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Great day today, left Shakespear National Park around 8.30am, great views of Auckland as we came through from the North. Headed south towards Hamilton on A1, lovely coffee at Rangiriri, a heritage centre with loads of pictures and info on the Maori warriers and chiefs involved in the Maori land wars against the English. Stopped again for a picnic luncheon at Karapiro, on the banks of the national rowing centre...a lovely park setting, completely empty except for one other family picnicing and 2 of the countries budding olympians who were training on their fantastic purpose built rowing lake. Arrived at our beautiful Lake Lodge B&B at Rotorua by mid afternoon. We,re the only guests and have kitchen, lounge and dining room to ourselves. It's a bit like having our own private house with a Houseman looking after our every need!!! He booked us onto a Maori Experience Evening tonight. We were picked up by small minibus and taken to the visitor centre to join a small coach of others for the evening. We visited the Maori Village, watched demos and a show before enjoying a meal, wine and a sing song on the way back. Our coach dropped us off at the door of our lodge. A great evening.
Weds 12th Jan: Rotorua
This B&B is fantastic.Breakfast was fresh fruit, cereals, yoghurt, croissant, fresh orange juice and tea or coffee...home from home!!!!!!How great it is to be able to access the internet again.This morning we took a leisurely stroll round the Lake at Rotorua.It turned out to be a bit of a birding expedition...unbeknown to us the walk we took was through a bird reserve!Damian has made a note of more than 30 birds we've spotted so far, not including the European species, phew.Stopped for coffee at The Rotorua Bath House.In the afternoon we decided to do some tramping, and headed out to the Waimangu Volcanic Valley.We completed a 2 hour tramp to Lake Rotomahana, passing only 2 other couples en route, both going the other way.At the deserted lake we waited for a 'ferry boat' which sure enough came in as scheduled, and took our scenic informative one hour tour ...just the skipper and us...no other customers for that trip!
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nicki OMG that guy is even bigger than Chris!!Glad you are having fun x x x
Lindy Hi Lynne & Damian It looks like you are having a great time. I knew you would. I am reliving our time there. NZ is very special. Thats why we went back 3 times. Did you travel along the Coromandel. NZ people are friendly dont you think & very proud oif their country. Campsites were very good when we were there. Glad you have found a few. Of course you 2 have camped, we were too soft. Cant wait to read the next episode. Love to you both.