Grand Hotel Rotorua

... water source. It was nice and relaxing. The campground manager then informed us that if we walked down to the lake and dug a hole in the sand, hot water would bubble out of it from the underlying hot spots. So we grabbed a shovel and decided to try it out. The manager informed us that we should dig close to the lake so some cool water could flow in and its a good thing he informed us because the spots we dug up were really hot, almost scalding. As for the ...

... Cindy kocht echt gut und wir können selber schöpfen, was das Aufessen sehr erleichtert-bei meinem ersten Woofing Platz wurde immer reichlichst portioniert-das spüre ich heute noch auf meinen Hüften. Nach der Begegnung mit den Hendersons habe ich schon an meiner Eignung zur Wooferei gezweifelt, aber man sollte ja nicht immer gleich bei sich selber Schuld suchen. Worauf man hier so alles draufkommt... Hätt ich echt nie gedacht!
Jetzt interessiert natürlich jeden, weshalb das ...

... too fast the first time and crashed, he took it a little slower on the next two goes. Even the beginner track was quite scary.

After Luge, Tory and Lily went horse riding at the Paradise Valley Ventures trekking company. Lily rode all by her self and even managed a nice sitting trot. Heath got to meet Gandalf's horse from the first lord of the rings movie.

After the ...

... in their steaming baths so we knew it had to be possible! We decided to move closer to the rest of the baths and finally found steaming hot water. We lounged in our little natural bath for about 45 minutes before we got that lovely sand-in-your-bathing suit feeling. The water was actually extremely hot.. I actually scalded by hand digging in the sand! Such an awesome experience! On Sunday, we decided to go to a little community church we had seen ...

... salad will be as adventurous as it'll get. This evening on a recommendation we go to see the Mitai village that promises to give us an authentic introduction to Maori culture. We gather in a marquee with a few hundred others. We are seated at tables of about 10 people and it feels like a wedding until you look around and see everyone clad in fleeces. The evenings are getting chilly here as summer fades away. We are greated by one of the staff who does a good job of geting ...

... algae, steaming hot pools and bubbling pools of mud. All very impressive, as you will see if you look at our photos. There was even a cave (we were quite glad to be out of the sun for a bit) with a wishing pool at the bottom. I'm afraid I can't tell you what I wished for as apparently that's one of the conditions of the wish being granted! We grabbed a hokey-pokey ice-cream on the way out and set off for Rotorua. By this time we were rather exhausted and had no real intention of ...

... Blue Lake and, just over a ridge, the larger Green Lake. Blue Lake turned out to be the nicer and more easily accessible and so we pulled in there to park less than 20 yards from the sandy shoreline just as the sun was going down. I had a brief swim before dinner (which was refreshing, to say the least!) and then we settled in for the night. As we did so, we noticed another campervan and couple who seemed familiar, but dismissed it as nothing...

Next day we went for the usual swim in the sea, its beautiful here. The beach in Mt M is excellent, we werernt really expecting great beaches in NZ for some reason, and so we have been blown away by their beauty. Leaving Mt M we headed south down along the Bay of Plenty and into Rotorua. That place reeks, we could smell Rotorua before we saw it!! Sulpher in the air from the thermal springs and mud pools. Got back into camping mode in Rotorua anyway. A ...

... die Maori den Eingang zur Totenwelt darstellt. Hier in der Nähe gibt’s auch riesige Sanddünen, die man mit einem Boogie Board runter surfen könnte, wenn man denn eins hätte. Wir versuchten dies mit einer Plastiktüte zu substituieren, mit überaus magerem Erfolg (nicht zu empfehlen, hab wahrscheinlich immer noch Sand in unerreichbaren Rezessen meines Körpers).

Auf dem Rückweg nach Auckland haben wir noch Stände der mächtigen Kauri Bäume besucht, traditionell ...