Best Western Midway Hotel Rotorua

... 1492;מתפר 09; יום-יו
501; בשעה 10:15 בבוקר. כדאי להגיע לפארק חצי שעה לפני ההתפר 10;ות כדי לק ...

... br> There are many carvings to guard the houses against evil spirits.





















The walk around the thermal area was well laid out and very informative.






The afternoon was spent at HELLS GATE WAI ORA SPA


From bubbling mud ...

... a saturday most of the shops didnt open till around 1030-11am and it was 9am. We headed for the i-site, an information centre and found a 'hot deal' on some of the activities in this area.
The first place we went to was Te Puia which was a place with lots of thermal activity! From mud pools to geysers. While here we watched a Maori show too but it was ruined by too many japs taking too many photos! Think there ...

... details of my ride and being so enthusiastic that I left full fo pride and joy at there kind words.

A few Km's down the road I turned off HW2 (truck central) onto HW33 (truck outskirts) and started teh variable climb towards Rotorua, it was a nice ride but after 60km's it started to rain and my lack of recent cycling or any real excursion was taking its tole ...

14 May 2009 After 14 days in Sydney the annoyance of living out of a ruck sack and moving on each day to somewhere different is becoming irritating. But everyday is so packed full of activity, it is little price to pay. On the bus we set off to Maketu which is near Rotorea in order to have a cultural evening at a traditional Maori house. Caving On the way we stop at the magnificent Waitomo caves. The continentals elect to go see the glow worms as ...

... volcanic and thermal area! As it was Saturday when we got to Rotorua we went to the super market to stock up on a few things. I couldn't believe they had no Easter eggs left! So some Lindt chocolate had to do! We didn't do a lot on Easter Sunday as everything was closed! We went to Kuirau park which is a large geothermal area. Some sections didn't smell that great, rotten eggs would probably best describe the smell! Lot's of steam can be seen rising from the ...

... us with entertainment, and a cat for company. That night we abseiled down about 40m into a crevasse that provided a perfect environment for glow worms. Our first abseil down was at twilight, so that we could get our bearings, while the second was lit by millions of glow worms, providing a full 360, starlight experience. It truly felt like we were in a fairy wonderland, or some galaxy far far away! On the advice of our guide, we headed down to the ...

... solid leaf that actually feels like it's made of plastic.  The only way I could tell it wasn't was because I saw him pick it off a living tree.  It even makes good paper as one side is white and holds ink well.   We got to the valley area of the volcanic mountains and saw some more thermal activity in addition to a baby blue pond.  This pond was not a normal pond color.  Just like the lime green pond in the Wai o tapu area had leeched lime from the rocks, this pond ...

... to go for a canter a bit later on which was good. I got given the most difficult horse in the place but she was an angel! I wanted to keep her haha After that we went and had dinner then settled for an early night in. Today we slept in then went out to the mineral mud pits & sulpher springs (hells gate) where we saw mud & sulpher springs bubbling in big pools. There was a mud volcano which erupts up to 5 feet every few weeks but unfortunately ...

... the french secret service blew up this Greenpeace Flagship in Auckland Harbour in response to anti nuclear test protests. The ship was then raised and re-sunk near Whangarei so the tourists had a nicer place to dive down to it (!!!!!!!!!!!!). We stayed with Peter and Leone in their BBH hostel and Leone is an avid diver and caver. She can give you instructions for a self-guided tour of the Abbey Caves right outside Whangarei which just is so much more fun than ...