Slept like a log after my spa trip, only to be woken by Mum at 2.30am. They'd somehow managed to completely flatten the battery on my car, so she was phoning me to let me know, which I'm glad she did, but ideally not at 2.30am NZ time!! Anyway, got back to sleep, though not great, as the hotel I'm in is right on the main road out of town, so there was a fair bit of traffic noise, which made it difficult to get back off to sleep properly. When I got an unbooked 7am wake up call, I pretty much gave it up for a bad job and took a long leisurely shower and made my way to Whakarewarewa village, just round the corner.

This is a village of Maori's built on geothermal land which has 2 of the most active geysers in NZ in it. Originally sited there to exploit the heat generated by all the steam vents and hot spring pools, they now advertise it as the "living thermal village", and actually how they have adapted to live in the environment is interesting. All their cooking, bathing, laundry and heating requirements are taken care of by the geothermal. They have a hot pool, fed by a spring - currently thought to be bottomless, which provides their bathing water. They all bathe communally twice a day, no need for soap, shampoo etc, as the water is so rich and soft it does it all for them. They have hangi or steamboxes around the village, where they put their food in and it's cooked by steam - all very healthy, and one particular pool is used for laundry, as the minerals in the water get everything incredibly clean in about 10mins. They don't have heating, the ground is warm, even on a slightly chilly overcast day as we had today, plus, bathing in the 40 degree baths twice a day keep you plenty warm at night and means you sleep well!! The pools are thought to have therapeutic properties and cure all manner of muscular issues and skin conditions etc. Not 100% sure about that, but the Spa trip the night before certainly eased my driving aches and I slept like a log, well until I got woken up anyway!! Also, some of the steam vents are supposed to be very good for clearing the sinuses and softening the skin, so we got a free steam facial! Their mud is supposed to be pretty good too.

The highlight of the village is the two geysers, which erupt about once an hour, but not at a fixed time, so we had to wait quite a bit, but I think it was worth the wait. I don't think I've ever seen a geyser before, so I was impressed.

Timed it right to get another cultural performance, which was pretty similiar to the one I'd seen in Auckland Museum, but still enjoyable. Got my picture taken after with a couple of the warriors! And grabbed a "hangi" pie for lunch at the village - not sure I was impressed, some of the meat didn't seem particularly cooked to me and I thought it could do with a bit more seasoning, as it was a bit bland.

After lunch, I went up the road to the Redwood Forest, which I thought was unusual, as I have to say I wouldn't associate redwoods with New Zealand, California yes, but not here. Anyway, I took the hour trek around the forest, but kept having dizzy spells, so decided to go back to the hotel for a bit. Wasn't sure if the dizzy spell was lack of sleep, dehydration from the spa, my ear infection coming back or reaction to all the sulphur fumes I'd inhaled over the last 24 hours or so, but thought better to be safe than sorry and go back to the hotel. Decided to sit by the pool and do a bit of laundry and read my book, while I waited for my body to sort itself out and was feeling better after a couple of hours, so went up the other end of town and had a wander around the Government gardens, which was the other thing I wanted to see. The Rotorua Museum, which sits in the Government gardens, is an absolutely beautiful mock Tudor building and the gardens are very pleasant to wander around. There is a track that runs along the lake, which I started to walk along, but decided to drive instead, as it was quite long and the sun was beginning to set and the mossies were coming out (I have been bitten to death quite enough on this trip!!), so was out by the lakeside at sunset ish.

Early ish start tomorrow, as driving down to Napier, which should be about 2 to 3 hours drive, but I want to stop at another volcanic or thermal place along the way and arrive in Napier fairly early to do my sightseeing, as I only have one night in Napier and then drive down to Wellington, which is a pretty long drive, so I will have to leave Napier at probably some kind of stupid o'clock, which I'm not looking forward to, but hey.