Holiday Road Trip

Christmastime marks the end of the school year and the beginning of the summer holiday. A few days after Christmas we headed north on a road trip to see Tongariro National Park, Waitomo Caves, and Egmont National Park. It was a four day trip. We saw huge volcanoes, green rolling hills, many small towns, and a lot of sheep and cows. Here are some pics:

Day 1 Seatoun to Tongariro National Park:

With the help of a little camera magic we have been cloned.

The lodge we stayed at in Tongariro National Park. We nearly had the whole place to ourselves. It was very nice and in the perfect location right in the park. But, it had very squeaky bunk beds and bad pillows. I think we all got a horrible night's sleep.  

Tongariro National Park has three volcanoes. Here is Mt. Ngāuruhoe AKA Mt. Doom from "The Lord of the Rings."

Mt. Ruapehu. It was nice seeing snow in December.

Day 2 Tongariro National Park to Waitomo Caves 

We saw many green fields with sheep grazing. This was actually a golf course with the sheep "hired" as lawn mowers. 

The Glow Worm Caves in Waitomo. AMAZING!  

Stephen and Mallory went black tubing through the caves. The rest of us went on a walking and boat tour of the caves.  

Silly picture of Stephen. I am not sure how he got himself in this mess. 

Day 3 Waitomo to New Plymouth:

Along the drive we saw a sign for the Three Sisters Beach. The tide was very low and the perfect conditions for us to walk all the way to the Three Sisters Rock Formations. Our "three sisters" complained about having to get out of the car and walk to them. I bribed the "sisters" with brownies if I could get a good photo of them in front to it.

We lucked out that it was low tide and we could walk to the rocks. 

Cool ball rocks on the beach near the Three Sisters

Arches and caves on the beach.

Look closely and you can see Mt. Taranaki in the back ground. 

The Three Sisters Rock formations on the beach.

Our three sisters by the Three Sisters Rock formation. Because of this photo they earned brownies later that night. 

Kermit. 

We found this humerus

That night in New Plymouth we went to an American 50 Styled Dinner. The walls were decked out in American memoribilia from the past.

A bit of Utah. 

A happy American near an American Flag. 

The Trump Burger. Gross, I won't eat him. 

After dinner we went to Pukekura Park's Festival of Lights. It was beautiful.

A fountain and pond at the park. 

Another pond and light display on a bridge. 

Day 4 New Plymouth to Seatoun: On our way home we made 3 stops. One for church. The meeting was in an old train station. One to see the Tawhiti Museum.  I highly recommend this museum. It is a history museum telling the story of the Taranaki region. It has nicely done models and diaramas. There was a lot to see and learn. If we hadn't been hungry we would have stayed longer. And the last for food.

A funny display about an outhouse. 

Trump: Twice we saw American flags waving near the sides of the road with signs about Trump. 

This sign says, "Pres. Trump, Keep America Great." The second one we saw read, "Trump is President. Be afraid. Be very afraid." I think both were pro-America but, not pro-Trump.