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Back on the road. This time I'm on a hop on hop off tour but don't have much time for hopping off. Plan is to cover north and south island in about 23 days. Left Auckland on Tuesday morning. Spent Monday getting sorted and exploring the city, not very inspiring so glad to be travelling again. Once out of the city heading south you very quickly understand how New Zealand has gained a reputation for stunning scenery. It really is breathtaking. Rolling hills and mountains everywhere, and it is so green and lush. Our first night as Mercury Bay, a quiet town on the east coast, unfortunately the weather was not too good, rain in the morning, cold and overcast in the afternoon which put pay to the kayaking we were hoping to do. Next day I was up fairly early and went for a little run on the beach (ankle still playing up a bit). Saw and amazing skeleton of a fish, it was about half a metre long and had a big head with a face and loads of teeth. Don't know what it was but wouldn't like to meet one int he flesh. We then headed of to our next destination of Rotorua, one of the hightlights of the north island. On the way we stopped off at Matamata for lunch this is the filming location for Hobbiton, Lord of the Rings (completely wasted on me not having seen the film or read the books). At Rotorua we went luging, kind of go carting down a long windy road, quite hillarious, I even managed to 'get air' off of one of the hills! Rotorua is known for its hot springs, it's name means 'even smelling' which is very appropriate as the town smells of sulphur. Hot springs occur when water, beginning as fainfall seeps through the earths crust and is heated by contact with hot rocks. A geyser erupts when an underground pond of water is heated to boiling point and flashes into steam violently expelling the water held above the flashpoint .. The geyser here reaches 15 metres - but it is a very smelly place.
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