This morning looked like better weather, but alas the wind was still to high for a dry Zorb! I'm not too bothered as there will be other places to do this in New Zealand, and I suspect some will be more sheltered for exactly this reason... failing that I'll do one back in Blighty next summer time (Vin you'll be doing that bad boy too, it'll be my treat this time!).
I drove south of Rotorua to the 'Buried Village' of Te Wairoa, which was half buried by an erruption from Mt Tarawera in 1886. This was quite an interesting visit including the forest walk partway down the valley to see the waterfalls on the Wairoa Stream which were beautiful. I also drove just up the road to a lookout over the area, but only hung around to take a couple of snap shots as there was a group of loud Americans all chain smoking cigarettes up there telling stories about the village like they were actually there when it happened, lol. There were enough reasons to not stay...
I drove back along the road to Rotorua and stopped off at a lookout between the privately owned Green Lake and the state owned Blue Lake. Both were stunningly beautiful and I decided to do the 5km walk around the Blue Lake after a spot of lunch (lol, how terribly British!). The walk was really nice and there were opportunities to get off the track and go through the woods and get down to the bank of the lake. There is a watersports club on one side of the lake and its clear that there is a lot of swimming here in the summer months too. The water was a bit too cold for swimming at the moment though!
Later I drove on to Whakarewarewa Forest, which has several walks of varying length of severity. In my wisdom I decided to take on the Redwood forest and the quarry walk, which were both really nice walks, although combined with todays earlier walks meant a total of over 15km on mud, leaves and gravel tracks, up and down hills... I was fooked at the end! I am now of course carrying a laptop and associated peripherals around with me on my walks now, as well as all the original stuff I didn't want to leave in the van! Still, I had a good day and it really gives you the chance to get some things straight in your head when you're just putting one foot in front of the other for hours on end. These walks here in New Zealand are both breathtaking in their beauty and interesting in how they are changing the way I think about life (or stuff if thats a bit too heavy for you ;-)).
After filling up with fuel I got back to camp for a hot shower and some lazing! I will sleep well tonight...
Pictures are on Facebook...
