I think I said “WOW” more times yesterday than I ever have! We are in Rotorua, (North Island) and are really enjoying the sites. Yesterday we visited 2 Geothermal parks about 20km south of town. Both were terrific! But before digging into yesterday’s adventures, I will start at the top with a quick rundown of the previous few days.

We finally tore ourselves away from Whangarei and our lovely B&B stay at Riddlesden on Thursday. Jeanette and Alistair have treated us so well, and we became so comfortable (and entrenched in our room!) that we stayed a few extra days beyond our planned departure. Good thing, as I was able to make it through the first 2 seasons of Downton Abbey! Jeanette is also a fan of the show, and chased down the first 3 seasons on DVD for me! I will get caught up on season 3 when we return in April. John spent the last few days getting a plan together on Orcinius. Even though the insurance claim has not been settled (could be a few more weeks still), we have decided to move forward on making the repairs on Orcinius anyway. We are financing the repairs and will let the insurance claim catch up with us as things progress. So it will be interesting to see if she will be ready for the migration North to Fiji by late May – we are keeping our fingers crossed!!!

We had planned to spend Thursday night in Hamilton and visit the famous Hamilton Gardens on our way to Rotorua, but there was not a room to be had when we arrived! Some sort of heavy equipment (tractors, trailers) convention going on. So we pressed on the extra 1 ½ hours to Rotorua where we have found a very nice room at the Arista Motel. We have a very large room with kitchenette, living room downstairs, and our bedroom upstairs in the loft. We even have our own hot tub in our private outdoor patio in the back! The Rotorua area is known for its geysers, mud pools and thermal springs, so here at the motel all our hot water is provided from the geothermal activity – and is unlimited! We also met Mike, who recently acquired the motel and has updated all the facilities here – they are rated #7 on Trip Advisor. He also has a 3 kids, one of which is 4 year old Joshua who is very sick with a brain tumor (go to savingjoshua.net). He and his wife split their time between the hospital in Auckland and running their motel here in town. So if you come for a visit here in Rotorua, we would highly recommend that you stay here at Arista and give your support to this young family. Mike has also been a huge help in directing us to the best sites to visit in the area – there is tons to see and it can be overwhelming trying to sort thru it all.

Friday we did some errands around town in the morning, then went to Te Puia to get learn more about Maori culture and to see the geysers. This is where they preserve the Maori arts of carving, weaving, and stone cutting – the students here compete for scholarships that allow them to learn their craft here for 2-3 years, then go back home to share and teach with their community. We also got to see our first kiwi bird! Kiwi birds are flightless and nocturnal, so at the kiwi house exhibit, they turn the lights down low during the day (when all the visitors come thru to see them), and turn the lights up at night so they can hide and get some sleep!

From Te Puia, we drove out of town a few clicks to check out the Mamaku Blueberry Winery. I guess we should have called first because they were all out of wine – haven’t had any since Christmas. Sine the winery was a bust, it was time for a little adventure! On the edge of town is the Skyline Gondola which has gorgeous views of the Rotorua area and it’s lake. And it has a luge! What a blast! We went down 3 times – on 3 different tracks – each getting steeper and faster as we honed our luging skills. On the last one John was in the lead, just coming out of a turn and pouring on the coal, when all of a sudden there was a dip in the road! We both took some air, landed hard, but didn’t miss a beat! I wish he had worn his go-pro camera (as we had contemplated) – I could swear I heard a bit of shriek followed by a massive grunt when he hit the pavement. But can’t prove anything without the evidence! What a blast! We went late in the afternoon and had most of the track to ourselves. Then we stumbled upon a wine tasting room just before taking the gondola back down. It was a few minutes before 6 (just before closing of the tasting room), but we snuck in and ended up talking with Brent (the proprietor of Volcanic Hills Winery) for over an hour and tasting some mighty fine wine. His chardonnay was the best I’ve had here in NZ – and we bought 3 bottles (at least to start with). His wine tasting room was the prior gondola stop at the top of the hill before the new gondola was installed. The old gondola stop had been sitting empty for 10 years before they turned it into their tasting room (the winery itself is at the bottom of the hill). What a cool place! With excellent views! And I forgot to take a picture. Well, not of the view of course, but hanging out with Brent in the very cool wine tasting room. Oh well – guess we gotta go back!

We ended the day with an excellent meal at Indian Star Tandoori Restaurant in downtown Rotorua.

I will end this blog entry here for now, and hopefully will update it again tonight with yesterday and today’s ventures, as well as a gallery of pictures. (I got some really cool pictures yesterday – took well over 400 pics! that I need to sort through…..). All for now,

Lisa