Havana Motor Lodge Rotorua

... point.
Onwards from here via the Waipoua Forest to look at the giant Kauri tree there called 'Tane Mahuta' (Lord of the Forest). This rare example is the biggest in NZ at 18M's high and 14M's in girth. Thought to be between 1250-2500 years old, it was an impressive sight.

Later that day we parked off-road south of Auckland city and early on the 5th we continued south for Waitomo Caves and our ...

on the 25th june we left lake taupo and headed towards napier which is an art deco city. We just had a look around and spent the night at a doc at lake tutira. which was a very nice place.
26th june we drove to gisborne we did not do a lot here as the weather was starting to get bad.
27th we stopped on our way to rotorua at awakeri hot springs caravan park which has a heated ...

... way out. Our guide told me to put down my oar, stand up - both of which I obeyed and then jump off the raft. There was a moments pause as I calculated his sincerity and how much I didn't want to pop up to the surface to see 3 entire rafts full of hysterical people, laughing at my gullibility but from the look on his face he meant it and so I jumped. I was pleasantly surprised when I did hit the water both at the warmth and the depth. It was a deep green colour and really ...

Yeehaw time for a bit of action! The ****** colds are staring to ease and it's time for some adrenaline shots :) Rotorua is the spot for cool zany stuff to do in NZ, well the North Island anyway. We started off with something relaxing, went to Hells Gate mud spa for a mud bath and thermal spa. Very relaxing but now we stink of rotten eggs and even though we hired towels, somehow we still managed to make ALL of our clothes, towels and the camper stink of rotten eggs ...

... spuds and veg. (They even did steamed pud for afters!) Our rather eccentric driver John was a great laugh although he did repeat everything to us about three times before he was happy that we'd taken in what he was saying! We learnt about the history and how they lived and it was probably one of the best nights during the 5 months we have been away. On our final day we visited the very ...

... the floor of the pool was nicely laid with flagstones but these were incredibly sharp on your knees (as you crawled from the back wall to the hot tap I would like to point out!) let along your naked bottom. AND not wanting to completely trash this whole sulphur pool idea, bathing in it by day was ok and at night would have been very romantic with a nice G & T and some candles if you weren't liable to being eaten down to your skeleton by mosquitos. So all in all, excellent ...

... we feel it is best to move off and park somewhere else! The next few days are spent in and around Rotorua checking out the town and some of the great walks and attractions in the area. The downside of the thermal activity in the area is the smell. Walking around parts of the town is like walking around in a giant ****! Sights worth seeing include Whakarewara forest, home to some very large redwood trees and the Thermal Wonderland, an amazing array of ...

... and re-sunk near Whangarei so the tourists had a nicer place to dive down to it (!!!!!!!!!!!!). We stayed with Peter and Leone in their BBH hostel and Leone is an avid diver and caver. She can give you instructions for a self-guided tour of the Abbey Caves right outside Whangarei which just ...