The Girls and the Tramps

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We really enjoyed our time on the Coromandel Peninsula soaking up the sun and we wore sunscreen with a religious zeal. We went for a lovely swim at Lonely Bay which hosted a wedding later that day... imagine getting married at Lonely Bay... bad karma right there. The water was a clear, blue-green that crashed onto white sands and worn limestone cliffs and it was delightful to run around in a swimsuit all day. The morning started out with a trip to Hot Water Beach which has a hot springs right in the intertidal zone that can be accessed around low tide. You used a trowel to dig a hot the depth of a mud puddle and wait for a wave to bring cool water... and then you JUMP in! It's fun but we did feel a bit silly laying in a mud puddle with our swimsuits on. When a wave comes in, everyone jumps out of their mud puddles like sandflies... squealing like little piggies all the way. Courtesy of my wonderful father who gave me a kayak trip, we went on a half day kayak to Cathedral Cove, quite possibly the most photographed beach in New Zealand. If you are familiar with the second Narnia film, the beginning scenes at of Cathedral Cove. Cathedral Cove was beautiful, but it all ended too soon. I even had time to swallow a bug... I guess that we are not getting enough protein.
All to soon, we said goodbye to the Coromandel and it's lovely beaches and headed for Rotorua, known for it's Maori culture and geothermal activity. On the way, we stopped in Matamata, a small town that is best known for the setting of Hobbiton from the Lord of the Rings movies. The set is on a private farm and even though I had taken the tour before, it was a beautiful afternoon to go slipping and sliding over sheep turds and dance under the the 'Party Tree.' We loved the tour. We danced under the 'Party Tree' and mugged for photos in the hobbit holes. Our guide said that many people show up in costume and one German guy who is over 6"5' (hobbits are supposed to be 5'4" or under) showed up in a custom made hobbit costume and after the tour was over, announced that he had found his true home and he wasn't planning to leave. The guide finally convinced him to leave several hours later and he walked off down the road, continuing on his journey like Bilbo. Or the woman who bought the $400 ring and hired a helicopter to fly her over Mt. Doom so she could drop the ring into the crater! I am sorry to say that we weren't quite so interesting. After the tour we stopped in Tirau, a small town that has buildings made of corrugated tin animals - a sheep and dog! Clever!
We arrived in Rotorua, staying at Funky Green Backpackers, to the smells of sulphur... hmmm rotten eggs. We saw an ad for a campground that bragged that it was outside of town so it didn't have those smells. While we were in Rotorua we traveled to Wai O Tapu, a geothermal park. The geyser, Lady Knox, erupts everyday at 10:15 am... it's because they put soap suds into make it erupt. I think that they picked the time because then everyone completes the tour by lunch and oh! and stop by our overpriced cafe for a bite to eat!! The geyser erupts for an hour, but all the crowds leave about 5 minutes in, so we took our pictures after everyone left. Yes!! The rest of the park boasted bubbling mud pools, steam coming out of the ground and pools with blue water and different color mineral deposits on the edge. I was half tempted to push Blake into the pool while she was bent over taking a picture... but she had the car keys. In the evening we attended a Maori hangi or a feast cooked underground while we were entertained with some cultural dances, songs and we even learned about some Maori hand signs like the one with your pinky at your mouth and your thumb at your ear - that's the symbol for a telephone! The evening ended with a nature walk and glowworm sightings! Rotorua boasts many beautiful parks and we checked on a park in the middle of the town with lots of geothermal activity. The geothermal activity, bubbling mud pools, water water, etc. is an interesting contrast with the modern city right behind it.
Our time in Rotorua was too short and we left the next day to start our first backpacking trip, Lake Waikaremoana (the hike was easy-moderate, but the hard part is pronoucing the name) a 46 km walk around a lake over 3 1/4 days. The drive was intense, 3 1/2 hours with 2 hours of driving on windy, dusty gravel roads where I didn't drive above 20 mph. The hike was wonderful, sunny everyday but extremely buggy. We enjoyed a nice soak in the lake at the end of the day to wash off the grim of the day.
In the next installment... don't miss our epic hike, the Tongariro Crossing, NZ's best one day walk between two active volcanoes where we climbed to the top of one.

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