Monday, March 20th, Rotorua to Wellington

Monday we boarded our coach for the drive from Rotorua to Wellington. We passed the Waiotapu Tavern. See the ramp to the front door. The men ride their horses up that ramp and into the tavern with their horse to get a drink. 

Our first stop was at Waiotapu. This is a Geothermal Wonderland. 

There are three walks. Most of our group did Walk 1. Claude and I did that and Walk 2 and then the rest of Walk 1 to get back to the coach. The signs throughout the park were a little unsettling. Reality, if this area erupted, we were not going to evacuate this park fast enough. 

These pictures are from Walk 1.

This is a tea tree. The branches were placed in the homes of Maori long ago to keep away mosquitos. 

It is interesting to find life in this area. Birds all about and even spiders.

Then we took Walk 2.

Walk 2 rejoins Walk 1 and we would take it back to the coach.

Claude and I named this Jeep Lake because it is the color of Claude's Jeep.

Our coach drove us out of Waiotapu and around to Lady Knox Geyser. This area is opened for a bit every day. Years ago prisoners of war were kept in this area. Their work was to plant trees on the mountains. They like to come to this area and take a warm bath. Overtime, their soap built up in the water and a chemical reaction happened and the place erupted. Now, everyday in the morning, they pour a bag of powdered detergent in the cone and wait till it erupts. 

These pictures are of the drive to Wellington. Life through the window of the coach!

This is NOT a nuclear power plant. This IS a geothermal power plant. 

These are the pipes the energy that carry power to the rest of the country. 

We stopped at Huka Falls.

We also stopped in Taupo for lunch. It was such a good lunch. Really surprised us. It was a little restaurant run by men from Turkey. They served Turkish food. Claude had a kabob over salad with sweet chili sauce. I ordered falafel over rice. They took three large falafel and mashed them down flat with a fork. This was placed over rice with tahini sauce over the top. I was even fortunate enough to find a Mountain Dew. We also found rose Turkish Delight for dessert. I do enjoy Turkish Delight and don't find it very often. I found the cutest sign on the wall outside the toilets. 

We had not changed US dollars for New Zealand dollars. We found an ATM and were able to get that done in Taupo. Hallelujah. Most of the time you could use your credit card. But there are moments you need New Zealand money. To celebrate this momentous occasion, we visited Luna's Gelato. Claude had milk chocolate gelato while I enjoyed a coconut gelato. Yum!

As we left town, we found their McDonald's with an airplane for seating. How cool is that?

Lake Taupo. In the lake is a sacred island. On this island is a cemetery. You are not allowed to go there without permission from the local Maori chief.

More pictures of our drive through the window of the coach.

There were tornados that came through the islands. This is some of the damage done to this beautiful land.

Our final pit stop was in Bull, New Zealand. Of course there are bulls all over the place!

We would end our day in Windy Wellington. Our hotel for the next two nights would be the Copthorne Hotel Wellington – Oriental Bay 

A few items from this days travel:

• Wahine is women. Tane is men.
• The indicator on the bathroom stall to tell you it is in use says 'engaged' instead of 'occupied'.
• Claude found himself watching Lord of the Rings on Katie's cellphone as she sat across from him on the coach. At one of our pit stops, I thanked Katie for sharing her movie. She said she was aware he was watching and tried to turn it so they both could see. Sometimes people are very nice.
• We saw circular ridges around the hilltops. These were formed by sheep and cows as they walk around the hills to eat.
• Wellington is very windy!!