Day 2 - Adventures in the Waikato and Bay of Plenty (Coromandel to Rotorua)

Woke up bright an early to a gorgeous sunny day...

Perfect for a morning kayak tour of Cathedral Cove!  The sea was like glass and our fabulous guides met us for what ended up being a private tour.

(I will totally plug Cathedral Cove Kayak Tours here! Hayden & Andy were great and really knew their stuff.) Cathedral Cove itself was totally empty - apparently a rare phenomenon - and stunningly beautiful.

After leaving the beach at Cathedral Cove we kayaked out around some of the smaller islands before heading back to shore.  I should mention that this is when we experienced our first NZ earthquake...  Not that we knew it at the time, LOL! 

Back on shore, Hali made a new friend...

After dragging ourselves away from that view, we headed for Rotorua and a Maori dinner.  We stopped in Tairua for lunch at the Manaia Kitchen & Bar   Can I just say YUM?!

I'd forgotten that the food in NZ is mostly amazing.  Especially if you go to the individually owned local spots. And don' even get me started on the coffee!

When we finally got to Rotorua, we had a bit of a rush to get ready for our Maori hangi (aka dinner) feast at the Tamaki Maori Village.

Day 1 pictures!

I'm back in the land of reliable wifi and unlimited data, so I'm going to start posting my Stories and photos from my adventure!

Day 1 photos:

 Chicago before landing

 Los Angeles

Mid-flight!

 In the driver's seat - on the wrong side!

 Home sweet home for the next 10 days

 From the passenger seat - on the wrong side of the road!

 Sigh...

 We survived 24 hours of travel...

 And celebrated appropriately!

 The view from Shakespears Cove

 At the ferry landing

Can I go back now??

 Our fabulous dinner from Mercury Bay Estate (http://www.mercurybayestate.co.nz/)

Day 1, a few days late...

Let's see if this one works!  

Nope...  Looks like I won't be able to post pictures until I get back to the US.

So, non- photographic synopsis of our trip so far!

We landed at 4:30 on Wednesday morning NZ time, thanks to a strong tail wind aiding our trip over. With 3 1/2 hours to kill before the Campervan company opened, we had breakfast at the airport - ah, for the love of kiwi coffee! - then hopped a shuttle to the rental company. 

We got ourselves all settled in to our home away from home, then headed out to the Coromandel Peninsula for our night at the vineyard. 

Side note: Getting used to driving a Campervan, on the right side of the car & left side of the road, didn't take as long as I thought. Though at this point I'm glad I'm not driving immediately upon arrival back to the US. Oh, wait, I'm renting a car for the day in LA - I guess nothing quite like diving back in to keep a girl on her toes, eh?! 

After a lovely drive through essentially Mordor, we made it to the Peninsula and it is GLORIOUS. We were staying the night at Mercury Bay Estate Vineyard in Cooks Beach, and Simon & Veronica couldn't have been nicer. We arrived early, so ended up getting a bite of lunch and then heading out to explore the area. Most things are named after Captain Cook, who 'discovered' it (if you don't count the natives, of course) and tracked the passing of Mercury in front of the sun (hence Mercury Bay). We went up to Shakespeare Cliff, down to the ferry landing, over to the beachfront - basically everywhere. Stopped in at the local Dairy (think corner store, not milk production) and got a few essentials then headed back to the vineyard for the evening. Veronica made us a beautiful - and tasty - cheese and fruit tray for dinner and we ate, unpacked, set up the beds in the camper, (Hali took the top bunk, I took the back of the bus) and hit the hay by 7pm. It was a long trip here! 

 

Test driving a new blogger app...

Let's see if this one works!  

Our home for the next 2 weeks...

 

 

Updates are coming, I promise!

Discovered that my blogger app doesn't always want to upload photos, so I'm going to hop on the actual computer this evening and update with the past few days adventures...  Let's just say it's been an action packed rocking good time LOL!

We made it!!

Well, we've arrived safely in Auckland! Once we've collected the Campervan I'll post photos of travel adventures...  This one will have to do for the time being. It's a long flight!

 

And away we go...

I made it through security & I'm waiting on flight #1 to start boarding.  Pretty sure the butterflies in my stomach will go away before I board.  I hate flying, but there's no other way to get there (at least not in the time I have!!).  Meeting up with Hali at LAX...  

New Zealand, here we come!  

Work hard, have fun, be productive at, well, something...

There are times at work when it feels like 5 minutes have passed and suddenly it's 4pm. Those are great days, because it means you are super busy and you're getting stuff done. Then there are days when you just know it's been 3 hours but in reality it's only 8:15am (we start at 7am).  On those days, once you've done all there is to do for work, you've got to occupy yourself until more work comes in...

 
 
 
 

 

 

 
 

 

 
 
 

Life, as I see it.

So, I travel a lot. Not always to exotic places - in fact, usually not.  But I love finding new things to do or places to eat, drink or just be merry. And I love finding the quiet spots where I can just be me...