Weather seems to have taken a turn for the worse and it was raining heavily as we drove into Rotorua - the geothermal capital of NZ so here we now are amongst a bunch of geyers. It's a bit niffy with all that sulphurous water running through the town/city although it does give them free hot water for central heating and every hotel/motel has its own thermal spa. One of main reasons for stopping here is to visit the Agrodome which we first saw in Keith & Kar...

Driving into Taupo, the main town on the Lake, we immediately realised we'd been right to stay in the southern part of the area. Nothing particularly wrong with the place but it broke the spell which had been cast over the previous week. So we decided we'd have a couple of days and a quick look at key sights. Craters of the Moon is a vast natural geo-thermal area with vents and fumeroles steaming and fuming away, with the occasional bubbling mud pool. Actually wh...

Heading back to the Chateau the next morning we couldn't see the mountains for low cloud.Despite E arranging and negotiating for a room with a view of the golf course and Mount Ngauruhoe we weren't to see the mountain again.But we did have a few rounds of golf (found a good many balls while looking for one M lost and never found), a really nice meal in the rather posh restaurant, used their spa pool and sauna and generally had a very comfortable and relaxing stay...

It was really nice and refreshing to be on a road that we hadn't planned to take - we really need to be more spontaneous and adventurous as this is all our own time and we can do what we want (at least until the end of August when we chucked out the country).The scenery became more impressive and interesting as we moved into the centre of North Island, and as we flashed by one of these helpful road signs about road conditions we noticed that the Desert Road was c...

A short drive back to Wellington and we were in familiar territory - same motel, same room, same car park space - but we did head to a different coffee shop in Cuba Street before returning to Te Papa to visit another few floors and exhibitions.It was then back to Cuba Street to another familiar location - Rasa, a little Malaysian bistro - for another excellent meal.Now it was time to do something different, so we set off for the Embassy Theatre, an old style comf...