http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/New-Zealand/North-Island/Rotorua/ Travel adventures in journals and photos from Oceania , New Zealand , North Island , Rotorua en-us Tue, 05 Jan 2010 06:57:03 +0000 Tue, 05 Jan 2010 06:57:03 +0000 Neues Jahr neues Glueck wir starten durch in Rotorua und sind jetzt eine PatchworkGrossFamilie mit Tim Linus Alyssa Scott und Annett Lucky dem Hasen und Zoey dem Hund und unseren 20 Fischen... http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/New-Zealand/North-Island/Rotorua/blog-464505.html Day 629 on the road Rotorua stinks. Literally. The town is situated smackbang in the middle of New Zealand's most active geothermal area and everywhere you go the earth is smoking hissing and steaming basking the city in an omnipresent strong sulphur odour. It is actually quite a strange sensation to walk around downtown and see steam coming out of the ground in various places. Not surprisin http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/New-Zealand/North-Island/Rotorua/blog-460265.html You know how for the most part yoursquod rather be travelling Same with us. Yes our entire New Zealand experience counts as travelling but really we like it best when we are sleeping somewhere other than our own bed. Not to say that we havenrsquot had some fun in our hometown lately. Wersquove done some distinctly NZ things here and really enjoyed them.First the rugby game. We knew w http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/New-Zealand/North-Island/Rotorua/blog-453206.html We left Mercury Bay at 7.30am and after a long drive we arrived in a little town called Matamata for a lunch stop. This place was the filming location for Hobbiton in the Lord Of The Rings movie hence the sign with the Gollum statueWe then headed to our destination Rotorua which in my opinion was a bit of a dump. Greeted with heavy rain the town is built over boiling mudpools and geysers so http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/New-Zealand/North-Island/Rotorua/blog-449248.html Thermal Explorer HighwayThis Highway cuts through the highlands in the centre of the North Island. There are volcanoes and geothermal vents all over the place once you get closer to Rotorua. Theres even some geothermal power plants along the way.RotoruaWe drove to Rotorua around midday and took a little detour to the Buried Village east of town. The village was buried in the late 1800's by a vo http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/New-Zealand/North-Island/Rotorua/blog-449123.html I dropped Meike off at an internet cafe and then took the car back. It was pouring rain all day so we ended up staying in the hostel and playing uno all day with a few other people. A couple of other german girls wanted to go out that night so we joined them and we walked to the Lava Bar. Not too busy in there but we ended up meeting a bunch of guys from Australia here on a yearly fishing trip. It http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/New-Zealand/North-Island/Rotorua/blog-444212.html We changed out clocks here last night. Since it's spring here and not fall we sprung ahead by an hour so now i'm 19 hours ahead of home kinda weird Anyways we were up early to drive out to Waiotapu which is 20 minutes drive from Rotorua and is a big geothermal park so lots of stinky geysers and all that kind of fun stuff. The lady knox geyser goes off at 1015am everyday because the park puts http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/New-Zealand/North-Island/Rotorua/blog-444209.html Well it's raining again. Seems to be rainy season right now haha. Meike and I stopped in at a rental car place and ended up with a car for 49 for a day and a half because the lady didn't want to come in to work on sunday so she gave the car to us for an extra half a day. Score for us It's a little blue toyota corolla. Sweet as I drove the car and parked it at the Polynesian spa because we were http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/New-Zealand/North-Island/Rotorua/blog-444207.html Ate some breakfast at Uncle Boy's place before heading off on the bus to Rotorua. Another rainy day although we got a few moments of just cloudy skies. We stopped on the way at the big kiwi. Basically it's just a giant kiwi fruit haha. Meike and I got dropped off at our hostel and checked in. We are staying at a small hostel called Funky green backpackers. It's really nice and homey. We lucked out http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/New-Zealand/North-Island/Rotorua/blog-443952.html After the Coromandel we stayed in the coastal town of Whakatane for two nights before heading inland to Rotorua.For those of you that don't know we didn't Rotorua is a geothermal wonderland set on a volcanic plateau which means there are plenty of hot springs bubbling mud pools steam rising ominously from the ground and a permanent stench of sulphur in the air. It really is overpowering someti http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/New-Zealand/North-Island/Rotorua/blog-443364.html HiWell we arrived in Rotorua in the evening of Friday 22nd May. As soon as we drove into the town a strong smell of sulphur hit us and it took a few minutes for us to figure out what it was until we saw all the steam rising from various cracks in the footpaths and other sulphur pools around the town. Tired we drove around for a long time looking for somewhere to camp for the night but arriving http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/New-Zealand/North-Island/Rotorua/blog-442910.html Mon 28th September 2009Disastrous start to the day since we slept in following a mix up with not putting the clock forward on our alarm clock and we missed saying bye to Aunt Yvonne before she headed off to work Sorry again Aunt Yvonne Not really much to see on our drive south so much rain we were struggling to see Auckland city from the harbour bridge but we continue in valiant hope that http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/New-Zealand/North-Island/Rotorua/blog-440679.html I was a nervous wreck behing the wheel of the largest vehicle I'd ever driven for about 20 minutes. Bumble B is in fact a very easy drive. It helps that unlike the UK here pretty much every tourist route sealed road roundabout and parking space is designed for vehicles larger than a Smartcar. So after a few dodgy left hand turns and a couple of hubscrapes we were cruising out of Auckland on http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/New-Zealand/North-Island/Rotorua/blog-440384.html Hola and happy new year to all...MOT that is...This is sort of a hodge podge of adventures that we have done recentlyshort sweet and to the pointplease check out all of our action photosBefore work began for me we decided to take some advice from a fellow American ED doc thanks Julie and drive out for a good hour in every direction out of our home town of Rotorua. On one trip south to T http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/New-Zealand/North-Island/Rotorua/blog-439302.html HOBBIT WANDERS WaiotapuAs our hobbits gather food for the nightrsquos meal at Pakrsquonrsquosave they are attracted by a new sight strawberry flavoured Lindaur popular NZ bubbly wine. It seems like a great idea putting strawberry flavour with the wine. They later realise that although it tastes fine itrsquos a shame it smells like toilet spray. It might have been better drinki http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/New-Zealand/North-Island/Rotorua/blog-436260.html Kia Ora from RotoruaIt has been hard getting internet access. 30 a day at the hotelsWe had a lovely day at Napier. The buildings are lovely. I will load some photos when I can. I am using the computer in the novotel lobby. The drive from Napier was quite spectacular rolling green hills snow covered mountain peaks and acres of pine forrests. Really beautiful.Yesterday we did the Waitaupo the http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/New-Zealand/North-Island/Rotorua/blog-432159.html Sunday morning after our early wake up call we headed down to Rotorua. It was a long driving day back through Auckland and heading southwards. Unfortunately the heavens opened from Auckland to Rotorua so we didn't stop other than to fill the Starlet with petrol.Monday morning soon rolled around and after a wander around the town we headed to Kuirau park the first stop was to have a go on their a http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/New-Zealand/North-Island/Rotorua/blog-428830.html Day 95 Friday 240709 NJJHad a lie in until 10am. Around 2pm we drove in to the city to the Polynesian Spa for some hot mineral bathing. We used the 'Adult and Priest Pools' a complex of seven pools of thermal mineral waters. The pools were of varying temperatures between 38 and 42 degrees centigrade. 3 of them had alkaline waters good for the skin and 4 had acidic waters good for aches an http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/New-Zealand/North-Island/Rotorua/blog-424039.html Day 94 Thursday 230709 NJJApart form popping out to KFC and the supermarket early evening we spent the day at the holiday park. We bought some Hokey Pokey chocolate which we both now love. Most of the day was used on the internet looking for prices etc. for Canada and USA. Jamie did spend a few hours in the TV room too in the evening. http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/New-Zealand/North-Island/Rotorua/blog-424038.html Day 93 Wednesday 220709 NJJ Up at 8.30am. Left camp by 9.15am for hour drive to WaiOTapu Thermal Wonderland. After we paid we drove to the Lady Knox Geyser for the 10.15am eruption. It turns out that a park employee tips soap powder into the geyser mouth which causes the eruption. They do this as the geyser would otherwise erupt approximately every 48 hours and they couldn't guarantee a t http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/New-Zealand/North-Island/Rotorua/blog-424035.html