Monday morning we headed out the city towards Hamilton with more stops on the way for views, a couple hours south. Smaller city, which in my opinion makes it more appealing,
Went to the library for free internet, looked around the city and its shops, in the evening we cooked dinner over looking a moonlight river, then parked up down a quiet unsuspecting cul-de-sac for the night. In the morning we went for a walk along the river bank which was shrowded by golden/bronze autumn leaves – picturesque. Walk lasted just over an hour, then hopped in the van – with legs stretched and fresh air in the lungs, we headed northwest for a gold mine in a town called Thames.
Took a couple of hours, but worth the drive – ended up at a fully operational gold mine. Got shown the history of when it was opened in late 1800s and how the town built up around it. Tour of some old mine shafts (hard hat and torch included) then given ear defenders to watch a stone crusher break up rubble into sand, then see how gold is seperated from the rock. All very interesting and only $15 each.
However apart from this, the town was small and not really much to do, so continued around the Coromandel peninsular and parked up in a lay-by at the top of a mountain over looking the range – clear views for miles and miles of mountain terrain.
Wednesday morning we awoke bright and early which is fast becoming the norm – early to bed early to rise, bed around 9ish and up at 7. With little to do in the evenings in a van, and no daylight, we can only watch our 1 DVD so many times, so utalise daylight and get up early.
Left the top of the mountains and headed for sea level across the mountain range to a place called hot water beach where we parked up at a campsite.
As the name suggests, the beach close by produces hot water, heated the same way as the geothermal spas. So on the beach front, along with about 50 other people, we dug a small hole in the sand and climbed in. Some peoples were steaming away – I however had picked a dud bit of beach, no matter how deep we went, no hot water appeared from below, just cold. So we decided to just climb into someone elses.
Left the beach for a walk through a reserve to a place called cathedral cove. Walk was nice through a forest (lots of walking on this trip) and the cove was quaint. Headed back to the van and spent the night plugged upto the mains at a campsite.
From here we drove a bit of a distance down to Tauranga, which turned out to be a bit of a lost cause. Found a nice thai place for lunch which was pretty authentic and not too pricey, but the rest of the place was a let down, so cruised down a bit further to Rotorua.
This place stinks of rotten egg! Suplher fields surround the city so you get a lung full everytime you open the door. Arrived here quite late so made some dinner then parked up in a residential area and went to sleep by 9 – was a long drive.
The van has a a choice of two beds, either the table folds down and the bench/seat cushions fold out into a double matress, or some planks slide out from half way up the van and make a second double in the roof, however the bed in the roof cant be seen from outside, so when we leave the curtains open downstairs it looks like the van is empty as opposed to a couple of cheap and sly backpackers asleep in the roof, thus parking in residential areas is perfectly fine as we go un-noticed.
Rained lots for past few days, so finding things to do is a bit of a problem. Drove just outside the city to two lakes – one called green the other blue for obvious reasons. Fiddled around not doing much, went to shops etc. Found a pub doing all drinks for $3 so had a couple then went to bed.
Next morning was anzac day, the same as our rememberance day, but over here all shops shut for the morning, so drove out to a thermal spa. Camping and unlimited use of the spas was reasonable, so parked up in their campsite for the day.
Had a choice of 10 spas to pick from, differing in size, temperature and surroundings – some nice tranqual ones with views of surrounding mountains and native flora around the pool, others were more swimming pool style. We went in the complex twice that evening, and the next morning before leaving to get our moneys worth!
Went back to city centre and booked white water rafting for the following morning, as well as being given vouchers for free drinks at a bar and a coffee shop – and they were actually free, no buyone get one free, or with any other purchase etc, just hand over the voucher for beer/wine, and for tea/coffee, brilliant.
Woke excited about the rafting, got to the pick up point for the minibus out there.
8 of us on the bus, one woman not doing it so 7 rafters + the guides. Stuck on the wetsuits and helmets and headed for the river. 14 sets of rapids, including 3 waterfalls – one of which was 7 metres high, the tallest commercially rafterd waterfall in the world.
Great fun, 4 of us in one raft, 3 in the other (+ the guides) Really good fun, I jumped out for a quick swim in a calm section, only for the guide to give me a rope to hold onto whilst the raft went down the next set of rapids with me in tow – extra bit of fun for jon!
Next morning we went to Lady knocks geezer to see it errupt, then wondered around the surrounding sulpher fields to see the world renowned ‘artists pallet’. Mix of colours in the bubbling pools due to the different elements in the rock which the water rises through.
From here we left Rotorua and headed for lake taupo, only 60kms away, but another tourist hot spot.