A quick drive north from Taupo took us to Rotorua, the next town on our route where we immediately decided that another night in the van could kill us, and found a hostel right in the centre of town. After a ritual degreasing ceremony we were ready to explore! Sadly our adventurous spirits only got us as far as the park across the road. Typically of this thermal area the ground bubbled up gasses stinking of sulphur, and park signs carried warnings not to stray off the paths for risk of burning your foot off! Hmm...Not to be put off though we managed to squeeze a good couple of hours of rugby in before darkness stopped play and we were forced to pick our way back to the hostel. No feet were lost. After dinner and an exhilarating game of Cranium we decided it was time to enjoy the feeling of a real bed and were soon fast asleep. The next day started much the same, definitely time for a bit of thermal rugby before lunch, and then out to explore another one of New Zealand's expansive city centers! Rotorua kept us walking for a good half hour before we found Starbucks and sent a little more money towards our American buddies! An epic game of cranium kept us going for a good hour and then an early night in preparation for the next day, when we would test our kayaking skills on Lake Rotoiti, one of many lakes around Rotorua. We had to pat ourselves on the back for our choice of kayaking-day, as the previous days of dreary rain had given way to beautiful sunshine, perfect for a morning on the water. Rotoiti is one of the smaller lakes around the town but to us it seemed huge! Almost an hour's paddling left our arms and shoulders aching and in need of a good therapeutic bath. Lucky then that we had taken ourselves to a small secluded set of natural hot water pools, only accessible by boat. In stunning surroundings we spent a peaceful hour soaking in hot baths contemplating our lazy new lifestyle before sliding into the freezing cold lake to revive ourselves. (Videos will be posted soon- Dave's face is priceless!!) Once we'd relaunched ourselves onto the lake we found things had got a bit choppy, but managed to safely battle our way back to the shore where we returned our boats and headed off north to the Bay of Plenty.

A couple of hours drive took us to Whakatane, roughly in the middle of the bay where we spent another fantastic night in a lay-by. The following day we took advantage of the once again beautiful weather to drive a little further east to the town of Ohope before taking the coastal road back to Whakatane, stopping for lunch along the way. That night saw the All Blacks beat South Africa convincingly in their tri nations game so a celebratory beer was in order! Woohoo! And then...back to the lay-by.

A couple of days driving later and we had made it to Whatianga on the Coromandel Peninsula, famed for its hot water beach, amazing limestone arches, and on this day torrential rain and flooding! In spite of the weather we were still able to be convinced by a local that "hot water is hot water", whatever the weather, and so headed off to the beach in hope of digging ourselves a nice hot pool in the sand. However it seemed the spade rental owners at the beach did not share the first locals opinion and had decided that only crazy people would come to the beach when the roads were flooded, and had stayed at home. So we took our crazy selves back to town, just beating the sirens announcing that the roads were closed and sought shelter in a hostel. A night of relaxing in a hot tub and watching DVD's was enough to chase away the rainy day blues and the next day we were ready and raring to go and see the sights! A quick drive and a bit of a walk took us to Cathedral Cove, a stunning coastal feature marked by a waterfall and an enormous limestone arch was a great place to spend some time waiting for low tide, when we would once again try our luck at hot water beach. This time around the spade shop was open! And we set about digging our hole in the sand, it all sound so simple but apparently there was an art to it that we just couldn't grasp. Somehow we managed to only dig into either freezing cold water, or tap straight into the underground steam where the water was so hot it burned your feet and steamed out of the ground. Upset by our failure and the success of everyone else around us we took the grown up option and gave up! It was time to drive to Hamilton, New Zealand's largest inland city and the site of this blog!