East Cape, Bay of Plenty and Rotorua

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since our last installment we have been far and wide, venturing first to waikaremoana where theres a beautiful lake and the only remaining undeveloped/logged areas on N island. did lots of walking and saw some fantastic waterfalls. from there went to the mahia peninsula. beachy outcrop, where there was a fantastic sunset. we then went on into gisbourne. quite dull town so we spent the minimum of time there.
then we headed for the most remote part of the NI known as the east cape (more imaginative naming). this area is mostly maori - saw a couple of "marae's" - meeting houses/community hall impressively decorated with hand carvings. went 21km down a rough track on a cliff edge and got to the most eastern point of NZ - the first place the sun rises of each new day. also endulged in fish and chips where the women behind the counter wanted to know if matt was a good financial proposition!

from there cont along coast to opotiki and whakatane (wh pronounced as f as there is no f in the maori alphabet - it only has 15 letters - hence why all places sound the same, and yet we never pronounce any of them correctly!). further along we went thru te puke (pronounced tupuki) the kiwi fruit capital! since then the weather hasnt been so good!! we've visited mt manganui and tauronga, had a nice walk on beach on 1 nice sunny day! visited a winery - v tasty.

from there went to rotorua - thermal area - boiling springs, bubbling mud pools and sulphurous geysers (rotten egg smell present but not as bad as we'd envisged). quite touristy despite the egginess. went to one of the thermal parks which also had the NZ arts and crafts institute where the had wood carving (traditional) and weaving schools where you could look at students working on their pieces. also had a meeting house and food store traditionally carved. it chucked it down for most of time there but this helps make the springs etc steam more. so not all lost.
rotorua itself has steam rising from the pavements and patches of boiling water, and the ground itslef is quite warm. this is a draw for lots of birds that nest by the lake. v pretty. we also visited other lakes and waterfalls in area.
then headed down to taupo, past more bubbling mud pools - one of which spat mud on us! luckily not as warm as can be (up to 90degrees c)! went to the Huka falls - the only exit from lake taupo and it shows as goes thru a really small channel and the pressure and volume of water is obviously immense. we also visited the "craters of the moon" which are a feild of steaming craters, which have lots of different colours cos of the minerals in soil.
we are in taupo town now, we dont intend to bungee jump so we are going to head instead to tongariro - walking.

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