Peppers On The Point Lake Rotorua

... to go to Hot Water beach, where hot springs under the sand mean you can dig little pools and they will fill with warm water. Sadly it was high tide and we couldn't go though :-(. Drove on to a little seaside town called Mercury Bay where we stayed in the cutest hostel called Turtle Cove. It was run by this old couple and they made everyone spag bol with cheese and garlic bread for $7 (about 3 pounds). After dinner all the Kiwi Ex people went down to the ...

... to watch a film on the laptop which Lauren failed to stay awake for - she blamed the jet lag!!


The following morning we enjoyed an early morning run then took full advantage of free use of the thermal springs. After having breakfast and showering we got on the road to Taupo. We stopped off at ‘The Honey Hive’ in Wairakei where we saw lots of bees in action and browsed the shop. We then went on to Huka falls which we were really ...

We visited the Kiwi Encounter centre the next day which is the only facility in the world that has been purpose built for the incubation & rearing of kiwi birds. DoC rangers monitor egg laying in the wild & retrieve the eggs at approximately 40-60 days old & then transport them to Kiwi Encounter where each egg is checked to see if it's viable before placing it in an incubator. After hatching, the birds are reared at the centre in specially designed enclosures which emulate their ...

... Additionally, Josh never fails to give us a fact of the day so my parents will be proud that we're learning whilst having fun! The second stop was the location where 'Hobbiton' was filmed. After having a quick scan about the place the girls and I headed straight to a cafe for a coffee dose. This seemed to be what most people had in mind so once again it was a good opportunity to get to know each other ...

... from Saturday evening through Monday morning, and with everything I wanted to see and do, I knew I would be busy! I started off at the Rotorua Museum, which was originally built in the late 1890's when tourism first started becoming popular in the area and the building was a therapeutic bath house. They didn't realize that the high mineral continent of the water pumped through the building would immediately erode all of the pipes, so the building has gone through several renovations ...

Firstly we took a ride out to see Lake tarawera via the Green and Blue lakes - looked the same to me! After much arguing about where we were going to go we finally decided on the The Thermal Village at Whakarewarewa ("Whaka" for short). This is a living Maori village, which competes its more commercial neighbour, Te Puia. By the end of the day we were convinced we had made the right choice. The visit to Whaka ...

Well here we are with day 3 at Rotorua.  On this day we went to visit the Thermal Wonderland and saw the Lady Knox Geyser lift off. It was interesting to watch but was a little staged as the guide added some sort of soap to the geyser in order to make it blow. He said that it would blow by itself but for the tourist they gave it a helping hand. They told us that the geyser was discovered ...

... t cover you for accidents like this etc etc. There was a pair of weighing scales on the floor, as weight is about the only restriction, but fortunately I didn't have to go through the humilation of being weighed and told I was over the limit! To be honest, it was all a bit easier than doing the Sydney Harbour Bridge Climb four years ago, because you really just can 't go back, you're totally out of control and you just trust (is this the ultimate 'trust ...

... south.

Our first stop was going to be the Waitomo glow worm caves which are about 5 hours south of Auckland.

I visited the caves last time I was here, and I really liked them. It's not the most dynamic or thrilling tourist attraction in the world, but I had a good time and remember it fondly, so I convinced Katie that it was worth seeing.

Rotorua, New Zealand al_fey

... therm*l *re*' ! Our motel w*s ultr* w*rm due to r*di*tors running off their priv*te borehole - no energy problems here!

Tourism h*s been big in Rotoru* for over 150 ye*rs, with the f*bled Pink *nd White Terr*ces considered one of the world's wonders. These cont*ined hot w*terf*lls so you could pick your temper*ture, *nd visitors were p*ddled *cross in c*noes by loc*l M*ori guides. S*dly we c*n't follow them, bec*use Mount T ...