New Zealand

Last morning at Lake Taupo, and we can say it was a relaxing and enlightening stay. Well worth the visit.
We arrived in Auckland mid afternoon and quickly found our accommodation on Queen Street, spitting distance to the wharf where we catch the Radiance of the Seas in the morning.

Our apartment building

Off for a walk down to the Wharf to check out what ships are in dock, here they are:

When we checked later in the evening Celebrity Solstice had already gone & Albatross was just leaving.

Grabbed a bite to eat.

On our stroll home we discovered this little bar called The Jefferson. It's a whiskey bar with over 600 whiskey. They had run out of Scapa. Ian has a taste & sniffed a few.

That's it for now, it's off to bed.

After the Friday to Auckland, and 24 hours awake, we had a good nights sleep before heading off for a big day out.
First stop was the Lava Glass studio. A wonderful place with such beautiful works of art.

Craters of the moon.

We found a lovely shade spot to have an old fashioned family picnic.

Time to visit the free thermal hot pools close to the town centre. Imagine a hot day, you are in your togs (swim suit) and walk down to the waters edge. You see this beautiful shallow waterfalls. You step in slowly imagining it will be freezing cold, well it was actually thermal water, it was hot. The waterfall hot water feeds into a fast running cold stream. So like chess you position yourself in a position in the water where you are not hot and not cold, but just right temperature. As people walk around in the pool either the hot water or cold passes you and you find yourself adjusting to be in the water the right temperature for you.

We headed to the boat harbour to board a sailing boat. We sailed for about 2 and a half hours with Sail Barbary. It is an eco sailing ship. The company uses an electric motor in & out of the harbour & then set sail for a taste of adventure. We had a wonderful time on the water. Temperature was a sunny 25 degrees.

The destination was the Maori rock carvings I created from a rock face at Mine Bay by carving students over 20 years ago.

This was another sail boat on the water this afternoon.

Another amazing day in Taupo.

The flight from Perth to Auckland, via Melbourne, went smoothly and on time. Even arrived at Auckland airport a few minutes early, just after 5 in the morning 😊
A quick bag collection and a nice coffee to kick-start the New Zealand experience.

Off to catch the Inter City bus to our first few nights, at Taupo.
As with any longer bus trip there was a wee and food stop. Ours was at Tokoroa, sandwich and drink with the Pine Man.

Picked up by Caroline, Deborahs sister, and taken to our AirBnB for 3 nights. On the way Ian got side tracked seeking more information about the area & we visited the iSite.

Saw some of the local Graffiato along the street.

Time in the afternoon to see the Aratiatra dam and Huka falls.

Afterwards a walk around the townsite to look at a whole bunch of Graffiato, artist's work on the walls around the town.

The stormwater grates in the centre of town are even a bit fishy, in a great way.