Bay of Plenty 23/12/11-27/12/11

Hi everyone, we've been a bit slack in updating this for the past fortnight, mainly as we just haven't had time to sit down - believe it or not each post with photos takes us at least an hour to put together!

So we left Rotorua and made our way up to Tauranga in the Bay of Plenty in the North island. We were fortunate enough to stay with Jenna's cousin who emigrated to NZ earlier in the year. They have an amazing house a stone's throw away from the beach in Papamoa where we were really looked after. We stayed there 4 nights in total over Christmas.

We were kindly allowed to borrow a car so on the 1st day we drove a couple of hours inland to the Waitamo Caves. This was something I'd wanted to do for months. Basically it's a natural underground cave system with rivers and glow worms. We went for the tubing option which meant we sat on rubber rings and made our way through the caves. Although it was a good experience, I was a little bit disappointed with it as I think I'd built it up so much before we came out here! That evening though Jenna's cousin Estelle and her partner Dave cooked up a huge red snapper that he'd caught while sea kayaking which was amazing.

On Christmas eve we went to Mount Manganui. This is where Estelle and Dave work - they have their own kayaking business. Hannah a friend of Estelle was also staying, so the 3 of us climbed up the mountain. The view was pretty special, particularly considering the heat. I carried our backpack all the way up the mountain and then all the way back down...... about 100m from the car Jenna asked if she'd like for her to take the bag for a bit, I said yeh because the last 100m back to the car is the part your back really starts to feel the burn!

On Christmas eve night we caught up with Cara - a friend from back home who was out in the Bay of Plenty visiting her family. Dave and Estelle took us all out on a night kayak trip which took us along Lake McClaran in the pitch black to see glow worms. We did this after Estelle cooked us up some fajitas on one of the park's outdoor BBQs. The glow worms were spectacular - far more impressive than those at the caves.

Chrismas day itself was a great experience - it was completely opposite to what you're used to back home. We started off with a cooked breakfast and then spent most of the day down the beach kayaking and learning how to surf. I managed to stand up which I was happy with and Jenna managed to avoid any major injuries which I was also happy with! Dave and I went out to sea on the kayak and we capsized after a big wave took us out from behind. I'm not the greatest lover of the sea so I was happy to get back in the kayak pretty sharpish! We then went to a local nature spot with some incredible waterfalls where we cooled off before heading home for an amazing Christmas day BBQ.

Boxing day we went out on a Dolphin and Whale trip. The success rate of seeing dolphins was 98% the tour proudly boasts - so you guessed it, we were one of the 2% trips that saw none! We did however see a hammerhead shark which scared the crap out of me. But we were on a decent sized boat thankfully. We were offered a free trip another time to see the dolphins but we couldn't spare any more days at the Bay as we had a flight out of Auckland to Sydney to consider. Boxing day evening we had another BBQ, this time on the beach, with some of Estelle and Dave's friends. Jenna learnt to kite surf - minus the surf board, which was pretty cool.

We had an amazing time at the Bay of Plenty which was mainly thanks to being looked after so well. We'll be visting again soon I think. Although we missed everyone on Christmas day and as much as we love doing what we usually do on that day, it's safe to say we won't forget this one.