The next stop, at Rotorua, or 'Road to Rua' as in the title (Bob's idea again!), was every bit as exciting as we expected. We hadn't done the original planned route to Rotorua via Lake Taupo which is the tourist route, but had veered off to do the East Cape as in the last blog. This meant we had to go back down inland to get to Rotorua but we are so glad we did. There are a lot of thermal parks to choose from, but we chose Te Puia which is home to the famous Pohutu geyser, the largest in the Southern hemisphere! Our 9am tour almost turned into a private tour again, as two Argentinians dropped out as they couldn't understand our Maori guide's English, and then a poor lady suffering from food poisoning left to stay closer to the loo's!! We were left with just her husband, who we thought would also leave to see how she was, but no, he insisted on staying with the tour and was a complete pain in the proverbial, having been there, seen there and done everything!! However, he was booked into a Maori Welcome meeting and had to leave us to watch the geyser erupt on our own - result!!

The whole landscape was eerie, with steam emanating from holes in the ground, boiling mud pools, hot rocks, boiling water pools and yellow silica stained rocks. There was also a constant smell of sulphur at the park, although not nearly as bad as we had expected. The highlight was undoubtedly the eruption of the geyser. It erupts once or twice every hour, but not at any particular time. The water is superheated by the magma deep down in the earth's core, the pressure then builds and eventually the water is expelled, to release the pressure, in a torrent up to 30m high. The noise of the water rumbling towards the surface is something I will never forget, and reminds you of the huge power of nature!

Our campsite just happened to have two thermal pools (good choice Sally!) so we retired there for a lazy soak before a rare treat of a meal out that evening. Most campsites aren't near the centre of town and mean a long walk or, worse, having to pack the van up and drive in. So, for the most part, eating out has been a no no, but we could walk into Rotorua's Eat Street and enjoyed a fab Thai meal there, with a few glasses of the fab NZ Sav Blanc of course!

Another highlight of Rotorua was the Giant Redwood Forest at one of those unpronounceable places, Whakarewarewa. These trees were huge - see the photos - and the walk amongst them was awesome. The Kiwis often say that they have no history but they have some of the biggest and oldest trees that we have seen, including the oldest Pohutukawa!

Then onwards, and upwards, to the Coromandel Peninsula. We stopped at Katikati to view their murals, which are done by local artists and cover every available free wall space, flower pot and even the pavement. Then to Waihi to view the huge, now defunct, open cast gold mine before heading to Hot Water Beach. We arrived late afternoon to find out that low tide was at 6:50pm. Two hours either side of low tide you can take a spade, kindly lent to us by the campsite, and head to Hot Water Beach to dig your own hot water spa in the sand. So, off we set. It was a very weird sight - a huge, huge beach with no-one on it apart from one large group all in one place in the distance. We approached cautiously, not quite sure what the etiquette of spa digging was, and picked our spot. As our hole filled with cold water we realised that we had not picked the right spot! Apparently there are two hot water springs that bubble up onto the beach and, by feeling the heat of the sand with your feet, you can tell where to dig your spa. A very nice Japanese guy took pity on us and offered us his own, previously dug, spa with built-in temperature control - a stream of hot water that you could dam with sand when too hot, or let in when too cold, genius as the water is over 50 degrees! He left and we were the envy of the beach!! It was quite reassuring to watch others turn up like us, without a clue, but everyone helped each other. We actually enjoyed the weird experience of sitting on a beach in a steaming hot pool, with it getting dark and the temperature dropping like a stone (it had never got above 18 degrees all day), that is, until we had to get out and take the cold walk back to the van!

And now for another 'road issue' - the crossing of the Coromandel range at the top of the peninsula. OMG, OMG, OMG - thank God Bob was driving again. How come Bob was always driving the difficult bits you may ask?! I have to admit that I was always having a sneaky look at the map the day before and 'suggesting' who should drive what the next day! I think this was the highest we climbed - the steep climb just went on and on and on. I lost count of the times we went round a corner, expecting to have reached the top, only to see the road wending its way even higher. All corners in NZ have a speed limit on them to help you gauge the severity of the bend. Most of the hair-pins were 25km/hr - on this climb we encountered 15km/hr, and when Bob missed his gear my heart seemed to stop and Trannie almost did!! Both Bob and Trannie recovered quickly though - it took me a lot longer. When we eventually got down to sea-level at Coromandel and swapped over driving, Bob 'joked' that the passenger seat and door handle were all sweaty - no joke!!

After an overnight stay at Miranda, with it's beautiful hot water swimming pool, we took it easy and went to visit the Offshore Bird Centre, home to thousands of migrating seabirds. Again, being the only visitors at that time, we were given an indepth talk of what to look for and lent a pukka telescope on a tripod. We felt like real twitchers! We then decided to drive the coast road towards Auckland. Oh my, the land was giving way everywhere. There were landslips in fields, over the road and some where the road had gone down the hill and we clung to the other side of the road. It was quite scary, especially as there were so many and it was still raining. I think we were both glad to negotiate the slips and get back on firm ground!

And so on to Auckland, the end of our trip in NZ. We headed straight to the zoo, desperate to see a kiwi before we left. We actually stayed most of the day as it was such a lovely place - more of a conservation and breeding centre than a zoo. Then we went to stay with friends Sally and Richard. I met Sally when we were both playing tennis at David Lloyd in Basildon, so it was lovely to see them both and have a good catchup, as well as do some sightseeing.

We were both sorry not to have made it north of Auckland but our time just ran out. We had driven over 5000kms in a month, which included the Glacier Highway, The Great Coast Road, The Classic New Zealand Wine Trail and most, apart from the detour to Rotorua, of the Pacific Coast Highway. What an adventure!

We are now back on the Gold Coast recovering, and planning for our next trip down to Sydney and Melbourne. It's so nice to have Winnie back - so much more homely than Trannie, and great to be back with friends and family. One last thing - I was given a bodyboard for my birthday by Bill and spent yesterday surfing the waves at Surfers Paradise. It's never too late!!