We had a lie in, a late brekky and chilled out all morning. Around lunchtime we went for a drive down to the lake. With a surface area of 616 square kilometres it is the largest lake by surface area in New Zealand. It lies in a caldera created by a supervolcanic eruption which occurred approximately 26,500 years ago. The lake was very calm and peaceful today and the view across it to the snow capped mountains was gorgeous. We had some lunch with this view as the ...

We hit the road straight after brekky and hoped that the drivers would be less aggressive today. They were but only very slightly. We drove south from Mount Maunganui for about an hour to Rotorua which is famous for it's geothermal activity lying on top of the Rotorua caldera. The city air was sulphur rich and smelt of rotten eggs. Apart from the sulphur air and the small glimpses we got of steam billowing out of the ground Rotorua was a very ordinary place. We h...