After a great night's sleep and an easy morning, we put on our walking shoes and made the hour-long hike to Cathedral Cove. The hike started at an overlook, which in and of itself was beautiful.
Then we snaked along the mountainside toward the cove.
Into some bush...
And through some farm land...
We stopped off for a quick detour to check out Gemstone Bay.
And then carried on until we reached the cove! And it was gorgeous!
Here we are, loving being at the beautiful beach!
You'll notice that Holly and I are both wearing our swimsuits. These turned out to be completely unnecessary as the water was FREEZING. It was all we could do to stand there when the waves came in. So no swimming in the magical waters for us.
We took a different part of the track back, through a rainforest-y grotto.
We made it back to the car park and then headed back to our rooms to clean up before going into town for some lunch. After lunch we jumped back in the car and continued our journey. Next stop, Rotorua!
Our drive to Rotorua was uneventful. We just enjoyed the beautiful New Zealand scenery, mostly farmland and about a million sheep.
The town of Rotorua is filled with the lovely smell of sulphur. It was striking, especially on the morning that we woke up in Rotorua, but we did get acclimated to it. The sulphur smell comes from all the thermal vents around the city. Rotorua is one of the most active geothermal spots in the world. In fact, just from our hotel room balcony we could see some steam rising up a few blocks away - crazy!!
But geothermal adventures were the next day's activities. We found a spot near Lake Rotorua for dinner and then called it a day!
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It's like the Oregon coast!!
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