Freezing feet and fantastic photos!

Here comes an update on what we've been doing the last couple of days! We have experienced a lot of different things, seen a lot of beautiful views, met some cool people and had a lot of fun! We're getting used to life in the car and everything that comes with it; a lot of driving, getting it warm before we go to sleep, cooking on our portable stove, waking up with cold feet in weird situations (continue reading...). Even though we enjoy life in the car a lot we also stay at hostels now and then. 

We have been traveling around the Coromandel Peninsula for a couple of days, then made our way through Rotorua and are now in Taupo. Enjoy the pictures and our stories :)

The road between Thames and Coromandel Town, soo beautiful. Speedlimit: 100 km/h almost all the way (!!!) ..but no, we didn't drive that fast!

On the Beach hostel in Whitianga, our best hostel experience so far. The view from the kitchen was incredible, the never-ending Pacific Ocean!

Happy girls after our first run in NZ, followed by a cold (but refreshing) swim in the waves in the ocean, fantastic!

Digging our own hot tub at Hot Water Beach outside of Whitianga.

The water, coming from thermal springs under the sand, was about 39 degrees. The waves coming in were much colder!

Caroline doesn't look that tall in the Cathedral Cove

Cathedral Cove   

                  

  Enjoying life and the ocean.

We went there with Alana and Danny that we met at our hostel, nice guys!

Amanda has been shopping at the Farmer's market in Rotorua. This morning we had been sleeping in our car on a big parking lot, it seemed so good, lots of other camper vans were camping there too so we felt really safe. When we woke up at about 6 am we realized that we were surrounded by a big Farmer's market! All these camper vans were obviously staying there just to wake up early and be prepared for the market. Haha, we were sleeping in the middle of a Farmer'sa market! A lot of laughing! ..and we got to buy fresh vegetables and taste lamb just outside our door ;)

Trying to hug the huge Redwood tree.

Blue lake, outside Rotorua, where we later went for a COLD swim.

Green lake, next to Blue lake

Amanda's ready to swim in Blue lake.

In Rotorua we went to Tamaki Maori Village to eat a traditional Maori hangi (dinner) and enjoy typical songs and dancing. 

Happy and hungry girl before dinner!

Our front porch for two days in Rotorua, a geothermal park with steaming springs that smelled like rotten eggs. This is also where the Farmer's market was... :)

Being very touristy at the Lady Knox Geyser in Wai-O-Tapu Thermal Wonderland.

Champagne lake in Wai-O-Tapu didn't smell very nice..

Cool yellow lake

We had an amazing evening, dining noodles right in front of Great Lake Taupo with Tongariro National Park in the background.

Happy hikers in Redwood Forest

Happy hikers found two happy American hikers, now happily hiking together! :) 

At Huka Falls in Taupo.

Backpacker's shower!

..on the hike we found these WARM waterfalls, incredible!

The river next to them wasn't as warm...

Evidence: The pictures on postcards are real.

..but reality is of course even better..

Today the weather isn't very good so we're planning on just taking it easy, maybe even treating ourselves to lunch. Tomorrow we're heading to Tongariro National Park to hike and after that we are heading to Wellington before we take the ferry to the South island.