Up and down North Island

From Kaiwaka to Wellington
From Wellington to Lake Tarawera and then back to Kawaika

on Desert road on the way to Taupo our first stop of our two day road journey

Once in Taupo we stayed at the Brets for the night - no pics

Arrival in Wellington

Visiting Samuel's sisters and his nieces

this charming picture hangs in the room where we slept

Wellington - Wilton bush

Luscious bush with natives that are hundreds of years old.

As it has been raining a lot as we are in wintertime, the streams were full and little waterfalls abundant.

chippy Josie's dog

Wellington - top of the hill hike

The town belt of Wellington allows many hikes from different locations where one can admire the city and it's suburbs from a look out point.

Road shots from Wellington to Lake Tarawera

Desert road

Lake Taupo

Whakarewarewa - Red Bush - Rotorua

The Whakarewarewa forest is primarily a productive plantation forest where all facets of the forestry management cycle can be seen from time to time.

We explored the forrest via track on ground level and the canopy walk almost up between the treetops.

The sequoia trees are known to be the tallest on earth.

my favourite native : the ferns

Canopy walk of Red bush at night with the lanterns

Lake Rotoiti

Lake Rotoiti holds a special place in Samuel's heart (and his siblings Josie, Joanna and Matthew) as it was their favourite holiday spot which use to belong to Samuel's grandparents on his mother's side. The pic below shows the track leading to the batch by the lake.

the way up to a very special place

lots of different plants/trees growing on the 'rock'

the 'rock' which Samuel climbed to visit his mum's resting place

Samuel paused on the rock in remembrance of his mum

Soda Springs

Not the most grant photo of this place but the best I could do to maintain the privacy of the other visitors

Lake Tarawera

We stayed for two nights at my Gwen's place - if you are regular follower of my blog than you will know my friend Gwen - although she feels more like my adopted kiwi family. I met her in 2007 when I visited NZ for the first time as a woofer.