Sunny Rotorua

A fine day at last, but very cold. After coffee and shopping we all headed to the Redwoods where we did the treewalk, 28 walkways between 27 massive trees.

Malcolm on one of the platforms

Me, complete with beanie

Allister

After the treewalk we went to the Lakefront and walked to Ohinemutu...

...where there is a Marae...

...and a pretty church called St Faith's. It was locked so we couldn't go inside (though we've visited before). From inside this Maori Jesus appears to be walking on the waters of the lake.

St Faith's

After lunch on Eat Street we headed of to the 'Thermal Wonderland' at Wai-O-Tapu. Formed around 160,000 years ago there are boiling pools of mud, craters and steaming fumaroles. According to Wikipedia, a fumarole is an opening in a planet's crust which emits steam and gases such as carbon dioxide, sulfur dioxide, hydrogen chloride, and hydrogen sulfide.

It took around 90 minutes to explore Wai-o-Tapu, certainly a unique landscape.

At night we went back to the Redwoods where the treewalk was illuminated. We walked around amongst and under laser lightshows and lanterns. It was surreal and amazing, well worth seeing.

Rainy Rotorua

First stop after leaving Cambridge was Tirau, world famous in New Zealand for its corrugated everything. The sheep and ram are buildings...

Even the sign outside the dairy is corrugated.

In Rotorua we freedom camped on Hinemoa Street, right beside the Polynesian Spa (hot pools)...

...and right beside this little pond, complete with fountain.

After a visit to the hot pools with our friends, Malcolm and I went for a walk along this part of the lake, first passing an area full of sculpture...

...and the museum.

This part of the lakeside had steaming mud,lots of birdlife,

and more sculpture.

Looping back to the bus we walked through the museum grounds...

these are two of the carvings around the monument.

Then off to a restaurant for dinner with our friends.