Susan's Travel Sagas

Woke to a gloomy rainy day. Ate my breakfast of Oatmores and yoghurt and drove into Rotorua. Since the White Island trip had been cancelled, I had not really planned for today,. Not much to do when it is raining and I had already been to the museum, so I had a latte in The Fat Dog Café, finished reading The Nineteent Wife,  and then walked around and went into lots of souvenir shops. Saw some contemporary Maori wood carvings that I liked and hadn’t seen before, but wasn’t sure if I wanted to buy one.  After the souvenir shops, I decided to drive out of town to Mamaka, a blueberry winery. A woman in one of the souvenir shops told me she had heard that there were really good blueberry pancakes there. I was the only one there, although a few others came in as I was leaving. I samples some blueberry and gooseberry jams, jellies, and chutneys and then decided to stay for lunch. I did have the blueberry pancakes which were very good. Three pancakes with blueberries and blueberry syrup layered between and on top were accompanied by a cup of blueberry tea. After lunch I sampled some blueberry wine and blueberry liqueur, all of which were good, but none that I had any interest in buying. It was raining really hard while I was eating, but by the time I left seemed to be lightening up.

As I headed back toward Rotarua around the north side of the lake, it cleared up so I decided to go to Hell’s Gate which would have been the end of the trip to White Island. More geotheramal attractions which are always interesting, but then I treated myself and my sore and tired legs to the spa. Had a 20 minute soak in the mud bath, then time in the hot sulphur pool, and a 30 minute massage. I felt much better when I left, although I didn’t realize how much I and my clothes smelled like sulphur. Back into Rotorua and got back to the store with the Maori art before it closed (amazingly it was open after 5 PM) and bought the piece I had first been attracted to - a rendition of a fish hook with inlaid puau (abalone shell). Then I walked up and down the street reading restaurant menus and ended up at an Indian restaurant, I wasn’t too hungry and didn’t want to spend a lot of money. That was my day.