Today we decided to have a cheaper day after spending quite a bit of money on Hobbiton and the Maori day. So we decided to take advantage of the free stuff we could do in Rotorua! The Lonley Planet came in handy again as it had a walking tour of the city, so we headed into town, drove around a bit to find a place to park, then found free parking in the Government Gardens, which was where our tour started anyway.

In the gardens was the Rotorua Museum, an impressive building covered in wooden beams, tudor style. We walked past the Princes Gate Hotel (very posh!) towards Tukaneki Street, filled with nice looking restaurants that we can't afford! We eventually got to the War Memorial Park (the name says it all!) and Lake Rotorua was on the other side. The lake was enormous, stretching as far as we could see, and some black swans were being fed at the lake edge, despite the signs saying 'Please do not feed the black swans. They may attack you'. The Japanese tourists that were feeding them either didn't understand or didn't care - they seemed to find the whole swan feeding thing absolutely hilarious.

We then walked towards another Maori village, Ohine Mutu and sw the carved meeting house there and an Anglican Church. The next part of the walk was uphill, towards the entrance to Kuirau Park, which was full of thermal pools and mud holes, bubbling and steaming away, not to mention stinking strongly of eggy sulphur! The walk through the park brought us back into town and we found the street where the Pig and Whilstle pub stood. We stopped for an hour to use the internet in a nearby cafe, then drove back to the campsite, where we took advantage of the free kayaks, and had an hour paddling round Blue Lake - very calm and peaceful but hard work!

We'd booked the (free) spa pool for our return to rest our weary arms, but we couldn't stand the hot water for too long - was a nice way to end the day though.

In the evening, we treated ourselves to a couple of hours in the Pig and Whistle pub we'd passed earlier - had a massive plate of nachos and a couple of beers! Nice to spend a night away frmo the campsite!