Tag 130 - 135 "hiking in the shadow of the mountain"

The last few days have been quiet for us.

We've been doing a little bit of everything... surfing 🏄‍♀️ here, swimming there... sometimes we just stood around and did nothing.

On day 131, we visited a kiwi farm 🥝. Kiwis are famously grown in NZ and since we also like to eat Kiwi Gold, we wanted to learn more about it. A tour of a plantation for about an hour taught us a lot about this fruit. Did you know that plantation owners have to pay $500,000 in license fees per hectare? There are no pesticides here. There are males and females. Only the females bear the fruit. Well... etc.

On day 132, we made a detour to Rotorua. This area is known for its thermal springs. Accordingly, it smelled more or less strong of sulfur here. My Falk didn't like the smell at all 🤢😫☠. The nose was soothed with Tiger Balm 😁. We still took a rheumatism and arthrosis-relieving bath and felt 10 years younger the next day. Suddenly, nothing was rattling or squeaking anymore 🤣🤣🦾🦿.

On day 134, we set off for the Tongariro National Park🗻🌋. Every day, the number 1 hiking trail in NZ is taken by 1,000 locals and tourists who are enthusiastic about hiking. We wanted to hike it too. 19.4km - from 1120m to 1868m and back down to 760m were on the agenda 🏞. We started at 5:45 am when our shuttle picked us up. Unfortunately, the weather forecast was not the best. Nevertheless, we had a great but very exhausting day. The hike was still demanding and we were glad when we stood at the bus stop drenched at 1 pm.

In the evening, we surprised a fellow traveler from home - Mr. E. from home, we knew that Mr. E. was in NZ on business and our paths could only cross for one evening. Before we could drive into the hotel where he was staying, he was already walking calmly along the road and we stopped. A nice 'Hello Mr. E. nice to see you' initially brought many, many question marks 😳❓❓❓ to his face and a short speechlessness. After he found his words again, we had a lot to talk about and exchange. Of course, the 'proof picture' couldn't be missing at the end.

So our day 135 ends today with a little muscle soreness and a clear view of the three volcanoes next door...