Steaming Lake Taupo and Rotorua Smells

We stay for a couple of nights at Lake Taupo Holiday Resort. It's the first park we have stayed at where there is a thermally heated pool, a swim up pool bar and a pool film screen! So, we had to join in that first night and it was pretty busy in the pool, mainly families enjoying the school holiday period. The water was really warm, contrasting with the chilly air. We stayed in the water long enough to have a beer and to start watching a Dreamworks cartoon release called Home, that neither of us had ever heard of, but had Rihanna doing the voiceover of the leading girl. But the sight of both adults and children eating burger and chips in the water rather put us off staying any longer, so we decided to go to the kitchen and cook a stonking hot curry! The next day we tour the area and visit the main attractions. Firstly we go to Huka Falls and Aratiatia Rapids, that apparently is the most visited natural attraction in New Zealand; we were rather underwhelmed however. Then a short drive to some mud pools at Waiotapu, which were far more interesting and hardly any tourists were there as well. We head off to Rotorua and stop at Rotorua Top 10 Holiday Park, that is close to our next main attraction, Te Puia. This is a historic Maori area for the Te Arawa local tribe and we were entertained by them with songs and dancing, that included the Haka. We then had a guided tour which included seeing the Pohutu geyser which is the largest active geyser in the southern hemisphere. Now off to Hell's Gate, to enjoy a mud bath, then a soak in a sulphur pool. It was an unusual experience, covering one's self in warm mud, then a dip in a cloudy water bath at 38 degrees. We then head off to Auckland, stopping at Cambridge (of course); no historic university here, but we did have a nice meal at Alpha Street Kitchen & Bar.

By now it was raining quite hard, so our focus is to drop off the motorhome. Firstly, we decide to stay overnight at the excellent Holiday Inn near the airport, where they let us leave our luggage other than what we need for the Cook Islands. The next day, we say noho iho ra to our home of the past 19 days and catch our plane to Rarotonga of the Cook Islands, to hopefully enjoy 5 days of sun, sand and, well, a nice big bed!