New Zealand - Week 4 ...

Our next "tiki tour" was to head south from Hamilton to Wellington, with various stops along the way. New Zealand has many dormant and active volcanos, and we were able to see some of the most famous on this tour. We also visited both Wanganui and New Plymouth, on the west coast of New Zealand, on the Tasman sea. The weather was great, with the exception of Tuesday. We were in Wellington on Tuesday and spent the day at Te Papa - New Zealand's national museum. It was totally amazing, and we were there from opening to closing, so the rain didn't bother us. The countryside was just gorgeous, and the roads were not nearly as twisty as it was in the Coromandel.

We really enjoyed the ski lift trip to the top of the mountain. Unfortunately, the week after we were there, someone managed to set a fire and caused damage to both the chair lift and the cafe at the top of the mountain - terrible!!

We left on Sunday Feb 8 for Tongariro National Park and the volcanic mountains there. Sunday was beautiful with not a cloud in the sky so we could see the mountains at the park in all their glory. The mountains have always been in the clouds every time Bryan has taken me there so I've never seen them. So the joke has been that I tell him there are no mountains but this time I had to apologise finally seeing them.

This is Mt. Ngauruhoe also known as Mt. Doom in the film "Lord of the Rings" - taken from the valley floor.

We were lucky as the ski chair lifts were operating so we went up two sets of lifts to the top of Mt. Ruapehu. The volcanic landscape was amazing as well as the view of the valley below from the top of the mountain.

Here is one of the many water falls created by the melting snow on the mountain.


Here is an adventurous couple at the top of the mountain wading through the remaining snow bank.

The view of the valley below from the mountain top.

Mt Ngauruhoe taken from the ski chair lift on our way down the mountain.

The beautiful chateau and Mt Ruapehue taken from the golf course in front of the chateau.

Mt Ruapehu taken from one of the lava mounds in the valley.

Lake Taupo was close to the Tongariro National Park so we spent Sunday night at Lake Taupo. We had a motel right across from the lake. It was a wonderful warm evening and we had dinner at an outdoor cafe with a view of the lake and mountains. I got this picture at sunset of the mountains across the lake at Tongariro National Park where we spent the day.

Pat at the rose gardens in Pamerston North, on our way down to Wellington

A moveable feast! Sushi in Wellington - each little plate went around on a conveyer belt and you snagged what you wanted as it went by. Meanwhile, the chef added new selections to the belt - it was a hoot!

Wellington is the capital city of New Zealand. This is one of the government buildings - great architecture!

There are three separate buildings here - the one on the far left is the newest - appropriately referred to as the "bee hive".

This is a description of the Maori sculptures that follow - I hope that you can read it!

The sculptures represent navigation - the one on the right is the waka, or canoe, the one on the left represents birds and the one in the middle represents the alter of stones that the Maoris built when they landed somewhere new.

The largest wooden building in the southern hemisphere

Another view of the "bee hive".

After Wellington, we drove north to Wanganui. It is a beautiful city, with lots of old buildings and flowers everywhere. Wanganui is on our "visit again" list.

On our way to New Plymouth, we got a great view of Mt. Taranaki - another volcano.

Here's a picture of Lee in our "executive suite" in New Plymouth! We were having a hard time finding a motel - lots of "no vacancy" signs for some reason! This hotel was right on the water, and because they only had their high end rooms left, gave us a deal - $100 us dollars! We had an amazing unit!

This is the view along the boardwalk in New Plymouth. We're definitely going back there again!

Great shot of a kingfisher who slammed into the glass of the conservatory at Bryan and Peter's, and was unable to fly for quite awhile! Shortly after this shot he recovered enough to fly off. I'm sure that he had a headache!