Taupo
We arrived in Taupo around 9:30am and grabbed brunch at Storehouse, an adorable restaurant housed in an old plumbing store. Alex and I shared the chicken and waffles and huevos rancheros - both were delicious!
Read MoreRotorua
Rotorua is only an hour drive from Mount Maunganui and you can smell it before you see it! The area is known for its bubbling mud pools, shooting geysers and natural hot springs. There is definitely a hint of "rotten egg smell" everywhere you go. Even as I type this blog post, it smells like someone keeps passing gas in our hotel room! Ha!
Read MoreMount Maunganui
It is a three hour drive from Coromandel to Mount Maunganui and we arrived to town around noon. Mount Maunganui stands 761-feet tall and there is both a summit walk to the top as well as a base walk. Since we were not wearing our hiking clothes, we chose to do the base walk in the afternoon and later returned to do the summit walk at sunset. It was a beautiful hike and the water looked so blue.
Read MoreCoromandel
Sunday, we left the Bay of Islands and drove to Coromandel. The drive took about seven hours total, and I was ready to be out of the car by the time we arrived!! We did wind up passing back through Auckland and stopped at Dear Jervois for brunch which helped break up the trip a bit. Moving forward, the drives will not be as long between towns and I am most thankful for that!
Read MoreAuckland
We have arrived in New Zealand! We will be traveling around both the North and South Island for the next 40 days and are looking forward to exploring this area. We have heard from multiple people New Zealand is one of their favorite countries to visit and I have feeling we are going to really love it here. We are starting on the North Island before flying to the South Island.
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