RTW Trip: July 2007

Thermal pools, Geysers and volcano land

There are many thermal pool areas near Taupo, this is one we went to. You cross a river with a small ferry and have a walk on an island that
has volcanic activity along with bubbling mud pools and geysers.

here is some bubbling mud -

this smells like rotten eggs -

lets touch and see how hot it is -

Taupo

Taupo is the main touristic town of the northern island, it sits by a great lake in the middle of the island, near active volcanoes, snowy mountains and thermal pools.
We went on many day trips around the area here.

Here Nitai is in the bee and honey house-

Meytar at the dam after we saw it opening and flowing the water in -

At the glass blower house watching him at work -

Some of the things they made in the glass blower house -

downtown Taupo town -

Huka falls -

At the wood working workshop - they made everything from drift and blown away wood, they never cut one tree down !

Water flowing from the dam when it opened -

North Island - Wellington - Hastings

We crossed to the northern island on a big ferry taking our motor home with us - it was a 3.5 hour trip and we landed in wellington,
the capital city of NZ. Here we spent 2 full days in the amazing Te Papa museum and barely covered part of it. It's an amazing museum
with many attractions for kids and it's all free !
after wellington we continued to the eastern coast to an area called Hastings/Napier.

a view from inside our motor home

meytar at te papa museum in a kids dress up room

NZ the land of action :

Greymouth - Shantytown - Gorge

Shantytown (the name will probably relate very well to Uri K.) is a reconstruction of an old
gold mining town.
The gorge was a place where you have a huge suspension bridge that you can cross by foot or with an
"omega chair" or hanging like superman on a wire and they fly uou across.

This is from a free masons meeting house in Shanty town-

This is a walking trail near the gorge -

Ball chained to the leg at the Shanty town jail house -

Dressed up in the pub of Shanty town -

Fox Glacier

fox glacier is a town built near a very famous glacier, they had many glacier climbing trips with guides but we didn't do them, we just went to see the huge glacier from it's base.