feb 7 Rotorua
We arrive in Rotorua on a beautiful day, Mark Slade, a friend from so long ago picks us up at the airport and we drop our bags and head to Te Puia, a Maori cultural place NZ's most well known thermal area with Geysers and boiling Mud pools. Rotorua is built on a volcano and so the earth underneath is seeping to the surface and boling hot. The town is known for it's sulphur smell and hot springs and mud baths.
At Te Puia we see a Maori cultural show where the perform the Haka,local song and dance and see local arts and crafts as well as a Kiwi bird...almost extinct and not to be seen unless looking at night as they are nocturnal.
We walk back to town and meet up with Mark and head back to the house where Denise has cooked us a lovely meal and we meet the 2 boys, Mitchel and Cameron. Mark breaks out some very funny pictures from Myrtle Beach so long ago, with sooo many people!! Toledo Travis's plus Russell and Mark Slade, Villigers, Whalen's plus Julie and Robbie..looked like fun. a dip in the hot tub and then bed. We get up and have a big brekkie and head out to the Redwood Forests for some Mountain biking!! Russ and I ren]]]]t bikes and off we go,
quite quickly I remember how long it's been since I was mountain biking...and the downhills are much steeper and narrower than I recall!!! It was great fun..I only crashed 2 times...the second time Denise wiped out on the gravel in front of me and as I swerved to avoid her ended up head over handlebars in a huge picker bush...bloodied and bruised I hop back on and keep going..only to be picking thorns out of my skin for the next 10 days!!!ouch! Gorgeous trails and woods, all so close to town and their house, they go every weekend.
We go down for a swim at the lake, beautiful calm lake with black swans swimming and crystal clear water, then back to the house and out to dinner in Rotorua. Our last night, we leave on the Naked bus in the am for Auckland.
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