Te Ngae Country Lodge Rotorua

... We weren’t too impressed with Taupo, though this was probably due to the weather. We went for fish and chips (as advised as a top thing to do by the guide book) but were also disappointed by this as it was from a Chinese takeaway and they sold us ketchup in a tin.

The view across the lake was really misty so we wandered around the town before getting back on the road to our campsite at Glen falls nature reserve which was nearby to Napier.

... br>Our final stops fo they day were the Carving and Weaving schools, which our entry fees pay for to help preserve the Maori culture and they properly train people so that they graduate with a diploma and everything so they were really cool to see.

And that is pretty much all we did - before heading North further and staying at a campsite in the middle of nowhere.

Lots of love to everybody at home as always xxxx

... jumped in the van back to the whitewater rafting offices. Once we were back in our warm clothes and got our pictures the van dropped us back at the hostel where we had an hour to grab some lunch before the magic bus was the due to pick us up. On the way out of Rotorua the magic bus stopped at the Zorbing center. We had already been out there a few weeks previously and decided not to do it as it looked pretty **** and overpriced. A few people off the bus decided to do ...

... the whole town smells like freaking rotten eggs and it is hard to hack sometimes. So we went in search of internet and found a hostel as it was closing. We got to talking to the Canadian girl behind the counter and found it was the cheapest in town. We were going to put our stuff in our room when I met a girl from Scotland on the stairs that were headed out to some amazing river that is just a heated river out in the middle of nowhere ...

... one of my friends from Penn State) were in New Zealand. They were in a town near Wellington that had cobblestones in the streets. The happened to wander into an organ shop and in there they met one of or the only organ tuners in all of New Zealand. They talked to him for awhile. Towards the end of their meeting the guy told them of a secret swimming hole near Rotarua where the water is hot all year round due to the geothermic activity. He drew them a map ...

... out much here. I'll maybe eat out in Wellington come the weekend. Tomorrow I've booked myself into the Polynesian Spa for a half hour massage (bliss) and I get to use all their pools, which I'm told is many. Add that to a mud pool too and I'm very happy! As I said, Thursday I go to Taupo for the day and stay the night before going to Wellington on Friday. So I'll have to bid you goodnight as it's 8.30pm here and I'm ruined from all the hiking today.

... a hold of us once we realised the cost of trying to find somewhere to swim in the thermal reserves as they were all being branded as luxury spas with exfoliating mud treatments! The answer was to be found in Lonely Planet at the FREE Kerosene Creek Thermal Reserve. A picturesque spot with shafts of light magically penetrating through the surrounding forest the water was warm rather than hot, but it was still a great experience particularly with the free massage ...

... in the car we set off for Rotorua, which I remember being interesting if rather smelly, on account of the thermal mud pools & geysers for which the town is famous.

Under 2 hours later we could see Lake Rotorua, and a few minutes later we were in the town centre, hunting out a holiday park where we planned to stay tonight.



We chose a nice ...