A crazy awesome valentines day weekend in Taupo

So this post is about our jaunt to Taupo for valentines day.  We drove up Friday night after cecil got done with work (like 7pm) and rolled in around midnight at the motel.  The sunset was gorgeous.....

The next day we basically waited around until noon (we also slept in we were both beat and the motel had AC, which was wonderful our house doesn't).  At noon we showed up at SKYDIVE TAUPO, that's right peeps, cec and I were jumping out of a plane.  Now cec was cool as a cucumber, but I was jittery nervous.  Honestly though, I dealt with the nerves better than I thought.  I know that's ridiculous but I couldn't help it.  We had a saftey briefing and they were running late so we didn't actually get on the plane until like 2pm.  We both have VIDEOS (see the links below) and tons of photos we paid a bit of money for.

Karen's skydive: Click here for video

 ( Me and my tandem diver, andrew before the jump)

 (You lean back on thier shoulder before jumping.  Thankfully, they do t quickly.  Its like oh my legs are off and then OMG i'm in the air)

 (I'm like holy crap this is cool!)

 (It says "Level up"

 (15,00 XP.... yea I did that)

 (I'm glad he took photos im to busy looking at everything.  Oh and see how my fists are closed?  It was FREEZING.  It hurt my fingertips and teeth)

 (They let us spin the parachute)

 (Slide into the landing)

(Aaannnndddd we're alive!)

Cecil's skydive: https://youtu.be/Owhorcdcz3o

(Karen and I taking the plunge on Valentines Day!) 

(Level Up!) 

(WOO HOO!) 

( I can fly) 

(I didn't really get nervous...but when I was on the edge I was thinking, "This is really unnatural!")

(Human Meteor!) 

The rest of the day we basically just went to lunch at a bar, and then went to see deadpool in theaters.  I know, best valentines pregame ever!  Lol, the next day we rolled out arond 8:30am and checked out of the hotel.  They graciously let us leave our car there because we had a half day of fly fishing to head off to, with our guide fishy Steve.  Ironically, he is from Colorado.  Now cec was all about jumping out of the plane and I was all about trying the fly fishing.  Steve had waders and gear for us.  He also really was patient and taught cec and I the basics of fly fishing and line management.  He took us to a local river where the water was so clear you could see the fish.  You literally were aiming the flies at them being like "heyyyyy here is a yummy fly".  Steve did have to help us a but but both cec and I got to reel in a trout!  Mine was a rainbow trout and his a brown trout.  The brown trout was huge, like 9 pounds.  We let him go as rainbow are good eats and brown aren't.  Much less one fish is plenty.

 (Hat check, waders check, boots check, ready to go!)

 (Here is our classroom)

 (Cec getting some lessons)

 (Karen getting some line management help)

 (Karen's rainbow trout)

 (Cecil's ginormous brown trout.)

 (Steve, the guide, even had us take pictures for him!  He was pretty)

 (Here we are letting him recover before letting him go)

 (Cec is prepping our dinner!)

(Valentines day meal!)

Ps: a final note. We will not be updating for two weeks as we are going to South Island. I'm sure the update that will be there will be worth the wait but just an FYI.

Coromandels and tauranga

So this past week we had a nice time in the upper northern part of the island. We drove to coromandel town (which took the better part of a day. We did stop at the Rapua water gardens. Nice little walk around the lilies Ducks and up to a waterfall. After that it was just more driving to coromandels town. Stayed at a wonderful cottage.

 (ducks love cec!)

 (They are called water gardens for a reason!)

(waterfalls are a bonus)

The next day we had a huge hike. We got picked up by a guide and driven to the northernmost point of the peninsula. We stopped at a local cafe to pick up sandwiches and a couple of nut bars. Then we drove for another hour up scary as all get out roads to our drop off.  By scary I mean dirt roads not wide enough for two cars, but driven by two cars… with no Burms on the side of cliffs. I do mean like 20 foot tall cliffs. Cec and I were sooooo happy we hadn't driven. Not to mention the fact that we had to cross a stream... Twice!! We got dropped off and hiked a little over 10k, 6 miles. It was a costal walk, so we basically waked right along the peninsula through fields and forests. Great views! It was overcast, thank god! Had it been sunny it probably would have been miserable. It was intense , not as bad as the alpine crossing, but a pretty steep uphill. The views were worth it. We had lunch at a bench overlooking the pinnacles and water! It also was pretty private, we only saw like 6 people the it whole time.  When we arrived at the end our driver had tea and biscuits for us :). Then, we grabbed some Ice cream and beef for burgers. Our motel had a grill so we did burgers for dinner! We really miss our grill over here and they tasted amazing. Probably a combination that we were hungry, the beef was locally grown and butchered, and it was grilled. Cec also had some extremely fresh oysters, which they grow and farm right behind the shop along with mussels. They put these giant barrels out in the shallow water and they love it. Cec said they were good! I just can't get on board with the raw oysters but they were super fresh.

 (views)

 (More views)

 (For a couple of hours just views)

 (With pinnacels!)

 (3/4 done a bench break for lunch!)

 (And more views)

(Need a selfie!)

(Ended on the beautiful beach with native trees)

The next day we drove to whittianga. We grabbed some lunch and read on the beach waiting for our boat tour. We took a fast boat around the bay and to cathedral cove. Regrettably, we don't have any pictures because we were afraid to take our camera on board. It's to bad because the water is crystal clear and you can see though it to the snapper (fish)?that are common. You can also see the currents. We also drove into a cave and saw the fault line for the island!! Cathedral cove and other pinnacle rocks were impressive. The commentary from the guide made it quite entertaining. After that, we drove to tauranga and heckled into our awesome hotel! It actually had air conditioning!! It's pretty rare unless your paying quite a bit of money, which we will not.


The next day we hiked mount Nagarupa.  Amazing sites again. Nice path for once. Tons of locals running… which for the record is steep and hard enough just walking! After heading south we stopped for lunch at the beach. Then we went to kaiete falls. It was a set of two waterfalls, with a short (39 minute) walk around. We got rained on a little bit but nothing to bad. After that we went to the hotel to chill before out night kayak tour. We are and hung out and then went to our meet up for the kayaking. They drove us out to Clarence park and we kayaked the lake I a sea kayak. Cec and I paddled in a two person sea kayak and I really liked them. Super aerodynamics and had a rudder that cec used to control our direction. Sea kayaks are currently my favorite type of water mobility item not powered by a motor. Anyway, we kayaked to a cliff where they have gloworms. Super pretty. The guide told us about them, which I will not go into gory details but also told us a power about them which was halarious:

How I wish I we a gloworm

For a gloworm is never glum,

For how can you be sad,

When the sun shines out your bum?

 (At the top!)

 (Notice the town to the right)

 (More drop dead gorgeous views)

 (Did I mention there were quite a few stairs?)

 (Oh and lots of dead ledges)

 (Here is a view from the bottom)

 (Cec and I at Haite falls)

 (Cec climbing rocks again)

(I love the photo with the stone stairs.  Note how worn they are!)

We had revived news the next day our dolphin excursion was cancelled due to stormy weather. So we drove back to Taupo and went to the spillway and watched them open the doors and the water spilled down. We also walked the craters of the moon, which we were disappointed in to be honest. We've seen quite a few geothermal items and this one just wasn't that impressive. Just a few large craters with some plants and steam… seen better. We got home at a decent time which is always nice. Maybe Dolphins next time :).

 (being a goofball under the rainbow of glass)

 (Glass ball display)

 (My fav, those bowls are the size of pizza stones)

 (Cec liked the giant flowers)

 (We watched the dam on the upper left corner empty and look at all the water!)

(Craters of the moon)