We left Auckland for three days to head to the beaches of the Coromandel Penninsula, about 1.5 hours east of Auckland. We spent nights in two different towns, enjoying a nice dinner in one and sights in another. We hiked down to a place called Cathedral Cove, which includes a tunnel that can only be accessed during low tide. It leads to a secluded, beautiful stretch of white sand beach. We also went to a place called Hot Water Beach, where people dig pits in the ...

Since we have fallen behind on the blog a bit, we are going to try to wrap up New Zealand quickly and get caught up on Australia: We arrived in Auckland after some drama getting the camper van returned, but it all ended well. We stayed in a great hostel where Bev won a hula hoop contest and free beers (that's my woman) at a pretty fun beach-themed party. Am I in college again? We saw the infamous sky tower and went on a free tour from the hostel where we sa...

We found a great spot at a boat launch on the shores of Lake Rotorua, and we ended up camping there for three days. Our first full day, we checked out the town, and took a deep breath full of...hydrogen sulphide. Rotorua is a town smack dab in the middle of the active volcanic zone that runs through New Zealand. Along the roads and in people's back yards, thermal vents release hydrogen sulphide in plumes of white gas. The locals are accustomed to the smell,...

We arrived in Taupo a few hours after leaving National Park (aka Tongariro). Smelly, weary, and hungry, we wanted to settle in fast. Turns out our camper van park had a heated pool, so we quickly jumped in for a soak. It was a nice way to end a long, long day. Bev concocted a great dinner out of leftovers, we cooked meals for the next few days, and we promptly passed out. The next day, it was raining pretty hard, so we decided to do something really exciti...

We woke up really tired and decided to take the 8AM rather than the 7AM suttle to the trail head. We jumped on the shuttle, and within twenty minutes we were at the trailhead on a crisp, fairly overcast day. We took off through sub-alpine brush as we worked our way to the foot of Devil's Staircase, a steep climb up volcanic rock to the saddle between two volcanoes. We climbed for an hour or so pretty much straight up over loosely defined trail. We landed at the ...