Whitianga was awesome! We all rented mountain bikes yesterday. Karen, Sal, and Diana weren't ready to go, so I headed out for Cathedral Cove. The bike ride was beautiful, but very hot and humid. The views of the ocean from the top of the hill at Cathedral Cove were pretty cool (and the bike ride down was fun, too). Lot's of swimmers and kayakers. Headed back towards Whitianga and stopped at the Purangi Winery just outside of Cook Beach. I would highly recommend this stop if you're in the area. The winery was nice and the guy there was very informative about the history of the Coromandel Peninsula. Tasted a few wines and wandered around the Kiwi grove. Kiwis grow on vines very similar to grapes (but much bigger). Headed back towards Whitianga and ran into the girls, so, of course we all had to head back to the winery for more tasting and some food sitting in the middle of the kiwi grove (nice and relaxing).

Today we got up early and caught the Go Kiwi Express to Rotorua. The ride was again very beautiful and the driver was entertaining and knew a lot about the area. We passed thru a town called Katikati and lo and behold, there was a restaurant called the Chat-n-Chew!! We all died laughing and then made the bus driver turn around so we could get a photo (this computer is too slow for downloading photos, so I will do that as soon as possible somewhere else). We are in Rotorua now and have been walking around looking at all the thermal pools that bubble up thru the ground here (smells like sulfur everywhere). The big lake here is the crater of a volcano. We are hanging out here until 5pm and then getting a bus to Hamilton for the Harley Rally weekend (should be interesting). We met people in Whitianga from Wisconsin that are going to the rally. Thanks for all the comments - keep 'em coming!!

Hey Pat, there are some really cool birds here. We saw some black swans today. There are also turkeys, but I guess they aren't wild, just free ranging. Oh yeah, and Di saw a little Blue Penguin when she was scuba diving.

Later.