We left the comfort of friends and rented a car for two day to get us up to Auckland, stopping for 1 night in Lake Taupo (not worth a mention) and the next day to Rotorua, really cool!
Yes it smelt but your nose just adjusts after a while....We walked around the cool little town it was high 30´s again so drove to a free hot springs river/pond nestled in the bush...lovely! We saw the splats and splots of the mud pools and chilled out by the beautiful lakes.
