Boxing Day - Coromandel to The Mount to Taupo

Boxing Day was a ridiculously busy day. Melanie's entire family took us surfing. Lexey and Mel's mom ended up staying on the beach since the water was pretty cold, but Ben, Kane, Mel, Mel's dad, and I all went for a morning surf before breakfast. Thankfully, Lexey took about 400 photos!

More photos with GPS maps here.

The waves were small, but I kicked it:


Kane shredded:


And Melanie couldn't stop smiling:


After surfing and a big waffle breakfast and snap peas from the garden we headed out for the beaches and volcano of Mount Manganui. We took a good (but really hot) hike up The Mount, ate a picnic lunch, and went for a good swim afterwards at the bottom. Lexey and I made sure to get some ice cream in freshly made waffle cones at the bottom of The Mount too.

Picnic lunch on The Mount:


Lexey and I at the top:


Next it was on to Rotorua. We basically just drove through. Our only real destination there was going to be Wai-o-tapu Thermal Pools, but we got there at 5:05pm and they closed at 5pm. So, we went directly to Kerosene Creek for a quick soak in the 105F temperature waters:


To finish out the day we headed to Taupo with a quick stop at Huka Falls before dinner with Ben's parents: