Feeling touristy 🫧

We mooched around Wellington for a little while the next day, and had some awesome toasties at Fred's Sandwiches. Matt and I are big fans of anything which contains copious amounts of melted cheese. We then hit the road north stopping for the night in a free spot in Waverley. Free spots for the non-self contained are very sparse, so we're going to use them whenever we can find them. 

We took it slow the next morning as we had plans to get up to the Mount Tariaki viewpoint for sunset, to get the best light and views, then wander back down in the dark. This meant we didn't need to start walking until about 2pm. As we got to the start of the walk we were very aware we weren't going to get the amazing views but thought we'd stick with the plan. It's also a kiwi zone so another chance to potentially spot one when we walked down after sunset. However, about 2/3rds of the way up it was pouring with rain, lots of the path was flooded, and there were lots of slippery roots, so we made the decision to turn around. Returning in the dark was not going to be fun and we wouldn't have seen a thing at the top anyway. 

Next morning it was drier so we tried again. It was a much more pleasant walk and although when we got the the tarn we still couldn't see a thing, I'm glad we still up got there and tried again. The middle picture below Matt took in 2017, the bottom one is our view in 2025. I'd love to say I'm not jealous but I really am!



We then had a long drive on to Taupo so that we weren't a day behind, so we treated ourselves to a McDonald's. We'd found another free spot for the night so were feeling good and the Mcdonalds had a plane you could sit and eat in. We are pretty easily impressed and we ended up being the only ones aboard.



Next morning we went to watch Aratiatia Dam release a load of water. It happens three times a day and has become a bit of a tourist attraction. I can see why, its pretty impressive, one minute the river bed is dry then whooosh, rapids! 

Next stop, Rotorua, known for its geothermal activity which releases hydrogen sulfide gas into the air, which means it smells, and pretty bad too, but weirdly you very quickly get used to it. We went straight to the only free place to see some activity, Kuirau Park. It was better than we expected, lots of hot pools, some even bubbling away. 

The stuff going on underground wasn't the main reason we'd ended up in Rotorua though. Matt really wanted to do the luge. There's one in Queenstown but it was like -5° when we were there, not ideal for whizzing down a hill, breeze in your face. But, in Rotorua, with the temperature well above freezing it was a much better day for it. It was super fun, we also had some luck of a family giving us their ticket for some rides they didn't do and then Matt's ticket didn't actually get scanned at one point so we got way more rides than we paid for.



The next day we'd planned to go to Hobbiton. Matt's been before so we'd had a lot of debates of should we/shouldn't we. Matts the Lord of the Rings fan, I just think they're alright but it seems like a thing you must do if you're in NZ. However, the geography student that remains somewhere deep inside me and couldn't leave Rotorua without seeing some more cool geothermal stuff. So Hobbiton was binned for Wai-O-Tapu Thermal Wonderland. 

There's lots of these places to choose from so we spent a long time deciding based on price, distance away, whether you could wander about alone, and Wai-O-Tapu won. There is a huge geyser there called Lady Knox geyser which does erupt naturally but they make it go off at 10:15 am every day by dropping some surfactant into it. This is how it was discovered 1901, by prisoners using some soap to do washing accidently setting it off. It did all feel a bit touristy but still pretty cool. 

You then have access to the park which we thoroughly enjoyed. You can wander around bubbling mud pools, collapsed craters, and silica terraces. All very cool, and it may be controversial but I think better than Hobbiton. 



We've changed our plans again this afternoon as there are weather warnings for wind and rain tomorrow so we've come up to Tauranga where there is a cinema. We don't mind walking in the rain but afterwards when you then make the car into a bed, there is just nowhere to put wet stuff. So we're probably going to go and watch The Salt Path as we've been wanting to see it since it came out. 

Lots of love, 

Lisa and Matt 💕 





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