The Lakehouse Hotel Rotorua

... Caine in CSI:Miami - sunglasses on; sunglasses off: sunglasses on&#8230; etc, etc.<br><br>But the motorway to Auckland appeared finally and we blasted through Auckland to the southern service station at Papakura for lunch. There was a craft shop in the service station and Wendy got talking to the woman there about quilting (as you do) and she told us of a quilt shop that was on our route. Resigned looks from me. The sun had come out to play properly at this point and has stayed ...

... be ok. We were heading back around the lake and I'd remembered a sign for accommodation on our way through. We knocked on the door and explained our situation and asked to borrow the land line (forget mobile signals in this area!). We couldn't get through to our friend, but "Rusty" the kind man that had let us in, had a quick word with his partner and they offered us the use of their place for the night. It used to be a B&amp;B so we had a whole ground floor ...

4th April - Picton - Wellington We were booked on the ferry to north Island so we battled our way through hundreds of racing cyclists (there are loads of pedallists in NZ) to Picton where we took the ferry through the fjords (or were they Sounds) across to Wellington. The boat trip was (again) very picturesque, weaving its way past the many islands of the Queen Charlotte Sound. We wanted to spend more time in Rotorua so we skipped Wellington ...

... beach and some random man wearing absolutely nothing started up a conversation me! I didn't know where to look! We continued scrambling over rocks until we saw a couple doing things they definitely shouldn't be doing on a beach in full view of everyone else! At that point, we decided it was safer to turn back! We also went to the Auckland Festival, which was a big concert featuring music from across Oceania. They'd erected a stage in the middle of the ...

... enjoyed the pool and its jacuzzi type effect. So it was home time and time to wash our clothes. Disaster struck! We washed our clothes in cold water and the smell of sulphur from our swimmers went onto all the washing and literally stunk out all our clothes...not good! and no matter how hard we tried it would not go away, so next time your standing near us its not that we have ****** or anything, its the sulphur from new zealand, a nice present for you!

... enjoyed washing his feet in a hot pool direct from the earths core, first hot wash they had had for months. Only one point of note, Mac was not impressed that Mable had them staying in an active volcanic area, funny how she forgot to mention this. Oh and yes, it does smell like rotten eggs most of the time. Mac x Big thanx to Barry from www.adventurephotography@xtra.co.nz for the pics he sent us..... cheers mate AND all at riverrats www.riverrats.co.nz

... later and we arrive. we are greeted by a traditional warrior challenge lead around the recreated villange and talk to the actors about the way of life. next is the concert and storytelling which is good and then to the hangi feast. basically light a fire with rocks on let it burn for a few ours chuck in a chicken some potatoes and a steamed pudding cover in earth and wait 2 hours. you then have a really ...

... So once I got back to Tourism Rotorua, I asked about booking a sky dive and (un)fortunately they'd no other customers today so they were very pleased to come into town to collect me and do the business. In fact, being the only customer in the plane was calming, much better than when it's a full plane (they can take up to eight people) and you can see other folk dropping out of the door, knowing it's your turn next. Eric, my Tandem Master, just opened the ...

... up and by the time we got there the sun wsa going down and we got a nice view of the town. We sat up there for about 20mins and drank some beers then headed back to town with a torch in hand and picked up some food. Back to the hostel and chill out that night before our final stop at Auckland!

... zeker met te weinig nachtrust. Maar om 9.30 had ik nog geen shuttle gezien. Na navraag bij de receptie bleek dat ik voor het hostel had moeten staan. Dat hadden ze me niet verteld, ik ben onderhand gewend dat ze je op komen halen, maar deze shuttle rijdt dus voorbij als er niemand staat. Voor niets zo vroeg opgestaan dus, maar terug naar bed was geen optie; ze waren nu alles aan het opruimen en schoonmaken. De ochtend verder dus maar wat rondgehangen, maar 's middags stond ik op tijd aan ...