Rotorua

Here is a map showing our route so far. We've been moving along slowly through the north of the country, and it's time to speed things up in September. Jon has now mastered driving, and I am the expert navigator, and really good at ensuring we're on the right side of the road. This can be especially challenging at round-a-bouts and turning right (similar to our US left). We've got the hang of things now, and we're ready to start heading south to Rotorua, the volcanic area.



Our route from the Kauri forest through Auckland and down to Rotorua covered a lot of ground.


We passed a town along the way famous for it's corrugated metal buildings in the shapes of animals. Various artistic roadsigns and HEAPS of sheep made the travelling interesting.


The central park of Rotorua is a series of geothermal lakes. The park has numerous pubilc hot springs to soak in. Our campground has several pools of various temperatures where travellers share stories of their adventures.


The water is high in mineral content, and created a shell over these fallen leaves. The leaves were hard and crispy...really cool.



This lake had a boardwalk going through the middle of it! It was a very cold day, so the steam was especially thick and swirling.



This pool is but a taste of the extrordinary geothermal activity in the region.


We explored some of the lakes outside of town. This is Green Lake....

and Blue Lake.


The hillsides are clothed in trees and tree ferns.


This lake is a large vocanic crater. Near the turn of the century, a nearby vocano blew and destroyed a village near this lake. It's surprising to see so many people moving back into the area and still recalling this devastation. It sure is beautiful here, though, so I suppose us Californians can relate to living in a geologically active area!

We stayed in Rotorua for two nights, mostly soaking in hot springs, then set off for the volcanic valley....