Our time in Rotorua has been a mixture of both good and bad! First...the bad! It has rained endlessly since we arrived here, and unfortunately, due to the rock hard, uneven nature of our tent pitch, Tom and I awoke this morning to find our tent sitting in an inch deep dub of water, which had slightly saturated the ground sheet making everything a little damp! Fortunately however, we have managed to get another pitch, which is a little more level, so our tent is now drying out nicely! Same thing must have happened to Pip, as we awoke to find him sleeping in the boot of the car having been pretty much flooded out! Also, last night, tom left his mandolin in the porch of the tent for about an hour, and came back to find the water had soaked through the leather case and has pretty much runied the instrument. The body has all cracked and collapsed which is a real shame. Still it could have been much worse if he had brought his shippy mandolin from home.
Anyway, now for the good! Yesterday visited the Polynesian Spa and spent a good few hours in their lakeside retreat! Was really nice! They had four different thermal pools right next to Lake Rotorua, which ranged from 36 degrees to 42 degrees. You would have loved it mum! Also, the changing rooms provided a few luxuries...big fluffy towels and hair dryers, which of course me and Anna took full advantage of!
This morning, we visited a place called Hell's Gate, which is basically a big geothermal park. As you walk around, you can view steaming lakes and waterfalls that reach temperatures of over 100 degrees, pools of bubbling mud, sulphur lakes and even a mud volcano. Was fascinating, although the sulphur smell was pretty strong!
Tomorrow, we plan to leave Rotorua and begin our journey towards the top of the North Island. Brenda (our car) has been running smoothly thus far, so we are very pleased with her! Only had one mishap where we had the boot open for too long and the lights caused the battery to run flat! Thankfully we met a nice man with a jump lead who revived her, and have since disconnected the boot and door lights!
Will keep you posted on how it's all going, hope all is well back home. Wish you could all be here! xxxx
