Exposure : Ron's Ramblings: Follow Your Nose

I’ve noticed many common expressions in New Zealand. “Follow your nose” the man said as we asked for directions. The people here are laid back. That is if you can find someone who is actually from here. I think we have met more Canadians than anyone else. We did get to chat with some locals at a campsite last night. They were very sweet and friendly. There are two cultures that seem to dominate here in New Zealand - the beach and the café. Drive down any main street in any town and look for the crowd around a sidewalk Café and you will find great food and coffee. I’m still trying to figure out how to order coffee. Sometimes I get a Canadian style, sometimes I get an espresso, or sometimes it’s more like a Greek coffee from the Danforth in Toronto. It’s all good.

We are really enjoying our time here and had a fun experience at Hot Water Beach. You dig a hole in the sand at low tide and it fills with hot water. Low tide was at midnight but we could find hot water by 10 pm. As we dug a hole the surf would fill it in. Finally I dug enough to get a hot pool. It was burning hot. When the cool water from a wave mixed with the hot it was very pleasant. The beach was filled with flashlight toting, intoxicated people from all over the world. We walked back to camp in the dark with a billion stars over our heads.

We got up the next morning at 5 am and hiked to Cathedral Cove in the dark. When the light hit, we felt like we had landed in paradise! It’s a wonderful place.

Cathedral Cove, New Zealand - Click for larger

Today we visited Wai-O-Tapu (Sacred Waters) Thermal Wonderland in the Rotorua area. It is a very touristy place with a geyser. Normally it erupts for over an hour however currently there is a drought and they said it would only erupt for one minute. We decided to skip it and shoot the Champagne pool. Everyone else rushed to the geyser so we had the pool to ourselves. Clouds of sulfur fog washed over us. At times it was hard to catch your breath.