Kia Ora from New Zealand

I am sitting in McDonald's once again connecting to the world....to you guys. I'm currently in Rotorua, New Zealand which is in the middle of the north island and is known for it's thermal pools, geysers, and mud pools which come from the earth's core. It reeks of sulphur but it's beautiful. My new friend Andrea made her way out to New Zealand to drive around the country with me and good thing she is fun because our living quarters are quite close. She flew into Auckland last week and we picked up our Britz Rookie Campervan and started on our journey. We spent the first day in Auckland CBD walking around and making our way to the sky tower to view the northern part of the island. It was creepy and way too high up...apparently it's the tallest building in the southern hemisphere. We had lunch in the revolving restaurant and watched bungy jumpers fling themselves off the side with our chicken and lamb dishes.

After Auckland we made our way up to the Coromandel Peninsula to Cathedral Cove...where Prince Caspian was filmed. We couldn't make it to the actual spot because of the weather. THE WEATHER!!!!!!!!!!! I've seen more weather in this week then Southern California sees in a year. It's been overcast, windy, rainy, cold and crappy since we started but oh well. They call NZ the land of the long white cloud. From the peninsula we went to Hot Water Beach where you can dig a pool and sit in it and it fills up with hot water. We didn't dig our pools though because we had missed the low tide. From the peninsula we drove to the Bay of Plenty and stayed in Waihi Beach and then on to Whakatane where we stayed with John and Rachel Whelan who run the Christian Surfers chapter there. From there we drove to Rotorua and our adventure continues……

After Rotorua we drove south to Lake Taupo which reminds me a lot of Lake Tahoe. It was beautiful and we caught the sun setting over the hills in the distance. We got into Taumarunui late that evening and geared up for our drive on the Forgotten World Highway which is from the center of the North Island all the way to the west coast. Its about a 4 hour drive filled with windy roads and a land long forgotten by our technology obsessed generation. I love technology and appreciate all that it does and I know all the benefits it brings but there is nothing like miles of green rolling hills filled with sheep and cattle and lush ferns covering the landscape. Old forgotten homes and farms are scattered here and there with an occasional tractor to pass us by on the road. This life out in the middle of no where doesn’t have the word stress like us Californians know it. I guess you are able to breathe in the fresh air and think about the beauty of life and of this world we live in. We finally made it to New Plymouth mid-day where I re-packed my bags, dropped Andrea off, and hit the road for Auckland to fly out to Fiji the next morning. Needless to say, stress had quickly come back into my life once I got back to civilization. Such is life!