Sunday, March 15
I usually have a gazillion different things to blog about and I can barely keep up with all my ideas for the blog, however I think I've developed A.D.D. when it comes to New Zealand. I so rarely try to slog my way through so many blogposts on the same general subject, that it's been hard for me to get excited to recount yet another day of our trip and I can only imagine how intensely boring it is for you, dear readers. It's only the realization that I am already starting to forget some of the details that's keeping me on task tonight and I hope you'll forgive me as I make my way continuing to blog about the last few days of our trip!
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Sunday morning dawned bright and clear, making it hard to fathom that a cyclone was quickly bearing down on New Zealand. Cyclone Pam had already decimated the island nation of Vanuatu and we were a tad nervous about what it might do to our plans for the remainder for our trip. We knew it would be weakened by the time it potentially arrived and that the infrastructure of New Zealand was much more modern than that of Vanuatu, but still we worried about being in an unfamiliar area with potential power outages and roads flooding, etc.
In the end, the cyclone turned out to be nothing to worry about, but at this stage we felt like we were racing against the clock. We were still close to the east coast and wanted to be at our final destination, which happened to be much further west, before any of the storm hit. We went to church in Rotorua and left right after sacrament meeting to be on our way.
We arrived to our next "hotel" and had to laugh when we arrived to a little visitor grazing on the roof.
That Sunday afternoon after getting checked in, we took a drive and hiked to Marokopa Falls. It wasn't a long hike from the road, but the kids amped up the difficulty by going off the trail and scampering over rocks and through mud to get to the base of the waterfall.
It was the biggest of all the waterfalls we saw in New Zealand...
I love my silly kids!
After that we went on one more hike on the Ruakuri Bush Track. This was a fun and funky hike that could have only taken about 1/2 hour, but there were so many cool natural features along the way, that we kept stopping to explore and/or take pictures.
It turned out to be a great Sabbath Day, taking the sacrament, moving our bodies, and enjoying this little corner of God's beautiful earth!
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I usually have a gazillion different things to blog about and I can barely keep up with all my ideas for the blog, however I think I've developed A.D.D. when it comes to New Zealand. I so rarely try to slog my way through so many blogposts on the same general subject, that it's been hard for me to get excited to recount yet another day of our trip and I can only imagine how intensely boring it is for you, dear readers. It's only the realization that I am already starting to forget some of the details that's keeping me on task tonight and I hope you'll forgive me as I make my way continuing to blog about the last few days of our trip!
***********************
Sunday morning dawned bright and clear, making it hard to fathom that a cyclone was quickly bearing down on New Zealand. Cyclone Pam had already decimated the island nation of Vanuatu and we were a tad nervous about what it might do to our plans for the remainder for our trip. We knew it would be weakened by the time it potentially arrived and that the infrastructure of New Zealand was much more modern than that of Vanuatu, but still we worried about being in an unfamiliar area with potential power outages and roads flooding, etc.
In the end, the cyclone turned out to be nothing to worry about, but at this stage we felt like we were racing against the clock. We were still close to the east coast and wanted to be at our final destination, which happened to be much further west, before any of the storm hit. We went to church in Rotorua and left right after sacrament meeting to be on our way.
We arrived to our next "hotel" and had to laugh when we arrived to a little visitor grazing on the roof.
The inside was anything but fancy, but it was adequate for our needs, and the kids were quite taken with the cuteness of the hobbit-ness of it all and the friendly donkey on the roof.
The second night we were there, we ended up split into two different rooms….a hobbit room and a ship room (shown on the right below). It was actually an old ship transplanted into the country and made into this fun and quirky hotel! All in all, we were happy enough with our stay and it was nice to be so close to everything else we wanted to do on our trip.
That Sunday afternoon after getting checked in, we took a drive and hiked to Marokopa Falls. It wasn't a long hike from the road, but the kids amped up the difficulty by going off the trail and scampering over rocks and through mud to get to the base of the waterfall.
It was the biggest of all the waterfalls we saw in New Zealand...
and provided a perfect backdrop for lots of pictures!
There were boardwalks along cliffs, bridges...
small caves, rocks to scramble over...
tropical vegetation that made us feel like we were in the jungle….
and even a good spot to rest the camera and use the timer to capture a picture of the whole family.
Love the adventures! Great family memories to remember!
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