

We couln´t wait to see real Maoris doing there “Haka” so we visited the small Mitai village. A mystic wood with hidden springs and Maoris arriving in there “waka”, down the stream, singing and screaming while paddeling the warrior boat. This gives you a mighty goose bumps all over the body ( if you ignore the other 50 people watching ). They prepared a traditionally cooked “Hangi” meal while learning something about the culture, language and art.

The “Haka”, best warrior dance ever. I would have run away if I would be an enemy. The men and woman on the stage performed there haka, very beautiful and scary. We got the chance and met them after the show, it turns out that they are really lovely people. We had a chat for a while and they told us a bit about there culture and that they are trying to safe it. Very cute to see the boys still doing there “Hongi” ( nose to nose greeting ).

Orakei Korako, North Island

This is a geothermal Wonderland, full with bubbles and springs, caves and geyser’s. Absolutely fantastic.