The world in Technicolor blue

Miles wanted to try a local soft drink and picked one called L & P (Lemon & Paeroa). He loved it. We asked a couple of young clerks what Paeroa was (a fruit? They had no idea.) Well, we asked a seasoned Kiwi (our age) and he said it was a nearby town that had special mineral water and that's where they developed the drink and the rest is history. It's considered a national treasure.

So we just had to stop in this town on the way to the Bay of Plenty on the Pacific Ocean, about 3 hours south-east of Auckland.

Miles REALLY likes this drink

Then we took a wonderful river walk in the Karangahake Gorge. Just beautiful foliage, rocks and water. Who could ask for anything more? The area is very historic and is littered with machinery parts from the off-and-on gold mining in the area from 1852-1952.

Karangahake Gorge

We also stopped at nearby Owharoa Falls.

Owharoa Falls

I needed coffee, so we stopped at the Waikino Station Cafe which is a charming 19th century building, and you can take Goldfields Railway from Waikino to Waihi City, our next stop.

Waikino Cafe and Station

By the time we drove to Waihi, it was raining and we thought, "Hmm. What can we do while it's raining? Watch a Christmas parade, that's what!" We were just in time to see the 1/2 hour local, (wet) parade, filled with home-made floats, old cars, community groups, bag pipers, lots of kids...it was wonderful, even though everybody was soaked. The community just rallied and everyone enjoyed themselves.

Waihi Christmas parade


Hey, Santa!

By the end of the parade, the rain stopped and off we went to Waihi Beach and took an over-the-hill walk to Orokawa Bay. Glorious, wonderful, beautiful, just like everything else we've seen. There is nothing here "not" pretty. Really.

On the path to Orokawa Bay

Miles at Orokawa Beach
(we finally found 1 thing NOT to like about NZ: nasty flies here that bit our ankles like crazy)


We then drove to Bowentown, another coastal area with beaches, outcroppings, bluffs...We walked all around, up and over, met a bicyle rider from Seattle who was taking about 3 months to ride all over North and South islands. Quite a journey. More beautiful views, of course.

Bowentown headlands


The Pohutukawa tree which has red blossoms in Dec., also called the NZ Christmas tree

We stayed overnight in Tauranga, the major town in the Bay of Plenty and home of the largest port in New Zealand. Lots of beautiful coastal walks, cafes and water activities. On Sunday we climbed to Mauao Peak on Mt. Maunganui and saw a 360 degree view of all of the Bay of Plenty. We just couldn't get enough and spent a lot of time there wandering around, taking in all the angles.

Mt. Maunganui from the beach


View from the path going up Mauao Peak


View from the top overlooking Moturiki Island


Fantail bird


From yet another angle atop Mauao


That boat is a HUGE carrier of logs--we were pretty high up

After talking to a local Dutch fisherman and finding out where to buy the best black Dutch licorice (and we did), we walked via a sand bar out to Moturiki Island. Again, views, rocks, technicolor water of every shade of blue/turquoise.

Technicolor blue

The Bay of Plenty is also home to avocado and kiwi fruit and we decided to stop at Kiwi 360, near Te Puke, a touristy place all about kiwi fruit. We wandered a bit around the gift shop and then noticed we could rent a Segway machine for 15 minutes. Who cares about kiwi when you could ride a Segway!!! We both always wanted to do this, so we did: a quick lesson and then off we went, practicing on a slalom course, up and down the hills and then did a few minutes off road. What a blast!

They grow 'em big in NZ, but not THIS big

Zippin' around on the Segway

Our last activity for the weekend was driving along the coast to Ohope Beach, beautiful and serene, pretty much like everything else. Wow. We loved every minute.

Ohope Beach...ahhhh...