Mission Belle Motel Bay of Plenty

... we met a couple from near Preston and a lady from Bushey -small world The next we walked round the base of a mountain which was right next to the sea-fantastic or as they say here awesome. Sadly tonight is our last motorhome night which is really sad. We are staying in Auckland for 4 days before our week in San francisco. Really looking forward to SF Hopefully wireless connection will be good in the Auckland hotel and i wil be able to add the photos

... t disintegrate, and they had to brush their teeth five times a day to keep their teeth from going black! When we got back on the boat we made another one of those great group decisions, and decided to jump in the diluted acidic ocean. While it was fun, it was more for bragging rights than anything. The water burned our eyes and noses and tasted like heavy metals. Fortunately no one's swim suits disintegrated while swimming, and if we get cancer in ...

... in the afternoon!!... I hadn't realised the skidive would be the same day... Turns out the weather turns to the worst and so the skidive is cancelled! Bit disappointed but no doubts I will have an even better time at the next skidive location! ;o) Before heading to Taupo we pick up some guys in Rotorua and I am really pleased to see Stacey, Asleigh, Mark and Nicole are there! I had met them on the first bus and they are great fun so it is nice to catch up ...

... t really skiddy all over. Waiotapu As we were visiting Waiotapu, we didn't really drive into Rotorua town centre proper, but just the outskirts. Nevertheless the thermal area was still stinky, rotten eggs smell (in fact we had difficulty checking if Jaykin poo pooed or not, the normally very reliable smell test did not work with such smells all around) We were late by the time we got here, so we missed the ...

... that I believe all rentals are rally cars. ;-) We passed through many little villages which seemed largely inhabited by Maori's. We also passed many sacred Maouri or tribal meeting places. They are easily recognisable as they all have carved wooden entrances and are painted red. We never got to enter one as they are considered a sacred placed to the Maoris and need to be treated with great ...

... the other tour boat had broken down. back we go to the other boat which is still by the bloody island. we then bobbed around in the water for 2 hours whilst our skipper went to the other boat to fix it! luckily the crew had plied me with sea sickness tablets so i was fine, but about 6 other people were throwing up and feeling bad. lovely. anyway, the skipper got the boat going and then we set off again for the shore, arriving two hours later than intended. a rather eventful day!

The thermal pools smelled faintly of eggfarts and the bubbling mud smelled like bacon. we found some free thermal pools to laze around in about 30k South of Rotorua, called Kerosene creek. There's a crooked sign on a really faraway tree located nowhere near the actual bathing spots that says DO NOT put your head under water in thermal pools or the rude little bacteria will crawl in your ears and eat your brain.

Today it rained so we took the opportunity to finish up our shopping. We are wondering if we brought the cool weather with us. Sept, and Oct were warm but Nov has been off and on. Walking around was nice and we found the hat Valerie had been looking for ...

... Sue, informed us that it's an English expression, similar to "just the bees' knees". We thought it was funny. The hostel was like a co-op. Lots of long-term travelers spending a month+ there, while working at kiwi farms. Tauranga is a small city right in the Bay of Plenty, connected by a bridge to Mt. Maunganui. (Side note: The weather in NZ has been schizophrenic--- sun one minute, torrential downpour the next.) Our first day in Tauranga brought high winds, and rain- of course ...

... they got on the flight) to Don and Norma who were flying back to the UK tomorrow. Our plans soon looked fragile as our trusty Transit began to splutter along a busy part of State Highway 2 and as we pulled over to judge the situation our mobile home gave up the ghost and died on us. The diesel gauge still read a quarter full and numerous attempts at trying to start her up again proved fruitless. Without a moblie phone, a trudge back along the road was called for to plead for ...