Rotorua

The eery landscape at Orakei Korako...
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I find myself having to look over the map to retrace our steps and actually remember in what order we did things, but that could have nothing to do with the amount of amazing things we have done and seen, and everything to do my appalling memory!

From Taupo, where we spent 3 days, we drove north to a place called the Hidden Valley, on the shores of a beautiful lake whose name completely escapes me. (See what I mean!). A short 5 minute crossing on a boat takes you to a place known as Orakei Korako. It is an amazing spot, full of again, steaming Geysers, smelly mud pools, and a cute little walk that winds its way up towards an amazing thermal cave. This was a sacred site for Maori women who would come here to prepare themselves for special occasions, hence its name as “place of adorning”. I loved the idea of it, and the place itself is quite spectacular, not just the cave itself, but the path to reach it. You walk down the mouth and at the bottom is an emerald green pool of warm water, so crystal clear the some idiot stuck his whole leg in thinking he was about to stand on a rock. We all made wishes by sticking our left hand in. Luca asked for a “big fat pig”, much to the amusement of everyone there, and to their annoyance as he made pig noises all the way out of the cave and kept shouting “My wish has come true!!” drowning the lovely sounds of the many birds that made their nests at the top end of the cave………

The cave where we all made our wishes!
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From here we drove past Rotorua and east again towards the sea at Tauranga. We had intentions of stopping for a good look around but ended up just outside at Papamoa beach, where we had dinner and a lovely walk along the sand and then drove on to find somewhere inconspicuous to park for the night. As it was getting dark quickly we parked at what we thought was a lovely secluded spot, only to find out as we rested our heads exhaustedly on the pillows that we were right beside a freight train line which made our campervan rattle a few times that night. To top it all we were rudely awaken at around 6am by a random rooster with no home that kept cockle-doodle-doing right outside the van until we eventually gave up and got up (2 hours later!).

Looking out the cave.
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The next day we drove north along a stretch of the Pacific Coast Highway towards the Coromandel Peninsula. Very windy roads take you round the mountain sides towards the tiny holiday resort of Hahei, where we have been for the past 3 nights. Apparently all these quiet little towns swell up with crowds from Auckland from just after Christmas since it is only about 2 hours drive away, but we have been really lucky to have avoided any crowds at all as the schools only finish this weekend.