Day 6 - 2nd Aug 2007

Our first driving day. Picked up the car early and had a massive breakfast at Denny's before heading off.

Although Auckland seemed deadly quiet compared to Hong Kong - the roads were pretty chock-a-block until well outside the city. Once out though, you start to see the fantastic volcanic North Island scenery. All very green - in fact, more shades of green than you can imagine. Quite a few cows around and even a few deer but haven't seen any sheep yet!

Arrived in Rotorua late afternoon and Annette, Helen & Andrew hit the pool and Mark went for a walk around the lake shore. Rotorua is the name of the lake with the volcanic island. The whole area is active and steam escapes all over the town. Bizarrely hot steam leaks out through holes or man hole covers all around the streets. In theory it's all quite safe but it does give the impression that it could all blow up any time and people aren't really supposed to live here!

In the evening we went to the Matai Hangi dinner - this is a Maori village which hosts a re-enactment of Maori song, dance & stories, the traditional barbecue style meal (the Hangi) and a walk through the rain forest in the dark to see the eels and glow worms. There are a lot of these dinners around and it is pretty touristy but the whole evening was pretty good and better than some that are hosted in downtown halls.

Helen says -

spent most of the day driving- very borin. As we were drivin there was a huge smell of egs becuase the lake was sulphur water it smelt like a hundred sink bombs had be let off at once. There was steam cumin out from the man hole covers like the water was coming out of them on the last day of term.

wen we got to he hotel it looked really posh and it looked like me and andrew were the youngest people at the hotel because there was a convention for construction on. me andrew and mum wet for a swim and the pool was lurvely very warm just wot u want after a day of driving.

we then went out for a mouari meal and we went for a walk thru the wood and watched men in jst a littl grass skirt on some didnt have a bak 2 them and not all of them had a bk to them and not all of them were fit in fact the "chief" was fat and old and one of the guys looked jst a lil oler than me lol . we watched a show thing and learnt a bit of the haka but i cant remba ne of it now lol. then we ate a meal and ate loadsa meat cos tht was the only thing i liked lol.

New Zealand 2007 pt 2