Wellington Journal

North Island Trip: Days 14-15, The Journey Home

Originally, our plan for the North Island trip was going to take us out around the Bay of Plenty and the East Cape, but things were getting weary and everyone was ready to be home, and Sara suggested we give up the extra-scenic tour for a quicker journey home.  (I quickly agreed.  Thank you, sweetie.)  This had the added advantage of allowing us to see Taupo again, but this time in the daylight.  So we chose a few way-points, such as the straightforwardly-named hot water beach just south of Coromandel Town (B), and Taupo (C), where we stayed the night.  We got there in time to see the lake, but only just barely: it was almost dark and after dinner we fell right asleep.  The next morning we woke up early and headed home for Wellington (E), stopping on the way in Napier/Hastings (D), which is like Minneapolis/St. Paul, except much, much smaller and located in New Zealand.

Here’s how it looked on the journey home:

Hot Water Beach

I’m sorry to admit that I took a pass on Hot Water Beach and went for the nap-in-the-car option instead.  In my defense, I drove for literally the entire trip, with the one exception being once during our stay in Coromandel Town when Sara drove to the nearest take-out place only to find it was three blocks away.  So I had a little car-nap coming to me.  But by all reports, Hot Water Beach lived up to its name: it’s a beach where you can dig a little in the sand and it’ll start filling with hot water.  Meanwhile, a few meters away is the Pacific Ocean, which is decidedly not hot water.  This particular geological oddity is a big tourist attraction though, so the beach itself was pretty crowded.  Here, take a look:

Kiwis enjoying their Hot Water Beach as if it were beach weather…

… and what the weather was really like

We did have some breaks along the way to Taupo, and I got in a few shots.  As did Sara, obviously.

I don’t look that bad in a beard in this shot

Pacific Coastline

Napier / Hastings

We only stayed for a couple of hours in Napier because we wanted to get home to Wellington before I was sleeping at the wheel.  I even managed to convince Sara to forgo Hastings, which is so close to Napier that they almost have the same name.  (Thank you again, sweetie.)  But we did enjoy the park that we found in Napier, we had a good lunch, and as we drove further south we really started to see the fall colors.  Which was a little odd for us, seeing as how this was the end of April.

Excited to be out of the car

Standing over the Port of Napier

You’ve got to stop and hear the flowers

Starting to see those Fall Colors

Yep, definitely fall

As usual, you can see more pictures of our last few days heading back on our Picasa website.  But this marks the end of our North Island trip.  I have plenty of other great pics from just the regular days in between trips (and a few smaller trips around the area) here in Wellington, but we’re moving out on Sunday, and I’m not sure if I’ll be able to get to them all.  But I owe it to my mom, so I’ll try, dear reader, I’ll try.

Labels: North Island trip

posted by Dug @ 9:13 PM