Its been awhile since the last blog, in fact just about a whole term has gone by and we have winter holidays soon in July, where we are off skiing , but before we do that I thought I would post some pictures of our Easter holiday where we took a road trip on the west coast of the North Island and around Tongariro national park and the Wanganui river, camping along the way. Was Brilliant. Sorry about the delay .........................
First stop on the way to picton to catch the ferry was a few carsick stops [we stocked up on sick bags when on the ferry] below is clay and tegan waiting to go on the ferry
arriving in Wellington
It was then off to the Otaki to see Rach,Corrine and Josh on the kapatai coast, Sand dunes, abit of canoing in the River and Pipi gathering on the beach
Then off to Ohakune [near Tongariro national park] but didn't quite make it so camped in mangaweka for the night, where we went to see some mad people do the longest flying fox ever [bit hard to see by the photos]
A Typical NZ back road signs with a letter box in the middle
Onto the whanganui River for a jet boat ride, followed by a walk to the Bridge of Nowhere, and then kayakaing on the river for 2 hours in the pouring rain [the kids were amazing[ In fact the whole thing was amazing. You got a real sense of what it was like for first settlers in this area, very rugged even now
Below is Army museum near Ohakune
below, on our way to Mt Ruapehu [2797m] tallest mountain in North Island and the only place to ski in the North Island, Clay loved the the name of the village there [Whakapapa ]
Chair lifts to the top, where we went for a walk
I had to turn back with Tegan abit much for her but clay and Haydn made it to the top, with their heads truly in the clouds
Waitomo Caves, renown for their glow worms, always hard to capture the beauty of these places on camera, they were quite stunning
Then it was off for a drive down the surf coast on our way to New Plymouth, stopped on the way at the beach below, not to sure where we were going to stay, ran out of food not shop and tired children
Then we found a couple fishing on the beach catching massive kowhai [fish]
They gave us one for tea, we found a campsite the lady sold us some potatoes
I just about ran over the fish, which I forgot we had put in the shade [close one]
Time to gut and fillet, turned out to be a great night, and off we went the next day continuing on the surfers coast
Below was a beach where you had to go through a tunnel to get there, al local had told us about it, we would never have come across it otherwise
Cooking up some noodles under the watchful eye of the stone beach man
The kids enjoying the freedom
and just incase any of you ever make it this way, the name of the beach is below [I never would have remembered it]
Here is tegan on a great rope swing, whilst staying at Whangonui
