Marama Resort Rotorua

... have seen in previous visits.
Too late for a birthday breakfast so made do with coffee and muffuns.
Last chance for Bron to look for souvenirs to take home.
After lunch we headed north to Mount Maunganui through the kiwifruit growing area of Te Puke.

Our next stop was Rotorua, the geothermal capital of New Zealand. It is a lovely place but smells so bad! It is a volcanic area and this causes hot water pools to bubble out of the ground releasing a stinky sulphur smell. Our hostel had it's own hot pools, one of which stank so bad - it was rotten and made m,e feel ill :( There was a beautiful park nearby which looked quite eerie with autumnal trees and steam rising from the ground. We walked ...

... so we got out and watched them. The feedback was generally positive so maybe its a lot more fun than it looks. One adventure activity a day was enough for us though. After that we headed north toward our next overnight stop, Mount Maunganui. We planned to stay 3 nights in Mount Maunganui. Looking back now we probably would have been fine with one night because there isn't a whole lot to Mt Maunganui. Our first night here we went for a few quiet drinks down the pub ...

... in Rotorua it became apparent very quickly why it's nicknamed 'RotoVegas' and without a single casino in sight! With space not at a premium, Rotorua has sprawled across a large area in a square pattern with very few buildings more than a single storey, and the smatterings of fast food outlets everywhere only add to the effect. The second most apparent thing about this town is that it stinks!!! Everywhere you go there is no escaping from the stench of rotton eggs. It ...

On the road again this afternoon, we depart Wellington and head north through farming country. We'll make a stop at the raging waters of Huka Falls, and past Wairakei Geo-thermal area. You'll see that Rotorua is truly alive as we drive through it on our way to our nights accommodation. Tonight we will be staying in a traditional Maori Marae, we will be welcomed onto the Marae by the elders in traditional style. Traditional Maori Marae Stay - open plan multi-share accommodation

... temp and cold water in hot temps! So basically you jump/slide into the smaller bubble, they zip you in and push you down a hill. I'm pretty sure that the both of us were laughing and screaming the whole time down (which took about 45 seconds)! Definitely a fun, wet, washing machine like experience! Number two was the sheep shearing show. Before I go into the show let me tell you a little bit about the population here...there are about 4 million people and 44 million sheep ...

... was like a ghost town walking back with all the shops closed and no-one on the streets - we didn't know whether someone had signalled impending doom to the town & we somehow didn't know! Thankfully that wasn't the case (otherwise I don't think I'd be writing this!) and we had some dinner in the Pig & Whistle a rather pleasant pub; actually talking pleasant that reminds of the bar called the Pheasant Plucker on another street ...

... parlour and managed to get my eyelashes dyed and eyebrows dyed and shaped - bit of a treat. It's very odd having someone do something like that to you when neither of you speak the other's language ... However, I did find that "Ow!" is pretty universal! So, me and F said goodbye to the lovely Laura and her son Andrew that we met at the hotel and with a last meal of veggies and rice under my belt set off to the airport ...

... Goddess of rain must be named Maureen too, because with a NZ accent, my
name is pronounced "More Rain."


2:00
PM - On the way back to Auckland (2.5hrs away), Lu wanted to stop at
the gondola/Luge park, despite the pouring rain. So at the top of the
gondola, we get coffee waiting for the rain to let up but it only ...

... deze. Voordeel is wel dat je deze parken vaak met een paar uurtjes heb gezien. In rotorua zit een Belgisch bier café en hier spreek ik af met Anne-marie voor de avond. Deze avond voor het eerst sinds maanden weer kroketten gegeten met een echt biertje erbij!! Zondag 29 Juni Vanochtend ga ik naar het museum. Het museum is vroeger het zwembad geweest en hier kwamen veel mensen terug van oorlogen om te genezen van hun verwondingen. Het zwembad was verdeeld ik kleine hokjes ...