Rotorua (Day 1)

Sorry I've been a bit silent on this for a while, but it proves I've been more busy doing things and had less time to write about them!

Saturday
We left Wellington at 5.00 am on 21st Feb to drive up to Rotorua, about 7 hours away! The sun didn't rise for ages so it was quite peaceful. We drove up the coast past Paraparaumu then veered inland. On our way we passed a range of terrain from beach to mountain gorges to farming country (flat as!), then we climbed onto the volcanic plateau via the Desert Road. The highlight of the road trip was seeing Mt Ruapehu pretty close. It's the first time I've ever seen a snow-capped mountain in the summer! But, even more amazing that that was the fact that Mt Ruapehu is still an active volcano, although it wasn't spouting today :(

Further on up we took in lake Taupo; no-one knows how deep Lake Taupo actually is, which is kind of intriguing! Past Taupo we stopped at Huku Falls. These were awesome in that they were very ferocious, but 10-15 mins is all you really need to spend there. I met Nicole in Tirau, a quaint little vilage with some interesting corrugated iron architecture. We went straight to the Bach to sort out our itinery and get some vouchers which weren't actually there! We rushed back to Rotorua to catch a clutural performance. By the way the Bach is in a beautiful location right by the lake and it's really big! We also drove through Okere falls to get here.

Te Puia - the cultural performance was great - we saw some traditional dances, songs and greetings. We were welcomed in as another tribe! I loved the musical part and have some recordings which I can let you hear when I get home!

We then began our guided tour oft he geothermal area. Everything was amazing - hot springs, geysers (especially Pohote, the big one), mud pools which were bubbling (my favourite) and various sulphur, volcanic rock formations. The only downside was my lack of battery power but I'm pilfering some of Nicole's photos by way of CD!

We stayed right to the closing time but still didn't cover the whole park! We then proceeded to Rainbow Springs. This is where I saw my first curled-up fern, Kiwi, gecko and Tuatara. So it was well worth it!