First thing I did today was head for the Hamilton Gardens since I heard good things about them. And those good things turned out to be true because this place was incredible. It had such a variety of gardens with art from different eras woven in, that it was truly unique. They had a Japanese garden, Italian Renaissance, a modern garden, and many others. There were awesome sculptures and fountains as well as neat archways and bridges. All the different gardens began at a center point and then branched out from there so even the layout was cool and it made it seem like you were on some kind of treasure hunt and you had no idea what you'd find. There was also a massive agricultural garden with all kinds of vegetables.
I left the gardens and went to another mall and still didn't find much that I liked. In this mall they actually had a Countdown so I stocked up on food. I was also able to call back home while I was there too. I headed out of Hamilton and an hour later I made it to Rotorua. Rotorua, aka: geothermal capital of the country, which in congruence, makes it the rotten egg capital as well. Driving into the town, you see steam rising from littles areas all over. As I was going down one of the main streets, I noticed steam spewing out of a sidewalk and the catch basin, like this is just the way it is around here. So since all of the geothermal activity has a lot of sulfur in it, the whole town smells like rotten eggs. I suppose the residents just get used to it ??? I'm not sure if I could...
I decided to stay at a hostel instead of at a holiday park. It was called the Backyard Inn. I checked in and went up to my room, which was upstairs of an old motel like building converted into a hostel. I went to the kitchen and heated up some food. I had looked up a few local bars in the area and headed for one called BREW. It was on a closed off pedestrian street near many other restaurants and bars. I ordered the Joy-Ryder rye ale (of course) and sat at a table alone. I left and went in search of another place.
On my way there, I posted up near a Spark wifi hotspot. These are phone booths all over New Zealand and if you're on the Spark network, you get one free gig of data each day when you're near these booths. I was more happy just sitting there than going into another restaurant/bar by myself. After awhile, a young girl came and sat at one of the benches and we got to talking. She had just gotten off work and is from the area and so she told me what is worth doing around Rotorua. She had questions about Alaska and was really surprised I knew someone from the Ice Road Truckers show. She asked about my travels and it seems like she also has big plans to travel too. Once her ride got there, she asked to add me on Facebook in case I had questions about NZ. I kind of felt like this night was a bit on the boring side, but this random conversation with a sweet, random stranger was just what I needed.
I drove back to the hostel and called it a night.
