Our last full day in lovely New Zealand! We were up just as the sun was rising and I put a jumper on over my pjs and ran up the road to get a photo of the sun coming up behnd Mt. Doom!!! Then we packed up and went and had our breakfast which was included in the rate. A real hiker's breakfast: the works. Just as well as we didn't get near food again till after 4. And of course, it is Bob's 66th birthday today. We are going to celebrate tomorrow night back on...

It just gets better and better here! We set off from Lake Taupo about 930 after a lovely Facetime call with Lu. It's great to be able to keep in touch so often while we are not at sea. The drive to the Tongariro National Park is about 1 hour 15 minutes from Taupo and a lovely drive along the lakeside for a while and then up through forests as the road starts to climb in altitude. We passed another lake along the way and plenty of streams and rivers. This i...

Another amazing day in amazing New Zealand! There is just so much to do here and we are surrounded by natural wonders and beauty. The weather has really come up trumps too. Brilliant sunshine today and just the right sort of hot to be enjoyable but not uncomfortable. We sadly left Rotorua with a last glimpse of the steam over the lake, and headed towards Taupo on the Thermal Explorers Highway. This road winds through stunning scenery and dense pine fores...

What a spectacular day! We started off by driving the short distance to the Te Puia thermal area of Rotorua. This is a large area of Maori homeland sitting around dense forests and containing numerous pools of volcanic mud, thermal streams, geysers including Pohutu, the largest geyser in New Zealand. It is also home to the Maori Arts and Crafts Institute where young Maoris are trained in carving and weaving using the traditional methods. We walked miles a...

Then, on through increasingly volcanic and forested countryside to Rotorua where we are spending two nights. It started to rain as we arrived. Our hotel is pretty modern and on the lakeside and we could see sulphuric steam rising from the area around and, by George, we could smell it too. The whole town reeks of sulphur but you get used to it within a couple of minutes. We unpacked and then drove to the Rotorua Tourist Office where we were being picked up...