Rolling North

The North Island has been hillier than I remember. Stunningly beautiful. I know I say that a lot. Probably time to hit the thesaurus ;) or just use more words: dramatic hills (seriously!!), dramatic rocks (seriously!!), some gorgeous lakes, big and small, late afternoon light bringing out so many shades of green. So much green!!! One upside of covering a lot of ground is seeing so much beauty.

On the way north we stopped in Masterton for Will to go swimming. Of course we found an amazing playground and Hazel’s newest interest - an art gallery. I think she’s into gallery gift shops ;) but regardless, she wants to visit galleries. While museums are mostly not my jam (some exceptions) I really do love art galleries. Especially small ones. They had the most amazing Boro display. I’d never heard of Boro. It’s is a Japanese technique for patching clothes. It was timely inspiration since I have holes in a few pieces of clothing and even some underwear. We are skidding into home in more ways than one!!!

Hazel loved this piece. So did I. Love the pallete.

We stayed overnight in Ohakune which was lovely and quiet. In the morning Hazel and I walked through a rainforest to a playground adventure park. It had a legit obstacle course. Spartan-race-for-kids vibes. Hazel demanded we race it. Twice.

Then it was onwards to Taupo. We have been hot pooling wherever we can. Feels so good in this late Fall weather. Did I mention there is so much green and sheep and rolling hills and super duper undulating countryside?