1700 kilometers later...

We just returned yesterday from a whirlwind tour of the Northland of New Zealand.  We made it all the way to the very tip, but more on that on another post.  First, I'll pick up where I left off with the last post in Whitianga.

The next day of our trip, we went to Waterworks, which is a amusement park filled with odd and wonderful creations, most of which use water somehow very creatively.  And, though you can see it was voted "The 2010 Best Theme Park in New Zealand", you have to brave 20km of narrow, treacherous dirt road to get there.  This is just the sort of oxymoron that is found not infrequently in this beautiful country.

 You can see the dirt road in the middle of the picture.

We all (that's right, me too) enjoyed riding on the flying bicycles and human sized hamster wheel.  Blake ventured into the swimming hole, which he shared with several other visitors and the resident eels (commonly found in fresh water streams).  Both kids enjoyed the large tire swing and many other really interesting and fun opportunities at this park.

We then headed back to Whitianga to go on the sunset cruise of the Glass Bottom boat to Cathedral Cove and to snorkel.  Scotty and Laura were wonderful hosts and gave great commentary about what we saw. 

Some of you may recognize Cathedral Cove as the site of one of the Narnia movies.  I guess I should watch them now.

It was probably 7pm by the time we got to the snorkeling spot and even though it was still probably 80 degrees outside, the water was co-o-o-old.  And though there were no wet suits small enough to fit him, Blake joined Liza for a brief snorkel.  I stayed warmly in the boat.

Back in the boat, Laura found a merino sweater for Blake to snuggle into and Scotty let him drive the boat for a while.  He was pretty good at it.  We can thank Grandpa and the XBox for that I think.

Then next day, we made our way through the throngs of people past main street to Bay Carving where we carved our own necklaces from bone (cow lower leg straight from the local butcher).  I chose a Maori design that symbolizes authority and power, because that's what I'm into.  Blake chose a fish-hook design and Liza a spiral (or Koro) which is a symbol of peace, growth and tranquility.  I think Blake could often use a little more tranquility and as a teenager, Liza could probably use a little less.

While we were in Whitianga, there was some sort of music festival going on and huge grassy areas were covered with tents surrounding the town.  I'm pretty sure all Kiwis between 18 and 30 were there, though there was also lots of families in town too.

More on our trip to Northland later.