First an apology. No photos :( Sadly our camera decided to pack up this weekend. Much soul searching and staring at the piggy bank now, to see if we can buy a new one. Apart from that little mishap, the day was a blinder! We woke up to glorious sunshine - crystal clear blue skies and not a cloud in sight.
We drove down to the Bay of Plenty and the town of Tauranga. Very much a seaside town, geared to tourists. Looks like it would be a lively place in the summer evenings - a great prom lined with cafes and wine bars, it has a Mediterranean feel. A beautiful place, but not really us - a bit too big, developed and manicured. I think we prefer the wilder bits of NZ.
From there we headed inland to Rotorua, awesome countryside en route, lots of hilly bits, deep gorges and dense forests. Rotorua is a bit of an unusual place - quite a busy centre with a fair bit of light industry, mixed with a stunning lake and lots of wild Kiwi loony activities. The whole place is riddled with thermal vents - steam even bubbles out of the kerbside drains! The central town park has loads of bubbling mud pools and steam vents. Not exactly a place I'd choose to live - the park blew up in 2001 and created a whole load of new thermal pools! By all accounts a lot of the locals have tapped into the thermal vents to power their central heating!
After that we headed home (via Matamata, home of Hobbiton. They don't miss an opportunity to remind you either!) to catch the Lions game in the local. Oops. What on earth made Sir Clive think he could take on the ABs? The Lions at least tried this time round, but then the ABs got into their stride and completely crushed them. In that form I doubt any team in the world could live with the All Blacks. The tour comes to Auckland this week, so the place will be crawling with the Barmy Army no doubt.
One more week of school, then a fortnights hols and hopefully a week long tour of North Island. Wahay!
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