Middle Earth

Mordor, from a distance.
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Now, I'm not sure if it was the weather, or that we had such an amazing time in the South Island, but we didn't seem to take to the North Island quite as well.

We drove, in the rain, and visited towns and places like Rotorua and Lake Taupo. We mentioned in the previous blog about the smell of Hamner Springs, the natural hot springs that smell of Sulphur or Rotten Egg (a smell that my old flat mate Paul seems to be able to produce at will) well Rotorua was a whole town that smelt like this. It was pretty overpowering. So as much as we wanted to stay, the thought of walking around for two days with a headache and our hands over our noses didn't seem too appealing. So having spent a couple of hours braving the stench we decided it was best to move on.

So on we went and spent a couple of days Mt Maungnui, in the rain. It was a nice town but we were forced to travel early to Auckland as there was a problem with the van and we needed to change it. Mairead was disappointed, as she couldn't get to do her surfing.

On the way we passed what must be a Mecca for all geeks. As we drove over the island it suddenly became very baron, where as before it was quite lush with rolling hills, it became dark and the earth scorched. As we rounded a corner, into view came Mordor. We both spent the next half an hour trying to say Mordor like Gandolf.