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May 08 - Rotorua and Auckland
So , on the road again. This time at least not too far from Taupo to Rotorua. The weather was beginning to annoy us to say the least ! The drive from Taupo to Rotorua in decent weather would be superb, there is a lot of thermal activity along the way ( Can´t explain this without sounding like a geeky scientist ! ) . Its really strange to drive by some countryside and see many patches of steaming bushes along the way !
We were going to stop along the way at the Champayne pools, but with the weather as it was we just headed straight to Rotorua. We arrived and were really hungry, I spotted a pizza hut and demanded that we went in there ( just to avoid any ´should we go here´/ ´should we go there´ type of carry on ) . It was grim to say the least, the food, the staff, the restaurant itself ...... I don´t know if it was just the weather depressing everyone in there or not , it was just grim. Gill has vowed to never step foot in one again.
We
had decided to stay somewhere a bit better for a change to make a nice change from the van or hostels. We found a nice looking motel, I was absolutely loving the fact that it had an outdoor spa pool and couldn´t wait to get in there ! The next day was no better weather wise, at some point we had to go to Champayne pools .....so off we went. It was superb. I could have watched the bubbling mud for ages ( maybe I should have kept that to myself ! ) . The other pools and just the general environment of the place make you feel like you are on Pluto . Hopefully the pictures can explain better than I can and do it more justice !
We felt like we hadn´t seen enough of the North Island , but a combination of happy campervan hatred and the weather made us think lets just get to Auckland and do nothing for a few days ! So ... Auckland. First of all many thanks to Ian, Amanda and Marley the cat for having us ! We started off and Ian had plenty of ideas for us to get
through ! We first of all went out for the day and headed to the lookout point which used to be the site of a volcano but is now just grass with cows on it , the views were superb ! We then made our way over to the beaches close to the city centre, the weather was superb so we had a quality day just wandering around and doing very little really. We did plan to get the ferry over to the volcanic island at one point or other ...... but laziness crept in and we didn´t get there ! Excuse to go back to New Zealand number 36.
We did the usual touristy thing of going up the sky tower, the views of the city were quality but we didn´t chose a great afternoon for it and to be honest I think by this point we were a bit bored of the whole tall building thing having done one in every big city along the way. Auckland has a lot of similarities with Sydney and loads of little bays to explore, at the weekend we went with Ian and Amanda to a quality surf beach . Feeling
brave ( everyone else had a wetsuit on ) me and Ian charged into the water with the bodyboards , with Gill and Amanda just behind us. From our reaction to the water they must have been put off coming in , it was absolutely freezing ! After 5 minutes of doing anything to try to get used to it, we just became numb really.... and then got battered by the waves for half an hour before getting out. I´d forgot just how good it was to catch a beltin wave and have it take you about 50 yards in, reminded me of a comedy polystyrene board i had in Ilfracombe when I was about 10 ! Except I was absolutely knackered this time. Titirangi were Ian and Amanda live is a quality little town with quite a few bars and restaurants, we stopped off at a place called Elevation on the way back which had beltin views of the city in the distance.
We did manage to drop in on Gask and Sarah too, thanks for having us again. ( still annoyed with Gask for deliberately arranging to go on holiday the one time I am the other
side of the world ! ) I will let Gask off though as on the night he picked out a quality Indian takeaway for us and letting me drink his beer.
We had a quality night out in Auckland at the weekend, we went around a few bars with the favourite being the cowboy bar which dished out hats on the way in ( they took them back on the way out though .....boooo ) . The pictures were good to look at the next morning with the usual random people on there and the usual question " who the hell is that ?!! ".
We were a bit gutted to be leaving New Zealand but we had a few months in South America to look forward to , so it wasn't all bad !
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