Days 6 and 7

Day 6 (Sunday 5th September)
Rose at 6.40 after a cold night and after a shower and breakfast took myself off to the lounge to try and catch up with the blog. Managed to get days 3,4 and 5 drafted, with appropriate photographs but was unable to get all the photos uploaded before my Internet time expired.

First visit on the cards today was to the local museum housed in what was the Bath House. A place that tapped into the local geothermal activity for health purposes. There is a pool close by which contains water at a temperature of 212 ° and constantly gives off steam. Unfortunately, I still can't get the video upload to work.
The Museum shows a film that tells the story of the 1886 volcanic eruption and how a chap called Bainbridge was killed, along with about 120 villagers. The little cinema where the 20 minute film was shown has a very interesting feature. During the eruption scenes the seats shook violently. Quite a shock until I realised what was happening. It added a touch of drama to the film. Went up to the roof top viewing platform for a panoramic view of Rotorua. The Museum is located in the Government Gardens where there are pitches for croquette, bowls and bools. It must be quite a sight on a summer afternoon.

Rotorua Museum

The next item on the agenda was a trip to the Skyline Luge . For the princely sum of $35 (approx £16) I got a return Gondola ride to the top of the hill, 3 luge rides (like a 3 wheeled toboggan with brakes) down a track of about 1.7 Kms, followed by a chairlift back to the top after each run. Needless to say I, of course, had to take the advanced track. Absolutely brilliant fun. Brought out the latent hooligan in me. Yahoooooo! Mind you, didn’t spot too many other pensioners indulging!

View from Gondola

Did a spot more provisions shopping, well I did need some more bananas, so treated myself to some Lamingtons as well.

Returned to the camper site by about 16.00 hours and tried to catch up with the blog drafting. Pretty good so far, just need sufficient Internet time to be able to upload all the photos. Spot of tea and then back to the lounge to continue updating the Blog. Maybe I am just slow but, this is taking up a considerable amount of my time. However, at least it stops me hanging about on street corners. However, managed to get blog for Days 3, 4 and 5 uploaded complete with photos. Although I didn’t get finished until about 21.50. Still, at least the lounge was lovely and warm. Back to the van and finally managed to get the gas hob to work and used it to warm the place up a bit before retiring to bed by 10.30

Day_7 (Monday 6th September)

Seem to be establishing a bit of a routine now in rising, stowing the bed, getting showered and then having breakfast. Breakfast consists of weetabix (or the local equivalent), toast, banana, orange juice and coffee.

After clearing away this morning I visited the lounge (it’s warm there) in order to use up my last 20 minutes of Internet time by sending a couple of emails.

Left the site by 09.00 but had to call in for fuel and also picked up a double CD of Simon + Garfunkel to serenade me on my way.

Weather cold, wet and windy (quite reminiscent of the UK really), it seems I have brought the worst f the elements to NZ with me. Major earthquake, gale force winds that are felling trees and reports of significant flooding in some areas. I never knew that I had such power.

Heading for Taupo, Napier and Hastings today. Initially travelling through an amazing geothermal area with a strong smell of sulphur in the air and plumes of steam rising into the morning mist.

Reached Lake Taupo by 10.30 so stopped for a quick view of the lake:

Lake Taupo

Lake Taupo

 However, I was soon back on the road and heading into the Ahimanawa Range of hills, up through Tarawera and Te Haroto. I feel sure that there are some spectacular views up here on a clear day but, today everything is shrouded in rain and mist. However, pulled into a scenic lookout spot at Tarawera, more in hope than expectation, and discovered a lovely view of falls on the Waipanga river.

The wind was getting quite strong by now and making the van difficult to control, it definitely does not like cross winds, and this was in addition to the severely winding and undulating road. I eventually descended through the wine region of Eskdale and onward into Bay View which is part of Hawke Bay on the East coast.

Hawke Bay

JB at Hawke Bay

Napier from Hawke Bay

whizzed through Napier without stopping other than for photos North and South of the town

Cape Kidnappers South of Napier

before turning inland again towards Hastings.

In Hastings I stopped at the Information Centre to check the Holiday Park location and also made a booking for the ferry from Wellington to Picton (South Island) for Wednesday morning. I successfully found the Top 10 Holiday Park, which was under new management. I was about to book in (event at their extortionate rates but found out their Internet was down, so decided to move on.

Eventually found my way to Waipawa, which is another 30 Kms closer to Wellington and booked into the campsite for the sum of $12. Much more reasonable. Still no Internet on site but was advised that the library could provide. Parked the van and headed into town, only a 5 minute walk, located the library and sure enough, once the librarian had cleared all the school kids out of the way Internet access was available, for FREE. Whoopeeee! Checked emails and replied as necessary. Once this was done I wandered around the town, this took all of about 15 minutes, took a couple of photos:

Map of Waipawa

Waipawa Catholic Church

and then headed back to the van to spend the rest of the evening researching camper sites in Wellington for tomorrow night and reading. Bed by 10 pm, Ho Hum. See you again soon I hope.