MERRY CHRISTMAS Rotorua

Good Morning! It's Christmas Day and we are feeling so great! After yesterday's great night at the Tamaki village. Today we are planning for a relaxed touring around Rotorua and preparing our Xmas meal.. 

Ooh, we had a mini xmas tree in the van too!

Redwoods Tree @ Rotorua, Whakarewarewa National Forest*****

A brand new day, amazed by these gigantic redwood trees which are one of the tallest trees in the world! Very nice short walk around...

After the touring, we went to stay at All Seasons Holiday Park (Rotorua) for $40. They have many facilities including a spa pool ;) Though 38 degree celcius, is way too hot on such hot weather! Next is Xmas Dinner :

Xmas dinner!

Caesar salad, scotch fillet, potatoes and white choc rasberry cheesecake

Stewart Island - 3 Day Rakiura Track Day 2

Good morning~~~ Still half asleep... and we have to get our walk started! It was a good sleep though and we had enough warm clothes to survive the cold cold night..

Very nice weather today.. It is a lovely walk in the forest canopy... but not as interesting as yesterday with some fun at the beach..

Spotted the kiwi track! The holes that kiwis make in the ground using the long bill to look for food.. Please let us see them at sunset =)

Reach North Arm Hut after 13km walk today!

Paterson Inlet

After the long walk, we still manage to wonder around the hut, which is quite nice and plenty of mussels too! But not edible yet as they are too small!

Had a super satisfying dessert, toasted marshmallow sandwiched between two crackers and chocolate piece! Thank you Sama, our Japanese hut mate who share this dessert with us~

Beautiful rainbow @ sunset

Petrified Forest, Curio Bay

Petrified forest***** We are at a very special place here, a fossilised remains of ancient forest of 180million years ago known as the middle Jurassic period.

We can see this ancient fossil during low tide

In the millions of years, since the sediments were buried deeply and impregnated over time with silica minerals, eventually turning the wood to rock. In some places fern fronds and leaves have been preserved as fossils within the mudstone rocks.

A long tree trunk belonging to Jurassic world had now become a fossil that we can all be amazed with =) The Curio Bay is really worth the travel as we can see this wonder and another cute penguin family too..

Ta da, the rare Hoiho, yellow eyed penguin. OMG we are so close with these amazing animal, found only in Southland! This is the best place to view them, much much better than Sandfly Bay @ Otago Peninsular. 

It was the time of the year where these penguins have little chicks in their burrow and each parent takes turn to gather food in the big ocean.  So its easy to see them coming in and out all day (unlike the blue penguins/little penguins that only come out after sunset). We were trying so hard to look for this penguin in Sandfly Bay at Otago Peninsular, and here, we can get near it up to 10metres. Peter got really good shots of this fellas, returning from the sea, cleaning itself at the shore before heading back to their burrow. It was just wonderful looking at this small creatures.

Sunset @ Curio Bay

Yummy dinner, made with self dig cockles and special NZ yam =)

Otago Peninsular & back to Dunedin

The next morning, we went to the Taiaroa Head, the end tip of the Otago peninsular. It was a nice drive and there are viewing platforms to see the birds. The Royal Albatross center is located here and it cost $45 to view the only mainland Albatross colony in NZ. We don't want to pay that money so we just spend some time watching other birds at the platform. Here's the closeup of the un-famed sea gull, finally a shot of glamour for it :p

Taiaroa Head*****

Shags

Seals..

We have arranged to meet up with Kara in the afternoon at the peninsular. So with plenty of time to spend, we went for cockles digging after Taiaroa Head. We were lucky cause its low tide, and here is our harvest! So good, the cockles are quite big. Yayay...

@ Sandymount recreation reserve.. OOh we also had some time to take stupid picture :D

We met Kara at the Sandymount recreation reserve, where we took the windiest walk EVER!

The wind is so strong that it actually pushes us forward/ backwards / sideways! But the short walk is rewarding, with a view of this Chasm and a natural arch.

After the scenic drive around the peninsular, we headed back to Dunedin. A walk around the Octagon and dinner at Saigon Van again. Well, its Kara's dinner basically. We still have salmon head soup waiting for us tonight :p

It was a nice meet up with Kara and she is so lovely. She gave each of us her hand made flower knitting :) looks nice on Angie's beanie.  Hope all goes well with her second year visa extension and we shall see her in Malaysia!!

Dunedin Cathedral

Baldwin St, the steepest road in the world! 

At its maximum, the slope of Baldwin Street is about 1:2.86 (19° or 35%)

Comforting salmon head soup cooked this morning at the caravan park.. Bliss...