Ok so I’m behind on writing! We are now in Blenheim, our first stop on the south island but a lot has happened since I wrote on the 3rd.
The morning of the 3rd we left Rotorua and drove to Whaka Thermal Village. The whole name is much longer than that but I can’t remember it all right now. We walked around the living village with a guide, saw a Maori cultural performance and had lunch, tasty. It was interesting to see a village built on a thermal site.
After lunch we went to Hell’s Gate, which is a spa of sorts. We went and checked in and were given a map of the thermal park. We walked all around – about 45-60 minutes or so and even though there were clouds, we both got a bit sunburned; Toshi on his face and me on the tops of my feet since I was wearing flip flops. After doing our walk we were shown to our mud bath where we were for 20 minutes. It’s a very strange feeling being in mud, but Toshi and I painted all over each other and that was kind of fun. The worst part was once we got out of the mudbath that we had to take a cold shower before going into the hot springs. Our mud bath was not as hot as we would have liked but the cold shower was still very very cold. After we got mostly clean we went into the hot springs and that was fantastic. We only stayed in there 20-30 minutes because it’s so hot. It was a wonderfully refreshing day after the hard work of the caves the day before.
After getting done with all that we drove to Taupo – only about an hour and a half south of Rotorua. We got checked into the hotel and vegged for a little while since we were tired from the hot springs. We went out to get some dinner in town and did some walking around until it started to rain, we then went back to the hotel.
Wednesday January 4th we made the drive to Wellington. The drive was just about 5 hours and Toshi did it all. So far I have not had to do any driving at all! It’s been pretty amazing actually. I’ve really enjoyed not having to drive but definitely would be able to if needed.
We got to Wellington and met David for lunch. David is a friend of Toshi’s from ridemonkey.com. We did some walking around with David, went up the funicular, got some lunch and then he gave us a driving tour of the south shore. Wellington is beautiful and even driving into it, it felt like driving into Seattle, only newer and with more people out and about. Everyone was out walking since the weather was nice – a little windy but overall gorgeous. By the time we got done walking around I was rather toasty!
We went and checked in at our airbnb about 4:00 and then decided we needed to veg a bit. The sun had taken a lot out of us and Toshi took a nap. About 7:30 we got up, headed back down into down and met Nick and his wife for dinner. Nick is another friend of Toshi’s from ridemonkey. We had some great Cambodian food, which was very much like Thai and Indian sort of combined. Curry, but also things like Roti and peanut encrusted beef. We went and got gelato with the, headed back to where we were staying and crashed.
Wednesday January 5
I can’t believe this is still today. I can’t believe that this morning was when we got up and left Wellington. We got up about 6, showered, got ready and headed out just before 7. We got to the ferry in plenty of time and then waited to be put on. The ferry, since it has to go in the ocean, is HUGE. Nothing like the little ferries that they use in Washington. Incredible really. This one had 10 decks! The ferry ride itself is 3 hours long and most of the time we just spent reading.
After getting off the ferry we drove to Blenheim where we are staying tonight. We stopped and got a little lunch and then came to the hotel. We were going to check in after our wine tour but one of the owners was just getting in from a bike ride and checked us all in. About 1:30 we got picked up from our wine tour that we got dropped off after about 5:00. We went to 5 wineries and Toshi was a good sport about all of it. Sometimes he tasted, sometimes he just tasted from my glass but he even found one he liked enough that we bought a bottle! So at some point we will have a wonderful bottle of wine to open up and enjoy; a semi-sweet Reisling.
It is so much warmer here on the south island that it was up north and everyone has warned us that when you go to Abel Tasman (where we are headed next) so make sure you have lots of sunscreen and bug spray. The burn time down here is 15-20 minutes so we are going to be good about the sunscreen.
Tomorrow we drive to Takaka where we will actually spend three nights – finally! And will get to explore Abel Tasman.
Incredible and we are still only 6 days in!
The morning of the 3rd we left Rotorua and drove to Whaka Thermal Village. The whole name is much longer than that but I can’t remember it all right now. We walked around the living village with a guide, saw a Maori cultural performance and had lunch, tasty. It was interesting to see a village built on a thermal site.
After lunch we went to Hell’s Gate, which is a spa of sorts. We went and checked in and were given a map of the thermal park. We walked all around – about 45-60 minutes or so and even though there were clouds, we both got a bit sunburned; Toshi on his face and me on the tops of my feet since I was wearing flip flops. After doing our walk we were shown to our mud bath where we were for 20 minutes. It’s a very strange feeling being in mud, but Toshi and I painted all over each other and that was kind of fun. The worst part was once we got out of the mudbath that we had to take a cold shower before going into the hot springs. Our mud bath was not as hot as we would have liked but the cold shower was still very very cold. After we got mostly clean we went into the hot springs and that was fantastic. We only stayed in there 20-30 minutes because it’s so hot. It was a wonderfully refreshing day after the hard work of the caves the day before.
After getting done with all that we drove to Taupo – only about an hour and a half south of Rotorua. We got checked into the hotel and vegged for a little while since we were tired from the hot springs. We went out to get some dinner in town and did some walking around until it started to rain, we then went back to the hotel.
Wednesday January 4th we made the drive to Wellington. The drive was just about 5 hours and Toshi did it all. So far I have not had to do any driving at all! It’s been pretty amazing actually. I’ve really enjoyed not having to drive but definitely would be able to if needed.
We got to Wellington and met David for lunch. David is a friend of Toshi’s from ridemonkey.com. We did some walking around with David, went up the funicular, got some lunch and then he gave us a driving tour of the south shore. Wellington is beautiful and even driving into it, it felt like driving into Seattle, only newer and with more people out and about. Everyone was out walking since the weather was nice – a little windy but overall gorgeous. By the time we got done walking around I was rather toasty!
We went and checked in at our airbnb about 4:00 and then decided we needed to veg a bit. The sun had taken a lot out of us and Toshi took a nap. About 7:30 we got up, headed back down into down and met Nick and his wife for dinner. Nick is another friend of Toshi’s from ridemonkey. We had some great Cambodian food, which was very much like Thai and Indian sort of combined. Curry, but also things like Roti and peanut encrusted beef. We went and got gelato with the, headed back to where we were staying and crashed.
Wednesday January 5
I can’t believe this is still today. I can’t believe that this morning was when we got up and left Wellington. We got up about 6, showered, got ready and headed out just before 7. We got to the ferry in plenty of time and then waited to be put on. The ferry, since it has to go in the ocean, is HUGE. Nothing like the little ferries that they use in Washington. Incredible really. This one had 10 decks! The ferry ride itself is 3 hours long and most of the time we just spent reading.
After getting off the ferry we drove to Blenheim where we are staying tonight. We stopped and got a little lunch and then came to the hotel. We were going to check in after our wine tour but one of the owners was just getting in from a bike ride and checked us all in. About 1:30 we got picked up from our wine tour that we got dropped off after about 5:00. We went to 5 wineries and Toshi was a good sport about all of it. Sometimes he tasted, sometimes he just tasted from my glass but he even found one he liked enough that we bought a bottle! So at some point we will have a wonderful bottle of wine to open up and enjoy; a semi-sweet Reisling.
It is so much warmer here on the south island that it was up north and everyone has warned us that when you go to Abel Tasman (where we are headed next) so make sure you have lots of sunscreen and bug spray. The burn time down here is 15-20 minutes so we are going to be good about the sunscreen.
Tomorrow we drive to Takaka where we will actually spend three nights – finally! And will get to explore Abel Tasman.
Incredible and we are still only 6 days in!
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