38:07.584S  176:14.682E

On Thursday morning there was a short drive to Tauranga where we purchased a dongle and sim card to make wifi connection easier. Then on to Rotorua where there was no freedom camping permitted so Cosy Cottage Camp Site with its own hot pools on the edge of the town provided the answer.

This is sulphur city with the smell of rotten eggs to the fore. We lay around in the pools (about 40 degrees C) to de-stress and then walked into town for the Thursday evening market, a non event, but we did have a delicious Italian supper. 

The following morning we went to experience the Maori lifestyle and see the geysers at Te Puia on the edge of town This was a very interesting and worthwhile visit with a good guide. We saw the geyser erupt 

The boiling mud pools, imagine a heated slurry lagoon, where enemies can disappear forever

a kiwi (no photgraphs permitted) but it looks like a round fluffy ball with a long beak protruding at one end

weaving and woodcarving workshops and ceremonial houses etc.

All over the town and offlying districts there are vents/holes in the ground blowing hot sulphurous air into the atmosphere—these are the natural safety valves preventing the build up of thermal pressure below the surface which would otherwise cause a volcanic eruption. The city developers have to be careful as to where they lay concrete and tarmac!

Driving south to Taupo we stopped for lunch at the Huka Falls——this is the water coming out of Lake Taupo on its 250 mile passage to the sea south west of Auckland.

The weather has been mainly cloudy with some rain but it is relatively warm and when the sun does make an appearance the temperature shoots up into the low twenties.