Gwendoline Motor Lodge Rotorua

Left Camp site around 9:45 AM heading for Rotorua travelling on State Highway 5; found the Waiotapu thermal wonderland on route and decided to pay a visit; very interesting place with lots of volcanic activity. Missed the geyser which erupts at 10:15 AM each day but never the less, a pretty impressive couple of hours; continued our journey towards Rotorua arriving at around 1:00 PM. Found the sign posts for the Blue & Green lakes (Satnav failed to find them!!) so ...

... stayed for 3 nights and went around visiting various attractions like 'Hells Gate' sulphur pools and the Gondola ride to one of the hills surrounding the town then several goes on the 'luge' carts to come down again. <br>All in all Rotorua was great fun and we had an unexpectedly lovely time there with a fair share of suprises.<br>From here we set off for Wellington and the close of our north island adventure.

... no told me it was this bad, in some places the smell was so vial i couldnt breathe in without choking. Walking down one of the main roads the other morning i thought the hills in the distance were very misty, only to find once i got closer that it was the steam from mud pools and hot springs. <br><br>Unfortuately the weather the past few days has become very english, the temperature has improved so its not got the bitterness of cold in the air but ...

... cat threw me a few filthies and I wasn't happy he didn't need to label his food either the flea bag ;) Our Maori experience was with at the Maitai village just outside the town and included a hangi (a traditional meal cooked underground), a show/concert (showcasing Maori ways, traditions, music and fighting, as well as a canoe filled with Maori paddling around us) and finally a walk through the grounds to the revered spring. We were picked up at the hostel by jimmy, our ...

... was an older Maori woman and we pretty quickly figured out she was something special. She grew up with her tribe in their village in the forest. Yet she was also university educated as well but held onto the traditional ways. She was able to really provide wonderful explanations of everything but also relate it back to her own life as a child growing up in the area. We learned about ...

... this rich sources of food have spark a tribal war. During this war, his tribe have lost good warriors in defending the river and their bodies were buried in caves next to the river. Raft have overturned many times before during the waterfall drop, the guide gather us beside the river as we were ask to look at the river while he say prayer in Maori to the ancestors, river, earth, trees as to Maori they were all connected in ...

... 300 sheep a day! After the show we got to pet all the animals, including all the babies!! Number three is probably one of the biggest attractions here in Rotorua (minus the geysers, hot springs, and bubbling mud) which is the Maori Cultural Performances accompanied with a traditional Hangi dinner. There are several places that offer this and we chose one of the newer ones, Te Po, since it came with a walk down to Te Puia Geyser. I went to this show not really expecting much ...

... enough to say sober let alone with a few beers! Anyway dinner - mine was great Jacks was "disgusting" to quote her response to the waitress; although with sweet potato chips I would tend to agree with her! It was weird walking back through the park with random steaming thermal areas in between the bushes! Back to the Hostel for a couple of very nice pints of Mac Gold and a very long game of pool that had strictly speaking finished ...

... fit in however, so I had to make a plan, so I headed off to the Kao San Road on a tuk tuk for some inspiration. The inspiration? I bought a bigger hand bag. It has room for my existing bag, plus water bottle, camera and travel documents which usually go in my day pack which was stuffed already! Bargain basement stuff, but it has an elephant on it and bells. You can hear me coming! While I was out I happened upon a ...

... Flussbett ist trocken. Den Touristen zuliebe werden 2 mal täglich 20 Minuten lang die Schleusen geöffnet. Echt spannend! ;o) In meinem ganzen Leben habe ich noch nicht etwas annähernd albernes erlebt wie das!<br><br>Außerdem kann man hier einen Seil- und Balkenhochparcours in 15 Metern Höhe absolvieren, der seinen Kulminationspunkt darin findet, a la Karate Kid auf einem Telefonmast in 15 Metern Höhe aufzustehen und durch die Luft an ein 3 Meter entferntes Trapez zu ...