New Zealand: Puzzling World, Pancake Rocks, Op Shop, Hot Water Beach, Waterworks, Auckland

After our wonderful week in Queenstown (Point H), we headed back up the west coast of the south island.  We visited Pancake Rocks (Point I), Waitomo Glow Worms Caves (Point K), Hot Water Beach (Point M) and The Waterworks (Point N) before flying from Auckland to Sydney, Australia.  We were also able to serve in a church's Op Shop which was one of our favorite experiences in New Zealand.  Overall, we drove 4415km during out 25 days in New Zealand

Just north of Queenstown is a place called Puzzling World in Wanaka.  We spent 3 hours enjoyable hours here...

The house of optical illusions.  The girls thought this one was hilarious with Rachel looking huge and I am looking like a midget...

The girls goofing off.  The illusion is the bench as it looks like two people are sitting on opposite ends of a levitating board

A very disorienting room!  The pool table in the background looks like it is slanting upward but when you put a ball on the left side of the table it rolls UP to the right side!

Outside there was a huge maze where we broke into two teams and raced each other to see who could find the four corners first.  This is Rachel's team winning the race...

We give Puzzling World a thumbs up!

Near Greymouth we stopped in a 'gold rush' park and were able to ride a train and have some fun at the park.  There was one moment that I wish I had caught on tape.  Rachel and one of the girls went through this tunnel and I sprinted to the other end where there was a side entrance into the tunnel.  As they were coming down the tunnel, I jumped out with a 'boo!' and they were so scared I thought they were going to wet their pants.  Ok, so I was mean....but we all did get a good laugh out of it later.

The most disappointing stop in our New Zealand trip was this 'non-glacier' called the Fox Glacier.  80 years ago it filled this whole valley but now it is just that tiny bit between the mountains.  Luckily, this glacier was 'on the way' up the coast so we didn't waste too much time searching for it.

Pancake Rocks

Pancake Rocks are worth the visit if you are on the south island.

The kids enjoyed this part of the rocks...

If you visit Pancake Rocks, be sure to plan your visit time when high tide is occurring.  At high tide, the rocks put on quite a show with the waves coming in and shooting up holes in the rocks.  It is really magnificent.

One benefit of traveling with a 2 year old is that they will pretty much sleep anywhere ;)

H girl!

Waitomo Glow Worms

We headed back to Wellington Saturday January 19 on the Interisland Ferry, stayed there overnight, attended church in Wanganui, and explored the Waitomo Glow Worms Cave on our drive back to the Auckland area on the 20th.

We were glad that Waitomo was on the drive back to Auckland.  We would have been disappointed if we had gone out of our way to visit the caves.  There just wasn't all the much there for the time and cost.  But for a 1-2 hour break on a drive somewhere else?  Then, yes, it is worth it.

We arrived back in Auckland and AJ was SO happy that his first love was still in Howick (Rachel Hensley).  She had had a sailing competition the previous few days.  She and Bo were heading down to join the men of the family on the south island, but we got to see them one more night....and then they handed over the keys to their home to us for our last 4 nights in New Zealand.  Thanks again to the Hensleys who were perfect hosts during our stay.

Heading to the park in Howick...

Serving at the Op Shop

We were able to serve at the Op Shop which is a part of Norman & Bo's church.  An Op Shop is basically something like a thrift shop / Salvation Army type shop.  We met and worked with Grant Turner who runs the church's Op Shop.  The revenue generated from this Op Shop supports the missions programs for the church.  It was a perfect fit for our family as the kids could all do the tasks required and Grant was seriously short staffed during the New Zealand summer season.

Grant and our family.  Grant has just about the most incredible story about God working in his life.  He spoke to us about almost losing his wife, the incredible story of adopting twins from the Philippines, and the even more incredible story & journey in adopting their son from Russia.  Working in the Op Shop was definitely one of our favorite memories from New Zealand.

Hot Water Beach & The Waterworks

If you ever travel to Auckland, make a trip to The Hot Water Beach and a place called 'The Waterworks'  Each are on the Coromandel Peninsula.  We did both in a single day and had tons of fun.  As with Pancake Rocks, you need to plan to be at Hot Water Beach about 2 hours before high tide and then stay through high tide.  

Hot water beach has a volcanic spring just under the surface with super hot water near the surface.  We had our shovels and buckets but were clueless where to dig (as were many other people).  We finally just went to where other people who seemed to know what they were doing were.  And there was this empty space right in the middle of all these little pools people had build up.  They were lounging in their hot tubs and I was wondering "why isn't anyone in that pool there?"

Well, we found out soon enough.  The water in what we claimed as 'our hot tub' was so hot that you literally could not stand in it.  The picture above was only taken after the tide came in enough to get a bunch of cold water in our pool.  The person taking the picture was on a 'rim' that had been build up, but if you stepped into our pool just in front of where the person taking the picture is standing, there was a scalding hot spring right there.  We would sit on the rim on the opposite side and just watch people step into the opposite end of our pool and then do the 'scalding hot water' dance.  It was SOOOO funny.  I wish we had gotten some videos as it really was one of the funniest things I have seen in a long time.

The Waterworks

We went to the Waterworks, not expecting much...but this place was just quirky fun, fun, fun.  Whoever owns this place has a GREAT sense of humor as there are funny signs all over the park that just had us laughing.

This sign should be posted in all teenagers' rooms (my personal favorite is #7 but they are all good):

And then there are all kind of contraptions made that use water (pedal the bike, water shoots out of the hose attached to the bike)

This place had one of the best playgrounds we went to during our entire trip...

The rolling barrel....hilarious 'face plants' in this contraption

And in the "No Personal Injury Lawyer" country of New Zealand, a zip line for the kids...

Goofy girls...

AJ loved this place...

Love this picture of the kids...

Serious zip line for Rachel (and baby....though we didn't know it at that point!)

Heading out of the park we saw a farmer's stand where there were pigs hanging out.  One wanted to come in the car....

S picked up one of the babies (bringing back one of her first memories of me picking up a baby pig on her 3rd birthday and the momma pig snorting at me)

Our last day day in New Zealand...

New Zealand = beautiful country, beautiful people, beautiful way to start our journey.