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Published: December 18th 2006
Let's Twist Again
Glynn and Lina practise for the forthcoming Strictly Come Dancing contest.What a difference a day makes. Yesterday, we couldn't wait to get out of the tourist trap of Rotorua but today we had something to look forward to - a day out with our new best friend Lina! Having managed to sort everything out to extend our stay in Rotorua, we met up with Lina at 10.30 for one of our best days out in New Zealand so far. Lina is in New Zealand for a whole year so she made the wise investment of buying a car. This was particularly wise as it meant she could take us to some far flung places we would otherwise have never been able to experience!
Our first port of call was to the Rotorua cable car, which turned out to be a bit pants. Not only was it a bit pricy at NZ$26 a piece and it was possibly the least impressive cable car in the world. It didn't go up very high and it didn't look like much of a long distance either. Ultimately, the cable car wasn't a patch on the ones we experienced in either Miyajima, Japan or Langkawi, Malaysia but if I was 5 years old, I might
You Call That a Cable Car?
Even Jish thinks it's a bit on the small side and he's quite a small bear himself! have been impressed by the one in Rotorua - perhaps.
Anyway, the upshot of it was that we decided to walk up the mini mountain instead and try and get our view of Lake Rotorua for free. The cable car people didn't seem to want to let us walk up (something to do with money) so we jumped back in the car and went in search of another way up. Luckily we had a local map with us and Glynn soon spotted a likely looking twisty track that might lead us uphill - Mountain Road. Up and up we drove until we ran out of road at which point we parked and continued on foot. We struck gold. Only a few minutes after we started walking, we were treated to a stunning vista right across the town of Rotorua and its nice big lake. Best of all though was that we were on the same side of the 'mountain' as the cable cars, only twice as high and all for free :-)
Alas, the weather wasn't brilliant and the intermittent sunshine was obscured by a slight drizzle that kicked in every so often. There were some lovely flowers
My First Foxglove
Lina experiences her first ever foxglove. Bless. and plants to be seen all along the banks of the footpath including some pretty, bright pink and white foxgloves, a flower which Lina had never seen before. As we neared the summit of the so-called mountain (it was really just a big hill), we saw there wasn't much at the top other than a radio transmitter so we turned around and ambled back down. The wind began to pick up, the temperature seemd to drop quite suddenly and before long we found ourselves being pelted by a flurry of tiny hailstones. I guess it is true that in New Zealand you really can experience all four seasons in just one day!
Back at the car our tummies were rumbling so we debated what to do about lunch. We settled on getting a takeaway pizza and headed to the local Dominoes. Lina then drove along the lake until we found a nice spot by the the water's edge where we could scoff our nosh. One of the best things about New Zealand is all the picnic tables dotted about at almost every single scenic spot in the country. Often you can also find built-in gas barbecues, many of which
Lake View
...and still they practise their dancefloor moves... are free of charge to use. How cool is that? Well, we didn't need to barbecue our pizza but the BBQ stand made an excellent place to rest our food and all we had to do then was keep warm (that wind was getting sooooooo cold) and try and keep the greedy ducks at bay. We failed miserably at both tasks but had fun feeding the local waterfowl with the crusts of our Veggie Deluxe pizza. One poor duck had a fishing hook wedge firmly in its beak but there was nothing we could do to help it. There was also a small family of ducklings that waddled up to us and we took great delight in trying to feed the babies, although the seagulls seemed to be getting most of it instead.
After lunch, we piled back in the car and were taken to the Hamurana Springs, a place that Lina has visited before but wanted to show us. The track led us along a river with waters so clear that we could see trout swimming along in the current. Everywhere we looked the water seemed to take on a new colour, not due to the water but
I Wanna Be a Tree
You'll need to be a lot taller than that to qualify for honourary redwood tree status, guys! because of all the different mineral deposits resulting from localised volcanic activity. There were bursts of bright yellow, green and azure blue lining the riverbed and it was so very beautiful. Dark green vegetation lined the shores on both sides framing every view along the way - even the pictures don't do the colours justice! We followed the path on through a woodland of redwood trees which towered high above us. These are the same kind of giant trees that are famous in America for their enormous size and they really are very, very big indeed. We had lots of fun hiding behind the massive trunks and jumping out on each other and every so often we could hear the trees groaning as their big branches swayed in the breeze, reminding us just how tiny we were are!
The highlight of the woodland walk was a natural water spring called the Coronation Springs. It's basically a 15 foot deep hole in the ground where spring water gurgles gently to the surface, forming the source of the crystal clear river we had been following. There were a couple of lookout platforms on either side of the well and it was
Hide and Seek
Look who it is! mesmerising to gaze down into the deep pool and watch as the water bubbled up. If we stood still for a while, a couple of trout would appear in the spring and swim a few laps for us before disappearing again the moment another visitor arrived to take a look. It was a really lovely place to enjoy the marvels of mother nature.
Back on the path we aimed for the local golf course where a bridge over the river should have led to a natural hot pool but unfortunately the bridge was sealed off and we couldn't cross. We were a little disappointed but on closer inspection of the bridge we could see why it was closed - the metal supports didn't look too clever at all and the planks of wood that had been lain across as a walkway were pretty rotten. That said, Glynn and I have walked over far worse during our travels in Asia but we didn't dare chance it with Lina in tow too so we slowly made our way back to the end of the river where the trail had begun and spent some time chasing the geese and chickens that were
Giant Redwoods
Big trees, dude! hanging out near the car park in the hope of a free feed.
Our day was by no means over yet and Lina had one more excellent freebie location up her sleeve. We headed back to the hostel and donned our swimwear as instructed, all the time feeling a little sceptical about swimming anywhere with the increasingly chilly wind in the air. About 30 kilometers out of town, we turned off onto a little dirt road and came across a lovely hot thermal pool that was enticing us to come in. We dithered a little because it was getting so cold and we would need to cross the makeshift carpark in just our swimgear to reach the water's edge but once we got in, we soon forgot about the weather. The water was quite shallow - never more than knee-deep - but oh boy was it toasty and warm! We lay back and let the warmth of the natural hot spring water wash over us, trying our best to ignore the feint smell of rotten eggs that goes hand-in-hand with any volcanic area. Glynn amused us with his new fish impressions while Lina and I simply enjoyed the sensation
Watercolours
If you look hard enough, you might even spot some trout in these crystal clear waters :-) of having a hot bath in the open air - even if the water was kind of sulphur-laden browny-orange colour!
There was a tiny trickle of a waterfall at one end which we didn't get to explore owing to a rather loud and opinionated old codger who insisted on droning on about all that was wrong in the world to anyone who would listen. Not wanting to be drawn in as we had seen happen to a few other bathers, we made our way to the other end of the pool, closer to the source of the heat. We picked a spot close enough to the heat vent to get really hot but far enough away to avoid being boiled alive. There we got chatting to a nice older couple from Gisborne who gave us loads of interesting info about the natural spa we were in (there is a good chance that it will cost a small fee to bathe here in the near future) and about life in New Zealand in general. We floated about in the hot water for well over two hours and emerged looking crinklier than a Californian prune when we finally managed to drag
I've Got You!
Glynn and Jude try to prove that nothing will keep them apart :-) ourselve out. I can totally recommend this place to anyone visiting Rotorua but I can't for the life of me remember what it was called or how to get there! Sorry folks!
We ended our brilliant day with a cooling 12-pack of Export Gold beer for just NZ$11.99 from the wonderfully cheap Pack'n'Save supermarket and introduced Lina to the wonders of Batman Begins on dvd; Glynn's mission to bring Batman to world domination coming one step closer in the process ;-) The night turned extremely cold - so cold in fact that we could see our breath every time we stepped outside under the starry skies. Poor Lina was staying in a dorm room and had mentioned that it had been cold in her room on previous nights. It seemed ideal then that we could offer the sofa bed in the lounge room for Lina to sleep on, as we also had a nice portable radiator that the other rooms didn't. It was almost 2am when we all finally hit the sack, leaving Lina curled up all nice and warm on the sofa for what she later told us was the best night's sleep she'd had since arriving in
River Walk
The gorgeous multi-coloured river leading from the Hamurana Springs. Rotorua. Bless.
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Judy
non-member comment
Cheating on me with Lina?? I can't believe you! Whatever.. ;P It seems you guys had a great time there. Oh and I love the pic titled, "I've got you" Soo romantic *sigh*