Why laziness pays off

With a whopping day and a half off work this week- I had big plans to do a 5 hour hike in Tongoriro National Park! (The second oldest national park in the world)

But I slept in both days....

So......option B.

My first day off was Waitangi Day, a NZ national holiday. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waitangi_Day

So I lazed around all morning then walked to town to enjoy the free celebration in the park.

Funking out to the free music

There were some arts and crafts stalls, food booths and the usual.

I had to share this photo. Dude standing up is the quintessential Kiwi. No shoes. Clothes and accessories mismatched from the 80's and 90's. Totally tattooed up. Gotta love it.

There was also live music at the amphitheater and I got to listen to the throwback band Ardijah. A funk/reggae band that used to be really popular a few decades ago.

Kids on the rope swings at riverfront park during the Waitangi Day festival

I walked around the festival and the park for a bit, then because it was a nice, hot sunny day, I grabbed a pint and walked home. My walk from home to town is mainly along the walkway along Lake Taupo. So I walk to work/town as much as possible. It gives me time to take in the amazing view.

My lakefront commute

The next day I planned to do a short 1.5 hour hike near town. But I couldn't find the trail head. Lol.

Instead, I found the trail head to a shorter hike that took me out to Whakamoenga point.

Looking at the point I was originally trying to hike haha. A wee bit off course on the way to the trailhead. 

Amazing.

No words. Only the NZ scenery can stop my yammering.

I got a nice sunburn lazing on the rocks and watched Mt Tongoriro smoke like a chimney from across the lake.

I had the place to myself. The water was so stunning I couldn't leave without going for a swim.

El

Drowned rat happiness

I spent a couple hours just hanging out and jumping off the rocks into the lake.

A lot of boats started to come and interrupt the tranquility of my swim hole and I had to work that evening.

Fishing boat. Me jealous.

 So I reluctantly left my newly found happy place. It so easy to get to, I'll be going back for more lazy, sunny days.

The Tongoriro Mts from my short hike. Mt Tongoriro has been smoking like crazy the past week.

But wait! There's more!

I've made my home in beautiful Taupo for the next few months.
I have a job at Taste cafe in the town center. The cafe patio is across the street from the lake. The view is a huge perk!
I'm so lucky to have found a job so quickly! Digging the paycheck.
I stayed my first few nights in Taupo at the campgrounds here. I really liked this one spot on the side of the Huka falls river.

Waikato River from the campsite

Waikato River

And it was free, so appealing to my cheap side.

Visitors at my campsite. Guess I'm a messy eater. They were feasting on my crumbs.

I also found a place to live! Not bad for only being in town 5 days, eh?
My new place is awesome. The rooms are huge. It's a great, big, open house. I've met 3 outta 4 of my flatmates and they're all very nice.
It's so nice to have my things unpacked and have wifi, hot showers and a washing machine.
I'm SO EXCITED TO HAVE A KITCHEN!
But wait...there's more....
I didn't think ANYTHING could be better then having a kitchen to cook in...but this definitely trumps that.

View from the living area and deck of my place 

And a few minutes later....Beaut sunset on Lake Taupo

The views from the backyard and the 2 decks overlook Lake Taupo and Mt Ruapeho, when it's clear.
I believe I'll be drinking many early morning coffees from this deck.

Convoy!

Thursday through Saturday we convoyed our way back to Auckland. I had a blast. and enjoyed every second of scenery.

3 Canucks, 2 trucks, 1 kiwi. Lots of fun.  Lots of driving...

So Thursday, we got to take our sweet time in Queenstown and hit the road in the afternoon to head up to Christchurch.

First leg of the journey was through beautiful, amazing South Island.



Sorry, I don't even remember the name of this lake. Breathtaking tho.

Great company and amazing views made for a cool road trip. We stopped for some awesome wood baked pizza (pepperoni and jalapenos, my favorite!) for dinner and rolled into Christchurch a lot later then planned. So I didn't see much of Christchurch. I could see that a great deal of it was still under construction from the earthquake.

Same gorgeous anonymous lake, which will be named at a later date... I promise

We watched Bad Teacher over some beers and passed out thinking we had a few hours in the morning before getting back on the road.
Nope.
At 7am they got the word to be in Picton and on the ferry by 2pm. So off we convoyed.

The beautiful snow covered mountains gave way to green rolling hills.

 The countryside reminded me a lot of Sonoma county. These hills led us to a bright blue ocean and wild coast.



Part 1 of the convoy (meat locker and decompression chamber) as we hit the South Island East Coast



Wicked, wild, beautiful coast line

We left Christchurch at 8am and were on the ferry by 1:30pm.

The ferry ride was sunny and clear. Not always warm but incredibly scenic. Probably some of the best conditions one could have on the ferry between the South and North islands.  It took a little over 3 hours.



On the ferry, its mountains, not clouds, that are the white in the background

On the ferry ride sailing into the Cook Strait

I sipped on the best mocha of my life as we pulled into the Wellington harbor.

We drove into Taupo around 11:30 pm. We were lucky and saw a sick fireworks show on our trip. I also subjected the Kiwi diver to my country music. Country music is not popular here. Lol. It's met with poo face everywhere I go haha.

Lake Taupo is HUGE. It is also incredibly pretty.

Part 2 of the convoy (truck and Zodiak) at Lake Taupo

Saturday morning we had a bomby breakfast and walked through an art show in the park before we left the Kiwi with his girlfriend in Taupo and the 4 of us finished the drive back to Auckland.

Awesome sunset on the way to Taupo, camera really didnt do it justice. Thats right, Im still scapegoating my camera

I was looking forward to hanging out in Taupo for a few hours, but after 10 days on the move, my new friends were ready to have the trip be over. Can't blame them. As it is, we didn't make it into Devonport until almost 3pm.
It was a great trip with lots of driving, I felt like I have seen so much of NZ already. And all of it has been amazing.