Wednesday, September 14, 2011

Driving Along


View of the Coromandel



I don't know how many times I said "stop the car!" to take a picture like this. Most often it happened near sheep, they're soooo cuuuuttteeee





Roadside fauna

Port Jackson Campground


Our campsite the second night, Port Jackson Campground on the Coromandel. We had to drive along a  gravel road for about an hour to get here, but it was so worth it.



Sunset





Slacklining the next morning


On The Road


Our first night of camping- oh yeah! Thanks for the tube tent dad!



View from the road - just pull over!



Self timer



Typical scenery



Oooh la la

Saturday, September 10, 2011

Climbing a Boulder











Lake Waikaremoana















Gisbourne

Gisbourne is a cool hippie town right at the end of the East Cape. We had fun playing disc golf for free at the I-Site (every town has one, they provide info for tourists) and doing a fun walk to the top of a hill.  


Bridge crossing on our walk



 City view





Wednesday, September 7, 2011

Devonport and Auckland


 

View of Auckland from the Devonport Ferry Building



Sailboats at King Edward's Parade in Devonport




Night view from the sky tower! We had dinner there.

Rosco's pad

A friendly kiwi (thats what they call New Zealanders) invited us to stay at his house! It was awesome.


Miniature horses!!!



Kiwidog




Cuuuuttteee



:-)



Rosco and Kiwidog. Above his porch is a boat he's refurbishing.

On The Road



Pretty church by the road



View from bathroom window at a beach

Best Youth Hostel

Out of our 2 weeks on the road, we spent 5 nights indoors, the rest camping.



This youth hostel was $30/person per night for a double room. Use of kitchen and kayaks provided!



View from our room







Hammocks!

Saturday, September 3, 2011

Animals!

So many sheep!


Baaaaaaaa



Neeeiiiggghhh



East Cape Lighthouse

We hiked up the 600 steps around 4pm when the sun was shining bright. 




No one else was there!



East Island







Here you can see the lighthouse on the right and the East Island on the left.



We loved it so much we came back twelve hours later to watch the sunrise. We didn't have a clock but it must have been 4am when we climbed the steps. We watched the night sky with the clearest stars for about an hour before the moon rose, a glowing orange orb with a tiny bright white smile. I was kind of delirious and thought it was a space ship. We must have watched the moon for at least 30 minutes before the sky started to change, subtle gradients of blue and orange . . . and the sun rose. The new moon disappeared.



It was cold so early in the morning!



The view toward the mountains


Towards the coast