Today we say goodbye to Rotorua and to be honest I am rather looking forward to leaving the smell behind, although I do understand that it is a necessary evil! New Zealand continues to try and be like England as today is a bank holiday here and guess what the sun has vanished, the good news is that it isn’t raining. We set off for Wai-o-tapu Thermal wonderland (!) which in part was better than it sounds but did have its moments. There is a geyser there that we thought was a bit like old faithful in America as they said it would erupt around 10.15, it turns out that this is a manufactured eruption and if I am honest I was very disappointed with it all. They advised you to be at the Geyser by 9.30 which we were, but we decided that was more about managing crowds as at 10.15 a park ranger came out and told a story a about how the geyser was found then put some chemicals in the top to cause the eruption it just all felt very wrong! Anyway after that we went into the thermal park which was better, although we both thought that it wasn’t as good as yesterdays park. What was good was that we saw some pools with stunning colours very vivid blue and green as well as white terraces all of which are still being formed. We walked all the way to the waterfall, then back out of the park and round to the mud pools which were great but then I do like the way they bubble in a really gloopy way! We had lunch by the mud pools then got back in the car to head to Taupo. We arrived just after 2.30 and went round to the hotel to see if our room was ready and good news it was so we checked in, sorted out some washing, explored the apartment which has 2 floors with our bedroom upstairs and a nice lounge area downstairs. We put some washing on then went for a walk to the lake which is just round the corner, then it was time to go for a Huka jet boat ride which takes us up to Huka falls. This was amazing we were in the front seat which was a good call as although we got wet we didn’t get anywhere near as wet as the people at the back, the only drawback was that we could see what was going to happen and how close we got to the walls. It was so much fun, unfortunately we don’t have any photos as we didn’t want to risk the camera and in a way I am glad as it was really nice to just enjoy the ride. The falls look quite impressive, a wonderful turquoise colour due to the amount of oxygen in the water, but we will go and look at it from the land tomorrow. It was half an hour but it flew by which was a shame but definitely another first that we really enjoyed and was well worth doing. We did a bit of shopping on the way back (more beer and wine required) then back to the apartment to relax before heading off for something to eat.
