Hamilton, North Island, New Zealand (January, 2015)

Our last stop on our North Island adventure was Hamilton, where Cody's brother Kip lives.  We first stopped at the LDS temple to take some pictures and go into the Visitors Center.

 Kemps and Whipps in the Hamilton New Zealand Temple Visitors Center.

 Hamilton New Zealand Temple.

 Eating at Sal's Pizza...the best New York style pizza any of us have ever had

 Rick and Cody, showing off the damage to the motorhomes from the trip.  Rick's bumper fell off completely and Cody backed into a brick wall and ripped off part of his bumper.  Good thing we bought the insurance.

 Kip, lighting off fireworks at night for Cy's birthday.

We were lucky to be there when our cute little nephew, Cy, was celebrating his birthday.

Three Sisters Beach and Elephant Rock, North Island, New Zealand (January, 2015)

Maybe on e of the most scenic, different, and interesting places we saw in New Zealand was Three Sisters Beach and Elephant Rock.  We went at low tide so that we could make it all the way around to Elephant Rock. The sun shining off the black sand was incredible.  You are walking along green, moss covered cliffs the whole way and there are dozens of little caves and tunnels that you walk through along the path.  The kids were in heaven.  They were running all over the place and exploring all of the different areas.  This was a magical place.

 Sawyer, a bit reluctant to go too far into the cave with her friend Paige.

 Elephant Rock.

 A beautiful walk along the black sand beach at low tide.

 Ryder, Harvey, and Levi exploring.

 Daddy and Nash.

 The 8 kids (4 Kemps, 4 Whipps) showing their black hands.

 Zander, coming out of one of the caves.

 Daddy with his boys.

 Sawyer, going through the tunnel.

 Ryder, loving every minute of this.

 There were some fun little pools after the tides had receded and Zander felt they were made just for him.

 Zander, trying to keep up with the big kids as they charge into the big cave.

 Just a beautiful area.

 Sawyer and Paige, collecting stuff on the beach.

 Family photo in front of Elephant Rock.

 Great scenery.

One of the smaller caves.

Black Water Rafting, Waitomo, North Island, New Zealand (January, 2015)

After leaving Taupo and Huka Falls, we drove south to Waitomo and decided to do Black Water tubing and caving in the Waitomo Glowworm caves.  We hired 2 of the young single adult women in Kip and Emily's ward to come to the caravan park to watch the 9 kids.  We also bought them all passes to take the kids to the glow worm caves for the more mild tour.  Our caving adventure was one of the highlights of the trip.  We repelled down ~100 feet through a small opening into the cave, took a pitch black zipline further into the cave, jumped off some small cliffs, took inner tubes down a river system inside the cave and enjoyed seeing thousands of glow worms lighting up the cave, crawled back into a labyrinth of caves and found a black eel that was obsessed with our head lamps, climbed up waterfalls, slid down rocks, and had a wonderful time together.

Playing with flashlights and camera shutter speeds in the darkness of the cave.

Silk hanging from the roof of the cave from the glow worms.

Climbing out of the cave up a waterfall.

Our group before going down into the cave.

Eliza, getting ready to rappel down over 100 feet through the small hole entering the cave.

Cody, repelling down into the cave.

Cody, climbing through the small spaces in the cave.

The group, stopping for some food and hot drinks.

Eliza, climbing through one of the tight spots in the cave.

Eliza, climbing up the waterfall to get out of the cave.

Taupo and Huka Falls, North Island, New Zealand (January, 2015)

We stopped at Huka Falls on the way out of Taupo.  It's an impressive sight with all of the water going through the narrow canyon.

 A view of the falls from above.

 The kids posing for a picture above the falls.

The best kids in the world.

Wind Tunnel and Swing at Agro Adventures, Rotorua, North Island, New Zealand (January, 2015)

We decided to spend another day in Rotorua, given all of the fun things we had experienced there and we were not disappointed.  We went to Agro Adventures and for ~$25/person we were able to do a mini-skydive in the wind tunnel.  It was amazing and all of the kids (even the little ones) were allowed to do it.  We also did the giant sky swing at the park, which was a huge hit.

Ryder, flying high in the wind tunnel at Agro Adventures Rotorua.

Sawyer, floating in the wind tunnel.

Nash, getting blown around in the wind tunnel.

Zander, all smiles and doing pretty well at balancing on his own in the wind tunnel.

Skyline Luge, Rotorua, North Island, New Zealand (January, 2015)

Rotorua was a town filled with lots of fun activities.  While we were there, we were able to do the Skyline Luge (similar to the one in Queenstown on the South Island that we experienced in May, 2014).  We had a blast trying out the different tracks they had.

Daddy, with Nash after a fast run down the track.

Mommy and Zander getting ready to ride.

Ryder was a "little ripper"

Harvey, Nash, Sawyer, and Paige...all smiles after 5 rides down the track.

The group after a lot of runs on the Skyline Luge.

Daddy and Sawyer getting ready for another run.

 Paige riding down with Nash.

 Sawyer and Ryder.

 View from the top of the Luge.

Zander and Addy, ready for another run.