Whip through the Bay of Plenty

On the 23rd of Feb we left Auckland for the 83rd and final time (although its immense gravitational pull is getting larger and larger as it sucks in more and more galaxies).
As the van reached the necessary escape velocity (80kph, Southeasterly direction, State Highway 1) we felt a strange sense of sensation as over 35% of the entire country's population were now behind us - we were heading into Real New Zealand.
As we headed towards our target destination, Rotorua, we contemplated visiting "Hobbiton" on the way. It was not to be, partly because of the extortionate cost ($50pp) of visiting the little Hobbitty Lord of the Rings set and partly because we had a tightly planned itinerary which was not able to accomodate the sidetrip. No worries, we were to see much better LOR scenery and for free in just a couple of days.

The Rotorua Area
We arrived at our campsite for the night and in the morning got up and headed straight for the "Wai O Tapu" Thermal Wonderland. For those who don't know, the Rotorua area is an area of intense georthermal activity (for miles around). You can see columns of steam rising from hillsides and bubbling pools of mud all over the place - and I mean all over the place! With little time to spare we went for the All In One deal (the Wai O Tapu Thermal Wonderland of course!) to see everything there is to see in a condensed area. It's got allsorts from geysers to the bubbling "Champagne pool" and everything in between. It really is a thermal wonderland!

The pictures will/do tell the story better than words.....

Later that day we drove to Taupo (see next article).

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