Taupo, Gisborne and Tauranga, Oh My!

On Sunday morning (the 10th) we left the Mordor area and headed to Taupo. Taupo is located at the edge of New Zealand's largest lake, Lake Taupo, where it discharges to the Waikato River. This area is a center of volcanic and geothermal activity, with many hot springs to bath in. 

One of the first places we stopped at was Hula Falls, which is part of Waitkato River, NZ's longest river. Here, the river is confined by hard, geothermal-altered rocks. Over time, it has carved a channel about 15 meters wide and 10 meters deep. The water churns along this channel at a rate much faster than the river.

The power and force that these falls have is absolutely breath taking! 

The Waikato River has developed into one of the country's major electricity producing rivers. It produces about 15% of NZ's power! 

After that, we saw signs for free honey tasting... if you know me at all, you will know that I could NEVER turn down honey tasting. 

The flavors were endless! The overall favorite was a honey-peanut butter flavor with chocolate chips. I also really loved the lavender honey too. If the honey wasn't so expensive, I would probably be coming home with an extra suitcase... 

Good luck was with us this day, the weather was perfect! So we decided to head to a natural hot spring that connected to a cold river. 

When we got too hot, we would just move towards the river, couldn't ask for anything better! 

On Monday (the 11th) we made our way all the way West to a town called Gisborne. Before we got there, we stopped at another place called Napier for lunch. It was another PERFECT day outside! The sun was warm enough that I could sit on the beach and read my book. While I did that, the others played mini-golf. We ended up staying in Napier most of the day. It was a beautiful city along the sea, with a lot 1930's architecture. A very cool impromptu stop! 

A panorama of my spot on the beach

I think I could be the next TOMS endorsor 

Eventually we made it to Gisborne on Monday night. We spent the night relaxing in one of the strangest/eeriest hostels we've been in so far. It was once a convent for nuns, which turned into a hostel with very long rooms and extremely tall ceilings. Dejan enjoyed making "jokes" all night about the ghosts that come out at night. I know it probably...well hopefully wasn't real, but if any place were to be haunted, this would be the one!  

On Tuesday morning, Hannah, Dejan and I got up bright and early to head to the beach to not only see the sunrise, but to also feed some stingrays! 

When the tide is out, the sting rays come in to feed on the sea floor. The stingrays we saw are wild stingrays, but they know food is there, so they are always happy to come back! Along with the stingrays were King fish. People from all over the world come to NZ to fish for these very valuable fish and we were able to see them and even pet them (except for the few times they bit us...). There are two types of stingrays in this area. The first one is the Eagle ray. They can grow up to 2 meters and are colored based on where they were born. If they were born in a sandy area, they are going to be a bronze/sandy color. If they were born near rocks, they will be more grey or algae green color. The other stingray was a Short-tail Stingray. These are the largest stingrays in the world, they can grow up to 770lbs! 

Stingray's teeth work like nutcrackers to crush their prey, which include crabs, fish, and other sea creatures. We learned that stingrays are incredibly gentle creatures. They LOVED to be pet. Even when our food was gone, they still came up to our feet to get a good rub down of their backs and under their chins. 

A young Eagle Ray

A small Short-tail stingray, she was incredibly friendly and loved having her chin scratched

Feeling like stingray pros now...we look the part anyway

Tuesday afternoon we drove back up north to Tauranga to see some of the northern coast. On Wednesday morning (the 13th) we got up early and headed to Mt. Maunganui. The mountain was only around 230 m, but when we got to the top we could see for MILES! 

I may have been having a little too much fun with the panorama feature

Not too shabby of a view! 

Smell that?! Ahh yes, that's the smell of Second Breakfast... we must be getting close to Hobbiton :) Stay tuned to see how our adventure continues to unfold!