Karl and I decided to stay in Roturua for New Years as I wasn't feeling the best and didn't feel like packing up and moving on quite yet. It was actually a pretty good spot to ring in the New Year. We went for a nice Indian dinner, checked out the town fair that included live bands down by the lake before heading to our room to ring in the new year in our thermal pool. I will admit that it was my first sober New Years in, well, years. I just wasn't feeling up to drinking. But regardless, I had a great time.
Before we left this area, we decided to check out Wai-O-Tapu which is also called the Thermal Wonderland. It's about a 75 minute walk around the thermal wonderland and it is just that. Wai-O-Tapu is associated with volcanic activity dating back about 160,000 years. Many different hot spots, boiling mud pools, geysers etc. It was quite spectacular to visit, even with the intense smell of sulphur.
We headed out to spend our last few days in the Auckland area, as I was meeting my mom and Aunt at the Auckland airport for January 4th. We did manage to get in on more good hike up to a beautiful waterfall, but other then that the next few days were fairly relaxed as the weather was cold and rainy and we both were quite tired from the previous few weeks.
My mom and Aunt were scheduled to fly into Auckland on January 4th so Karl was driving me to the airport at 6 am to meet them and take us back to our hotel...yes HOTEL! I was, of course,
extremely excited to see them. I was up early and ready to go well before 6. After an hour of waiting, out comes all the faithful Canadian backpackers with their flags sewed onto their bags..so I knew the Vancouver flight had landed. Than I spotted them, my mom and Aunt and the tears started to flow. Yes it was a girly moment for sure and a bit embarrassing as there were heaps of people at the airport but the feeling was overwhelming and I couldn't really help it. Off we all were to the Hyatt hotel in downtown Auckland, my first hotel in months. We walked a lot, explored some areas where we would like to spend more time. We took a boat cruise around Auckland, visited the amazing Auckland Museum, viewed the beautiful city from the Sky Tower, visited an island off of Auckland, enjoyed a lovely horse carriage ride, enjoyed some meals at amazing restaurants, took complete advantage of the pool in our hotel...it was a great three days.
extremely excited to see them. I was up early and ready to go well before 6. After an hour of waiting, out comes all the faithful Canadian backpackers with their flags sewed onto their bags..so I knew the Vancouver flight had landed. Than I spotted them, my mom and Aunt and the tears started to flow. Yes it was a girly moment for sure and a bit embarrassing as there were heaps of people at the airport but the feeling was overwhelming and I couldn't really help it. Off we all were to the Hyatt hotel in downtown Auckland, my first hotel in months. We walked a lot, explored some areas where we would like to spend more time. We took a boat cruise around Auckland, visited the amazing Auckland Museum, viewed the beautiful city from the Sky Tower, visited an island off of Auckland, enjoyed a lovely horse carriage ride, enjoyed some meals at amazing restaurants, took complete advantage of the pool in our hotel...it was a great three days.
Our next stop is Turanga, about a 4 hour bus ride from Auckland.
I must say, exploring the city with my mom and Aunt was by far my best experience so far. It was completely surreal having such familiar faces with me and we've been having a blast since.
Write soon!
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