Rotorua is a smelly town due to its sulphur-rich land which means it has lots of natural thermal springs and exploding mud pools. Whilst pretty cool it didn’t take us long to zoom round the park in the rain where these natural wonders have popped up!
As a result we moved onto Lake Taupo where we admired the views over lunch in true camper style!
Around Lake Taupo we stopped at a number of places including Huka Falls (perks of driving is that we can do exactly this). This is where NZ’s longest river, the Waikato is slammed into a narrow opening creating these dramatic falls.
It was here that we spotted people riding the Aratiatia rapids at the bottom of the falls, so you guessed it – we signed up straight away for a trip the following morning! Check out our video you may need to copy and paste this into your browser https://youtu.be/MdLruOWe0R0
Our trusted NZ Lonely Planet book had recommended a thermal spa nearby. The Wairakei Terraces had four hot pools nestled in amongst the trees with mineral rich water coming from the Wairakei geothermal steamfield. The hottest of the four pools was 40 degrees and even I, who loves a hot bath/shower could not stay in it for long!
Last but not least in this area was a quick visit to a glass blowing workshop called Lava Glass. It was quite small but we did get to see the production of some of the bits on sale in the shop (in our case it was wine glasses).
The Snow Adventures 