We have moved from the east coast toward the central portion of the north island...our road trips have taken us through some beautiful beach towns and into Rotorua, a geothermal area.

The towns along the coast are littered with beautiful sands and all types of waves from calm to surfer style beaches. Frank has picked up a boogie board for us and it has come in handy on the hot days as we stop for a break to cool off while we picnic lunch at the beach. Tauranga (toe-rung-a) is a great location for those outdoor activity lovers...with swimming, walking and cycling available to all. The “mount” walk is only an hour start to finish but certainly gets your heart pumping!

Driving into Rotorua was a bit stinky...sulfur smell..and you can see the steam rising for the geothermal pools in the center of town. We unfortunately discovered that the museum was closed due to an earthquake however we walked the Government Gardens and met a volunteer tour guide with the museum. She explained that museum building was originally built by a German as a hot water therapy spa, it then transitioned to a restaurant and disco, and finally to the museum. The grounds are beautiful, with lawn bowling and croquet lawns, and the reopening of the museum is undetermined at this time.

We spent a day exploring the surrounding area of Rotorua, walking on trails around Blue lake and through the California Redwoods Forest as well as learning about some New Zealand animals - one in particular being the Kiwi. The Rainbow Springs Nature Park hatches over 100 kiwi chicks a year and is working to increase the kiwi population, as the chicks struggle to survive in the wild. We learned about their incubation, hatching, and early months before they are released back into their natural habitat. The tour through the research facilities was interesting and then we visited the nocturnal house of the Kiwi burrow where we were able to see a couple of Kiwis looking for food etc...there are a variety of birds and reptiles that we were able to see and learn about as well.