Bethlehem, Rotorua, Lake Taupo and Napier

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After our lovely seafront evening spent camping on the beach in Haihei we decided to drive the short distance along the coast to Hot Water Beach. In this bay, at low tide, you can dig your own hot pool in the sand! As the tide was up quite high we knew we wouldn't be able to dig a pool but the beach itself was absolutely beautiful.



On our way to Rotorua we stopped at the supermarket in a town called Bethlehem, which Dan found quite amusing. The town of Rotorua is based at the foot of Lake Rotorua in the Bay of Plenty region. After seeing the breathtaking lakes in the South Island (Lake Tepako for instance) we realised we have become slightly complacent at the sight of beautiful lakes. We stopped in the town for about half an hour and walked to the water's edge to look at the black swans. Rotorua is nicknamed Sulphur City due to the amount of sulphur present in the water and it caused the town to stink of rotten eggs. Needless to say we didn't stay that long and headed to the Waimangu Volcanic Valley.



The Waimangu Valley is the world's youngest geothermal system, I was super excited as I love volcanoes and volcanic activity. We chose to do the self guided crater walk which took us through the valley on foot to see the crater lakes and Frying Pan Lake (the Largest hot spring in the world), created by the eruption of Mount Terawera in 1886. The valley walk was absolutely incredible - definitely my favourite paid excursion so far. The smell of sulphur wasn't as bad as in Rotorua and it was lovely sitting listening to the hot pools bubbling away. The colours in the valley were incredible and were so bright that they didn't look natural. One section of the walk was nicknamed The Artists Palette. We chose to do the "hikers trail" walk, which took us off the usual footpath and up a steep hill - everything in NZ looks better from on top of a hill.



We stayed in Great Lake Taupo Campsite, did our washing, finally got to use the Internet (much to Dan's Mum's relief) and got an early night. We were up early to head into Taupo to explore but as it was just another lakeside town we decided to drive to Napier to spend more time there instead - as Napier had been so highly recommended. We stopped outside Taupo at Huka Falls to watch the gushing water travel inland from Lake Taupo. The ferocity and noise of the water shooting down the falls was breathtaking. You wouldn't want to drop anything over the edge by accident here!



The hype about Napier was justified as it was absolutely gorgeous! The art deco buildings, glorious sunshine and relaxing atmosphere was just what we needed. We parked the camper in the Portside Inn Backpackers and Campervan Site where we would spend the night. We wandered to the top of a steep hill overlooking the town centre and then stopped for a coffee in the somewhat deserted town. We ate a lovely dinner outside, even though it was a bit chilly living the dream, and played a few games of table tennis. The following morning we drove up to the Bluff Hill viewing point. This proved to be a complete waste of time as it was a very steep winding hill (not very good for the campervan) and only provided a view of the industrial port... We took a romantic walk along the seafront in the sunshine and left Napier on a high note.





Now off to Upper Hutt to see Zaidee ready to submit our visa applications to the Chinese Embassy in Wellington on Friday.



Kayleigh

Xx

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