Blowing off steam

I slept in this morning and woke up just before 10 – normal checkout time. I had a quick shower, packed and was on the road by about 10-30. It took less than 2 minutes to hit the first road works. This wasn’t to bad but at the end of the multi lane highway they’d close one lane and it took ages to get off. I then headed east along the coast. The plain widens here and the mountains recede in the distance. There seems to be a lot of orchards in the district, mainly kiwi fruit.

The sun was shining again, much like the last few days in Hamilton, so it was quite pleasant. I even took off my tracksuit top.

Eventually I turned south towards Rotorua and again crossed through a gorge. I had bought some more CDs and a pie at the last town before the turn off. Hint – do not buy a potato pie, take 2 bites out of it and then expect to be able to eat it while driving. Eventually I found a side road to pull over and eat it before it got cold but I had to get out of the car since it had fallen over and leaked. Still tasted ok.

It was just after 12 when I got to Rotorua. It is quite a large town, so I didn’t need to worry about finding CDs here after all.

I found my motel, which is just opposite the golf course. It was too early to check in but I picked up some maps and advice and headed back into the town centre.

The town sits in a large lake, which is almost as big an attraction as the thermal pools. The first place I visited was Kurau Park, which has a number of thermal ponds in it and is free. There is even a couple of bathing pools about the size of 4 normal baths and only a few feet deep.

From there I headed to the lake front and briefly wandered around before driving to the Government Gardens. There is a museum in an elegant former bath house – lots of carvings and so forth on the outside, The blue baths, the Polynesian spa and the bowling club. I also walked part of the lake front trail, seeing more thermal pools.

By then it was time to check in and I discovered my room looked over the Te Puia Geothermal park. The bubbling mud pool is only 50m or so from my room and the geyser a couple of hundred metres away. Since it’s a $50 entrance fee I decided to forgo the Maori concert and just take my free pictures.

I decided instead to visit Hell’s Gate, another mud pool attraction back past the airport that I passed on the way in. When I got there I realised I left my camera behind so I head back to the motel – 30km wasted. As it turned out the geyser next door was erupting, so I took some pictures and movies of that and decided to call it a day for sight seeing.

I had dinner with a group of 3 Australian couple in their 60's, which was more enjoyable than eating on my own. The restuarant did not excel. The soup and garlic bread came without garlic bread; the pork chops and glazed pear had no pears, the vegetables in a crepe basket came in a bowl and the prawns with grapefruit and avocado had neitehr grapefruit nor avocado. Fortunately my lamb shanks with a side of vegetables were as ordered and very nice.

I then decided to use my 1 hour free internet but they did not support wireles and could not give me a cable to connect via the network. Hence I'm down the street in an internet cafe again.

I also found out last night that my laptop only has a DVD reader/CD writer so I have had to buy more CDs to send the photos to the team. They will get3 cds instead of 1 DVD. I have burnt about half og them so far.