There and Back a Tale of the North Island

I think this may be another marathon blog post, just breezing over what we have been up two for the past 2-3 weeks. It is all kind of a blur at the moment.

Ryan, Nick, Ina and I took a road trip of the North Island. Ina is a german gal that we picked up in Queenstown. She is a nurse and is nice and somewhat quiet. We left Qtown Sunday night and then went to visit the glaciers. Franz Joseph and Fox. It was windy the first night we camped near lake Wanaka and rained a ton the second night that we camped in Hokitika. Then spent a night with Moya and John in Christchurch. Then headed to Kaikoura and Picton and took the ferry accorss to Wellington. Kaikoura was amazing there was a nice walk an a Seal Colony.

We spent 2 days in Welling after taking the ferry across from Picton Wellington is a huge city and parking can be an issue. Ryan and I went to the Museum the first day and then spent the day first at the Otari Wilson Reserve and then the Karori Nature Reserve where we got to see the predator proof fence. Lots of birds like Tui, Kaka, Bell Birds, Shags, ducks and more. And some semi wild Tuatara. We then took the cable car up the hill and walked back to the city through the Botanic gardens.

The next stop was Auckland. Ryan and I had lunch in the Sky Tower restraunt . The view was great and there was even glass panels in the floor to look down at teh city. Before that we spent some time at Mount Teranaki a volcanic area and then took the Forgottn Highway before spending a night at a Holiday Park on a serf beach called Raglan and went Kayaking in the bay.

We had an amazing 10 days on the North Island. After Raglan We then took a day and went diving at the Poor Knights Island one of the best dive sites in the world for diversity per square meter. Then we headed to the top of the North Island to see the Bay of Islands. Then we spent a day in the Coromendel Peninsula and went to the hot water beach. You can dig a pool in the sand where natural hot pools come up. Then we went to Rotorua. And saw some of the sulfur pools and guyers. We also went to the Museum. The next day we did a great walk of the Tongario crossing. Then we headed to Wellington and took the ferry accross today. We saw some dolphins and then drove to Nelson. It is raining today so we may not do the Abel Tasmin walk tomorrow. We will then head to Christchurch to head off to Australia.