Ventura Inn and Suites Rotorua

... and interesting in how they communicated or performed in a show. They stick their tongues out and make their eyes bulge to show defiance. I joke that it looks like my family photos. We continue on the tour of the hot springs in which they tell us how they utilize the springs for so many uses. It is interesting, but the weather is once again coming in with cold winds and ...

We left Whitianga early (a bit too early for everyones liking), stopping en route for some 'supplies' as Josh frequently puts it. We spent some time at the Karangahake Reserve gorges, taking a walk that involved crossing two swing bridges (with a little help from the boys who found it funny to jump about)... not a great fan of heights! I've been really surpised by the beauty of New Zealand scenery and especially by ...

... is filled with the eggy odour of hydrogen sulphide, someone light a match! The pools that surround Rotorua consantly billow out this smell as they bubble and blurt with geothermal heat. This of course makes it a little tricky to run, hanging clouds wafting across your path removing the oh so important O2 at vital moments after half an hour I am stood back outside the holiday park watching th steam rise from the pools on the far side of the golf course that hugs Pukuatua Street. Finding ...

... Later in the afteroon we drove back to Tauranga leaving enough time so that if we broke down we wouldn't miss our ships departure. No breakdowns happened so we had some time before dinner to enjoy the sunny weather in the spa with the beach of Tauranga as a canvas.

Dinner was great and we got to know a Canadian couple who were sitting next to us. Our waiter corrupted us with homemade Lemencello and it was so good we were forced to ...

... her. It would have been some achievement 3 other cyclists on the road and managing to hit one. We continued to struggle our heavily laden way, sweating in the summer very humid if not very bright sun. We then zoomed down into the egg smelling, thermal town and found our hostel after one or two wrong turns. Then in case we had not sweated enough we went to a thermal spa in the evening to soak and sweat in wonderful thermal, sulfurous water.

... from the rest of the group as Barry weaved his way through the riders. When we got to Taupo we weren't able to get down to the lake side as the center of the town was closed off for the start and finish of the ride. Barry said knew somewhere were we could stop for a break, so we went on to the Huka ( pronouced Hooker!! ) Falls. After the falls we pushed on to Rotorua, arriving shortly before dinner time. This had been a very long drive in deed.

... good fun. A concert of Maori traditional singing, dancing and story telling followed by delicious lamb and chicken steam cooked in a Hangi (earth oven) and finally a walk through the forest to see the glow worms. All in all a good day and evening, and then back to the hostel for a mug of wine with a couple of German girls I met and to re-pack my rucksack ready to leave for Lake Taupo bright and early the next morning.

... the US. On our way out we pop out of the car to see
the mud pools, not cut out to what I thought it would be from the
photos which were probably just zoomed into the little bubbles, way out
of scale from what I expected.


12:30
PM - Back in Rotorua, we went to the Polynesian Spa and rented a
private thermal spa ...

... bij een modderpool even van de geiser vandaan. Het is een regenachtige dag en ik heb mijn paraplu meegenomen. Na de modderpool stappen we weer in de bus naar de lady knox geiser. Om 10:15 staat iedereen klaar en op hun klok te kijken alsof de geiser elk moment kan afgaan. Op dat moment komt er een medewerker van het park dat een kort verhaaltje houd over de geiser. Hij gooit ongeveer 300 gram zeep poeder in de geiser en laat dit dan zijn werk doen. korte tijd later gaat ...