Beach Haven

We've spent the past week nestled in at Dave & Dianne Lowry's beach house on Tanner's Point. The Lowrys had spent three years in Minnesota for Dave's job where they became friends with Dustin's mom and stepdad. We spent one night with them at their house in Hamilton when we first arrived in to New Zealand and made plans to meet back up at their place on the beach at the end of our trip. Tanner's Point is in Tauranga Bay on the east coast of the North Island. If you replaced the ocean with a lake it would've been a perfect substitute for the typical cabin on a lake setting in northern Minnesota. We even filled our days doing very Minnesota summer activities: kayaking, swimming, fishing, and eating meals on the deck overlooking the water.

The Lowrys and another couple who just moved to New Zealand from MN joined us at Tanner's Point for the weekend. (We arrived a day early and stayed a few days after they left, giving Bongo the Terrible a break from us and giving ourselves a chance to relax in an actual house.) While everyone was there we had a fabulous weekend filled with great company, plenty of fun and relaxation on the water, and some amazing food. (Fresh caught Trevally sashimi, honey smoked mussels, Dave's excellent salmon gravlax, and NZ's finest wines and cheeses.)

Prior to our mellow week at the bay we had headed out of Gisborne and left the last little bit of swell behind. Our route brought us up through Rotorua, home to plenty of Yellowstone-like geothermal activity, where we packed as much as we could into our one day in the area. We spent the morning hiking through the sulfur springs, bubbling mud holes, and geysers. In the afternoon we figured we'd add mountain biking to the ever expanding list of adventurous activities we've done on this trip. They have an excellent network of tracks on a pine-forested mountain just outside of town. Since neither of us have done much mountain biking we stuck to the "easier" tracks which still provided plenty of excitement (and exercise on all the up-hill sections). After mountain biking we finished the day soaking at one of the mineral hot springs situated on the lake that the town is famous for.

(Yes, we realize how lucky we are and we're very grateful that we've been given this opportunity to travel.)

Tomorrow we'll be reluctantly leaving the Lowry's and continuing our trek back towards Auckland.