New Zealand is "Good Fun"

It's now been more than a year since we've worked - I know you feel sorry for us. I used to have a letter up at my desk from my little cousin, Jake (although he's not so little anymore), that said "I had a pirate day at school. It was good fun." The term "good fun" is the appropriate Aussie way to describe our time so far in New Zealand.

We've been on the north island the last two weeks. Our travels are definitely weather dependent. We have had to be more flexible with our schedule than what we were throughout Europe - this has been a bit challenging for us :-) but we've actually been OK not always knowing which town we'll sleep in next.

We've been able to do most of the things we wanted on this island. We've missed out on a couple of places and activities due to rain. However, it's been a blast so far. I'll summarise the highlights through the photos below.


Sky Tower in Auckland - Klas stands on thick glass at 192 metres above ground. I think he looked a little timid here, don't you?


90-Mile Beach at Ahipara - The beach is actually 64 miles but I think New Zealand just wanted to have a beach that was considered longer than any beach in Australia


Cape Reinga where the Pacific Ocean meets the Tasman Sea as you can see in the background

Play this video to see Klas sand-tobogganning down the sand dune

Coromandel Peninsula - look at the colour of the water

Beginning of our Tongariro Crossing hike...18.5 kilometres in 7.5 hours...This is Mount Ngauruhoe, which served as Mount Doom in The Lord of the Rings movies

Red Crater at the Tongariro Crossing

Emerald Lakes at the Tongariro Crossing

Klas relaxing at the Emerald Lakes

Blue Lake at the Tongariro Crossing

Lake Rotoairi near the end of our hike at Tongariro Crossing

White water rafting on the Kaituna River - We are at the front of the raft about to go down a 7-metre (about 23 feet) waterfall

Klas and I ended up under the water but we were safe and it was so much fun

Zorbing (or is it zorbbing?) down the hill in Rotorua - this was a zig zag path that we each went down in our own zorb. Water is put into the middle ball with you and you slosh and bump around down the hill. This was an awesome activity.

I tried to post videos of our zorbing but I'll have to try again another time

Kerosene Creek - thermal creek where it feels like you are in a spa/hot tub

We will catch a ferry to the south island in a couple of days. More later...

P.S. It was my (Melissa) 31st birthday on February 28th. Thanks to many of you for the phone calls, text messages, emails and Facebook posts.