Blogs from Rotorua, North Island, New Zealand, Oceania - page 7

We arrived at the village of Tewhakarewarewatangaoteopetauaawhia, "Whakarewarewa" for short, on a very wet day. This didn't diminish our enjoyment of the place though. We were met by our guide, whose name I didn't catch, who took us on a tour. The entrance to the village was a white bridge. This had been built to replace the previous means of entrance which was to be carried on the backs of the men of the village. The bridge seemed more practical. The bridge was also a memorial to the village's fallen from World War 1 and there were quite a few names on the list. On the back or the arch was inscribed the Maori for "lest we forget". As we were crossing the bridge one of the locals honked their car's horn to encourage us to ... read more

Near Rotarua there is another beach, also called Hot Water Beach. To get to this one you must either take a water taxi or tramp fifteen kilometres each way through woodlands and beside Lake Tarawara. We were keen to visit the beach and decided to spend two days doing the walk with an overnight stay at the Department of Conservation campsite at the beach. It was a three hour drive from the Coromandel to the start of the walk and we arrived at about one o'clock. We were hungry but decided to start the trail immediately and had some home made gingerbread biscuits to keep us going. By the time we were walking the sun was high and it was a very hot day. We started walking down the partially overgrown gravel path over exposed country. ... read more

And stinky it was! Umphf! But also absolutely amazing. So unreal, all these bubbling mudpools, geysers and sulphuric acids breaking through the surface of the earth. It's like the earth is throwing up a bit. I can see why lots of the pools have references to the Devil! We went to Te Puia and Wai-O-Tapu, both amazing sites to walk around in. Te Puia has a geyser which erupts a few times a day, very impressive to witness up close. Wai-O-Tapu has lots of acidic pools that have the most amazing unnatural colours, like a massive pink and yellow lake, and a fluorescent green one that is hard to catch on camera. While we were in Wai-O-Tapu it started raining quite hard, which kind of put a damper on things. We eventually went back to our ... read more

Jeff and I woke up still exhausted from yesterday's adventure and decided a slow start to the day was in order. Our bodies were letting us know that we weren't in our 20's any longer...yes, WE KNOW! We took our time packing up and reviewing the day's itinerary. Drive to Rotorua, grab lunch then relax in the volcanic mud baths and sulphuric spas...NICE! We left Waitomo and drove through some very picturesque, pastoral country. Unfortunately, the roadway was too narrow to pull over for pictures. We pulled into Rotorua around noon and stopped at the local i-site for info. (These sites are in each town and are a wealth of information!) There, we bought our tickets to Hells Gate - The BEAST of all Geothermal Parks...Exciting! The lovely lady helping us recommend the Lime Cafe down ... read more

I caught a ride pretty quickly in Hamilton from an Indian student in an old van. I gathered from other people who have picked me up that there's a fair amount of xenophobia in NZ - with the usual complaints of foreigners coming there to benefit from their safety net without contributing anything, and then sometimes driving on the wrong side of the road and killing people. They should meet this guy. He was a full-time college student who paid for his tuition by driving 8 hours a day Friday-Sunday, his van filled to the brim with frozen goods bound for a grocery in Rotorua. He drove on the left side without a problem, but maybe that's just because he's from India. I helped him unload the groceries to thank him for the lift. The town ... read more