Tresco Bed & Breakfast Rotorua

... week in Auckland looking for the perfect van that never arrived. Even the so called backpackers car market was dodgy. A lot of overpriced vans all with the same built in beds in the back and not a backpacker in sight.

A few things we loved about Auckland; the 48 volcano cones that surround the city. We climbed Mt Eden and were rewarded with awesome views across the city and a look into the massive crater! We were also amazed at how many Asians were there but as most of you know were ...

... that instead of jumping off a platform, we were zipped up in a nylon cocoon of sorts, lifted 150 feet in the air, and then we had to pull our own ripcord which would send us plummeting towards the ground at speeds in excess of 80mph. It's basically like a giant swing, but way awesome. Since Peter has a big fear of heights, he was put in charge of pulling the ripcord to help him overcome it. The nice man who zipped us up in our little sack counted down "3 ...

... I'd expected.

The bus driver turned out to be quite chatty and told us stories over the loudspeaker. Every so often we'd stop for a stretch - time I used for playing tourist, by which I mean taking hundreds of photos of everything that moved and most of what didn't. I wish I could remember the names of the towns but the only one I recall is Hamilton (supercute place it was too).

In any case, Rotorua was the destination and I could tell I was ...

... at a 4 star hotel's business center), so I have been left with little time to write narrative to my entries and I do not want to mess with memory cards until I get somewhere where I can trust the PC and speak with an intelligent person to fix the problem for good.
This entry and the next two will be the last for a while, FYI, and only the ...

... beautiful sights I have ever seen even though it required a little physical exertion. So, sorting it out by the numbers... 10,000 Sheep and cows seen 3,000 Glow worms viewed in the caves 2,100 Kilometers driven 600 Dolphins swum with 327 Sheep and cows were ...

... able to fry his meat the way HE likes it without people telling him it's all wrong (shoe-sole here I come!). Our second day in Rotorua WAS (notice that word, it is crucial to the story) set aside to go visit White Island, which is a small island just off the coast that is still an active volcano. Visiting the island is hugely weather dependent (as you have to cross a fair stretch of open ocean), but the tour company called us the evening before to confirm that they were going through ...

... off to lake taupe the largest lake in n.z.bit of congestion in the ladies loo first thing in the morning as i decided to pick the one with 1 loo & 2 showers yes they were all taken.first stop was the oravein korako ( hidden caves & valleys) this is a famous but privatly owned island, you take a ferry out to it & climb up to watch all the hot pools & mud pools steam away it takes a good 1 1/2 to walk it, stuart left me a couple of times as he semms to do more ...

... meal after walking back to the site. We also had a little friend join us in the campervan. Picture will be loaded later but all I can say is that I hope Max and Sylvester will not be jealous. An exciting day ahead with a visit to the well known Wai-O-Tapu Thermal Wonderland Park just outside of Rotoroua to see a real geyser explode and all shapes, colours and sizes of thermal pools to look at.

... with stenching steaming holes of sulphur bubbling up. The ground can be boiling hot so there are special boarded walkways and viewpoints. It's fascinating. Sometimes the ground was really soft and bouncy underfoot by particular steaming vents so it was quite unnerving: perhaps this ground was ripe for collapsing at any time as a result of the boiling temperatures....so we quickly moved on...especially as the soft and bouncy ground was right on the rim of the steaming vents! It was ...

... re used to in the
States, that the near tips off the hillsides made it worth the
adrenaline rush.


4:00
PM - Driving back to Auckland felt like it took 3 times longer, maybe
because we kept stopping to take photos of the gorgeous countryside,
and we stopped at a rest stop for none other than Indian food,
Rotorua, North Island, New Zealand mton