Rydges Rotorua

... to come out with so many bruises I don't know if that was down to the accomadation that we had. We stayed in a 4 bed dorm in Rydges hotel, which had a tv in our room with Sky movies!, a fridge in our room, spa, sauna, free drink on the Saturday night in ...

... found our way into some bigger towns with a few more people as each town/city along the way in the North Island, including Rotorua, had it's more than fair share of fast food spots.  Having not seen ANY billboard throughout the drive, except for PSAs about ...

We had a 3 hour drive down to Rotorua and on to Lake Terawera (?), where we were due to stay at a friends second home for the weekend.  Things didn't go exactly as we had hoped as we arrived in the dark and were looking for the key, in the place it ...

... spring was.  Along the way in the jet boat the driver stopped to tell us interesting stories about the area.  The Lake Rotorua is actually the centre of a volcano.   We arrived back on dry land a little wet and headed to the shops ...

You walk out on a bright beautiful, autumn morning....and get this faint smell of...day old boiled egg! We have been slightly underwhelmed by R. itself, very commercialised, but the volcanic area overall is fascinating. We are off to the Coromandel ...