Day 13 - Eggy Rotorua

So beggars can't be choosers but we didn't hang around long at the campsite this morning, preferring to drive a couple of miles down the road to a park which overlooked the giant Lake Rotorua. A quiet and peaceful spot to enjoy granola and a cuppa. And relax!

We had a well planned day exploring the volcanic landscape and activity and headed straight to see Lady Knox, the biggest geyser in the area. She blew her top, after a bit of coaxing, just after 10.15 and it was quite a spectacle. A vicious jet of water rose to 40ft before turning to a cloud of steam.

Having witnessed the big one, we spent the next really stinky two hours exploring the sulphur pits, craters, silicon flats and mineral lagoons. The colours were amazing, as was the smell, waft after waft of eggy, burnt hair, stink bomb sort of thick air. It was a relief to get back to Kylie and leave the volcanic spas behind us.

Moving on from the pongy Wai-O-Tapu we thought we'd head to a relaxing natural hot pool spa just down the road. The 4 pools ranged from 28-40 degrees, not good for swimming, very good for lazily soaking, so we did! Hot and dehydrated, we jumped out the pool and got changed, both ready for some lunch.

The plan was to head to the Devil's Gate and cook our lunch in the carpark before heading in. After a short drive we parked up outside and checked out the large price board..at $30 each we both decided we had seen enough blow holes for one day! We headed off again, our designation Turanga. On the way we stopped next to a beautiful lake not far from Rotorua and Clarkey cooked up a storm, mushroom omelette and sausages, it did a job. Once consumed we had a relatively short 50km drive ahead of us so hit the road, full steam ahead (pun intended).
As we approached Turanga our destination was pretty evident based on the towering mountain that overlooked the town and hugged the harbour, Mount Maunganui, so we headed towards it. A campsite based of the bottom of the mount welcomed us and we stationed our bus right next the the ocean, pretty spectacular. With nothing else planned we headed toward the mount to undertake the 40 minute 360 degree walk. The views were utterly spectacular, we started in the shade from the eastern side and meandered slowly taking in the azure sea and gentle waves, surfers dotted across them. As we rounded towards the setting sun, the colours changed and became even more vibrant, the wild Pacific Ocean before us. In the distance we could see the White Island (the most active island volcano in the world) and a few other cute islands floating in the sea. Runners flew past us, making the most of the cool sea breeze and others strolled like us, taking in the quiet serene surroundings. We completed a loop of the mount and then headed along the esplanade, seeing what the beach had to offer two very pale Brits. We crossed a park and found the main high street, lined with the obligatory restaurants and bars. We stopped for a drink at a trendy looking establishment and sat outside on retro furniture people watching. We umm'd and ahh'd over treating ourselves to 'fush n' chups' but maturely decided that we had spent enough money today...it honestly had nothing to do with the 40 minute waiting time for one portion for us to ultimately share.

We headed back to Kylie, Clarkey cooked up a second storm and we spent the evening star gazing, searching for the infamous Southern Cross, with a cup of tea, saving our bottle of Chardonnay from Esk Valley Vineyard for our fush and chups tomorrow!