Hiking in Shiretoko

After staying the night in Abashiri, we got up super early (left the hotel at 5am), and headed to Shiretoko Peninsula.

網走に泊まるの後に早いにホテルから出た。（5時に）。知床半島へ行った。

On the way, we saw this gorgeous sunrise.

途中にこの日の出が見た。きれいだね。

After that, we stopped at Oshin-Koshin Falls.

それから、オシンコシンの滝に止まった。

Before we could hike, we had to watch the scary bear warning video. They also used this map to show us everywhere bears had been seen in the last month.

ハイキングの前怖い熊の注意ビデオを見なければならなかった。この地図は今月に熊を見た所の説明した。

A map of the 5 lakes area.

知床５湖の地図。

Our first new friend was this deer.

最初の新しい友達はこの鹿だね。

He was even kind enough to pose in a picture with us. Now if only he had a Facebook page . . .

一緒に写真を撮った。ぜひ友達だよ。

It was so green and beautiful.

自然はとてもきれい。

Is that a bear? Nope, just a hole in the tree.

熊？？いいえ、木に穴ね。

I loved the view of the lakes.

湖の眺めはきれい。

A fallen tree.

倒れた木。

The map. Almost half-way done.

私たちこれから後半。

A small stream feeding into the lakes.

小さい川。

L and T.

LとT。

My favorite photo from the lakes. I love the reflection.

私の湖の大好きな写真。倒影が良かった。

After the last lake, we ended up in the space with a raised walkway.

最後の湖の後に橋見たいの歩道にいた。橋見たいの理由は上にあった。

Here you can see the walkway.

この写真に歩道が見える。

Of course, after all those bear warnings, we had to find some bears.

もちろん、熊の注意の後に熊見つける事が必要だった。

Luckily, we found two and they were both friendly.

2匹が見つけた。そして、友好的な熊だよ。

We tried a new juice – kokemomo, it’s a kind of berry. Yum!

新しいジュースを飲んで見た。こけももの。美味しかった。

Then we went hiking to Furepe Falls, it was pretty, but not so exciting from above.

それから、フレペの滝へ行った。

Not sure what this bug is, but I thought his blue-ish color was pretty.

この虫の種類が分からないけど、青色はきれいと思った。

The deer were super friendly. We were able to get really close.

この鹿と近いにいた事できた。

Adventures in Toya

On Friday night, we arrived at Lake Toya super late. The next morning was the meeting and then we headed out to have lunch and explore in the afternoon.

金曜日に洞爺湖へ言って遅くなった。次の朝に会議があった。昼に昼ご飯をたべたり、遊んだりした。

We ended up eating lunch at a café that had delicious curry and lots of Chai!

美味しいカレーとチャイがあったカフェで昼食を食べた。

This was my hot soy chai.

豆乳チャイ。

Parfait that had chai pudding in it!

このパフェはチャイプリンがあった！

After that, we went looking for a hike that ended in a waterfall. We found this cool house on the way.

その後滝があったハイキングをしたかった。この面白い家が見た。

Whoever left it left in a hurry. It almost looked like they were in the middle of their daily life when they left.

最後の人はたくさん物を持って来なかった。

Lake Toya.

洞爺湖。

Toya and a barbecue.

この人々はバーベキューをした。

My friend’s camera, I can never catch the sparkle in my camera’s lens, so I saw it in hers and wanted to snap a shot.

友達のカメラ。私のカメラのレンズのキラキラいつも見えるけど、撮られない。

We found the hike!

ハイキング所を見つけた！

The lower part was super pretty.

下の所はとてもきれい。

Look at all that green!

緑いっぱい。

The lower part of the falls.

滝の下。

Here it is closer.

もう少し近い。

More green!

緑！

Oh no! The trail is closed, so we can’t hike.

ハイキングができなかった。

A sign along the way.

サインときれい緑所。

Another sign, full of interesting kanji.

他のサイン面白い漢字があｔった。（だいたい読めない）。

Oops! That first kanji says closed. Oh well, I’m glad I mixed it up, the lower bit was pretty still.

間違った！このサインは閉めるの意味があった。下の所へ行っても、きれい。

HEC Cake Auction time!

ケーキの競売の時！HECキャンプのために。

These two won the S’more pie.

パイが勝ちたの2人。

Yum!

美味しかった！

Our lovely auctioneers.

いい競売人！

We ended up raising about $800 for HEC.

HECのために8万円ぐらい集まった。

NZ Adventures 6: Coromandel Peninsula

The next adventure started with us, of course leaving our lodging, which was named Pukeko Lodge. Which, of course, meant we had a slight obsession with trying to capture one!



After a long, windy road, we finally made it to the parking lot where we would head out for a short hike to Narnia!

We hiked down to Cathedral Cove, Stingray Bay and Gemstone Bay. It was a wonderful day for a walk. I think this was my favorite adventure from our trip, just because of how beautiful it was.

I was amazed at how blue the water was on our walk down.





As we hiked down, we ran into the bride and groom. It was good to hear what happened to them on Sunday and to chat with them for a few minutes while they hiked back up and we hiked down.



When we finally got to Cathedral cove, the most beautiful part was after you had walked through it.



Of course, people had to pose for their picture there! But I liked it because it gave some scale to the giant hole in the rock.



Once you’ve passed through the arch, you’ve made it to Narnia! Welcome to Narnia!



There were only a dozen or so other people around, so once some of them cleared out, I was able to take my favorite kind of photos of the rock – the kind without people.

God put on quite a show that day. Look how amazing the clouds were, too!





After our walk around Cathedral Cove, we made our way back up the rocky stairs and down again into Stingray Bay. (Try saying it, isn’t it fun to say?).



In Stingray Bay, we saw this sea life that Marilyn wanted us to make sure not to forget to tell Ben about. I, of course, have completely forgotten the name, but I did take a picture.



We were about to run out of time so we made a quick look at Gemstone Bay. It was much rockier than the other two, so we weren’t sad that we had to miss climbing over the rocks to get down to the water.



We got back in the car and aimed for another bit of windy-road driving to get to Hot Water beach. We wanted to get to Hot Water beach during low tide. There’s hot water under the sand, so you can dig down and create a hot tub-like space to sit in.

This was our first glimpse of Hot Water Beach. Between the sea and the steam rising up from the sand it was gorgeous.



I loved the reflection of the clouds on the wet sand.



Here are all the people digging in the sand to find the hot water.



The light peeking through the trees at us.



After our adventures on the peninsula we found our way on a slightly faster, though just as windy road back to eat dinner with Mel’s family.

We arrived just in time for sunset. The sunset from Mel’s house was gorgeous.



It was also kind-of fun to turn around and see everyone else doing the same thing.



And, of course, Mel’s family has a gorgeous house.



We hung out with Mel’s family and had fun watching the wedding ceremony again. We also talked Mel’s sister Steph into joining us for the next day’s adventures.