Kawhia to Rotorua Via (Cambridge and Tirau) 19th to 20th March

After a half hearted nights sleep in Kawhia due to some extremely heavy rain we were quite relieved to see the sun rising so without hanging about we headed out to a picnic site just outside of the town where we sat and ate breakfast. Thankfully the van was completely clean after the nights rainfall which saved me the job of scraping off the road that had stuck to the sides of the vehicle. On a mission we soon got on the road, Rachel was in the hot seat while I go to work on backing up all our photos from our failing laptop, which by this time was starting to give me a headache. We passed over hills full of farm animals and it did not take long for us to arrive in Cambridge, a place my Mum had stayed a few years back on her trip to New Zealand so I was keen to see the place she had walked. After pulling in I jumped out to grab a photo with the welcome sign and stared up at the hundreds of birds causing a scene above. As we drove in down Victoria Street the name gave away the area, as there were a number of Tudor houses still standing although they had now turned into modern shops but still had the old architecture fixings on them for show.

We parked up at Victoria Park and got on our way to look around the town. By this time I was smiling a lot more as I had finally fixed the laptop, no thanks to a virus that had found its way on to our hard drive (thanks to gimps that invented that one.) As we walked down the streets the place had a very English feel about it, much like the Cambridge from back home with plenty of horses and village greens surrounding the area that had a very wealthy scent through it. After a quick trip to the 'Superloo' we headed across the Victoria Bridge, that crossed the beautiful Waikato River, and into an internet café. There we got to work on the mothers day cards and the emails but time soon passed and there was still so much more to do in the day. We strolled back up the main high street visiting the local grocery and bakery before driving further down the road to a small village called Karapiro, where we stopped for lunch. We choose a spot that overlooked the rowing club at the bottom of a huge dam that controlled the river. With a stunning back drop we sat and relaxed for a couple of hours, eating omelet and chocolate sponge cake, which by this time was well past its best before date, but what can you expect from two travelers. "I mean look what Rachel has turned me into, a value food, woopsie cheap buyer, ok I guess the cheap bit may have already been there but the other two are very much new to my agenda and I kind of like it."

Time passed in a blink of an eye and other tourists came and went before us admiring the view across the river. We decided to pack up ourselves and with water tank refilled got on our way to finally head to Rotorua. Before arriving we had a quick stop off at a small town, Tirau, that seemed at one with animals as the names of many of the buildings were associated with nature and the information centre its heart was actually shaped like a dog. Interesting as it was we soon passed through, although we did forget the main reason for stopping there which was to fill up with fuel. With 50km still to go the red light flashed and the engine roared. As we went up hill Rachel could hardly look as the fuel gauge slipped below the empty. I was quite frankly dropping my bowel at the thought of breaking down, I mean it was a bloody long walk to Rotorua or back to Tirau. Luckily the lord was on our side and we made it to next petrol station with very little to spare. After filling up we entered what can only be desacibed as the smelliest city in the world. As we drove along in search of somewhere to stop for the first night we noticed steam billowing out from the side of the road, intrigued about the geothermal activity in the area we stopped off at Kuirau park. This park is near the heart of the city that is rich in Thermal Activity. As we walked around the area mud pools bubbled all around letting out the rotten egg scent of sulphur. A little further along a small lake boiled away that left our whole body feeling damp. Before heading back to the camper we did try out a man made pool which was heated by the geothermal activity in the area, although we decided not to get the shampoo and sponge out we did warm our feet in it. As the day drew to a close and the sky started to turn its orangey red we drove out of the city to find a place to park up for the night. We drove out of town and eventually about 15km down highway 33 we found a picnic area with a slight bit of tree cover where we relaxed for the night to get ourselves ready for a few days on 'geological activities'.