We stopped at a bookstore and while Janet bought a couple of books on spinning wool, I got directions to the proprietor's favorite restaurant, The Gazebo.
This was our first BYOB restaurant. Even though we had two bottles of wine chilling in our refrigerator back at the motel, it was easier to walk across the street to a liquor store to buy a bottle of wine to go with dinner. We knew the other two would not go to waste. Dinner was excellent. I had lamb and Janet had venison medallions. We finished our wine at a relaxed pace. Because it was still early, the restaurant was quite empty. Only one other table was occupied now, but somehow we knew that it would be busy later in the evening. We were both quite full, so we skipped dessert, and slowly walked back to our motel only pausing to peer into a store window every once in a while.
A long soak in the mineral pool was beginning to sound good right about then, so we changed into our bathing suits and headed to the rear of the building. The long drive had taken its toll on our backs and necks. The therapeutic minerals in the hot water would be a welcomed relief. It took a few minutes to acclimate our noses to the strong sulfur smell emanating from the pool. As it was dipped into and quickly removed from the pool, my big toe told me that the water was very hot . I estimated that the water was in excess of 110 degrees. I inched my way into the Jacuzzi sized pool and managed to get all the way in after two false starts. Janet, being much more delicate, could not get more than her foot into the hot water. In less than five minutes, she gave up trying, and I got out looking red as a lobster. I used the fresh water shower as much to rinse off the sulfur smell as I did to cool off my skin and stop the burning sensation.
After taking a full fledged shower back in the room, we got dressed and walked around the corner to a small grocery store. Considering how much trouble we were having finding a good restaurant for breakfast, the kitchen would come in handy to make our own simple breakfast. We purchased pastry and cereal for breakfast, and ice cream, the kind with the toffee chips in it like we had at the Bed and Breakfast for general snacking. Now that we had a package with the name printed on it, we knew that the flavor was called 'Hokey Pokey'.
The kitchen could have sufficed for a much longer stay, but since we were only staying two nights, we simply put the ice cream in the freezer and left everything else on the countertop. While at the refrigerator, I grabbed a bottle of wine, and, after a quick search for an cork screw, opened it. Aided by the anesthetizing effect of the wine, we were able to browse through a few of the local tourist attraction magazines that were on the coffee table and planned further the next day's activities. We already knew we were going on an early morning hike through the forest, and, although we tried to avoid the obvious attractions of the tourist, it seemed likely that we would have to include some time for the geyser and mud pools in the main thermal area. It was likely that we would run into someone familiar with the area and we could not stand the embarrassment of them asking us, 'You mean you went to Rotorua and didn't see the geysers?' Besides, the little bit of tourist still remaining in us was curious. The bedroom had two beds each somewhat larger than a twin, but smaller than a full-sized bed. Neither of us wanted to move the luggage occupying one of the beds nor spend the night apart. So the best we could, we squeezed into one bed and cuddled the whole night through.
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Chapter 5, April 15: Rotorua
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Most people dread April 15th because of the deadline for submitting their tax returns. We welcomed the day as it was planned to be filled with a hike in the Whakarewarewa State Forest Park, then a look at the geysers, and finish off the day with dinner at the Aorangi Peak Restaurant.
Since the breakfast cereal package didn't have any good reading material on it, I browsed through a few brochures and tourist magazines while I ate my breakfast cereal with the motel-provided bottle of cream. Janet munched on a roll and drank hot tea. We surmised that were ready to go before all of the other tourists even rolled out of bed.
We followed Gwen's directions along the main road, then down a few side roads to the forestry station. We parked our car not too far from the obvious beginning of the trail. As we entered the forest, the path was well manicured with wood rails at ground level. Around us were redwood trees, all about the same height, which blocked most of the sunshine that was trying to filter its way to the earth. A sign told us that each tree was planted to serve as a memorial to a fallen New Zealand soldier in World War I. After a few hundred yards, we exited the redwood section and came to a branch in the path. Going straight appeared to loop back to the entrance for an all too short walk for us, and the other direction, uphill to the right, seemed like it would produce better views and a reasonably long hike. As we pondered our decision, the only other person we would meet on the trail appeared coming down from the uphill path. The elderly man told us that he took the uphill path every day for exercise. This was enough to convince us to take the uphill path.
The trail went up fairly steeply. In some places rough steps were made out of planks of wood thrust into the earth and anchored at both ends with wooden stakes. We had to rest several times to catch our breath on fallen logs or large stones. This area had many small to medium trees and ferns growing so thickly that they were the only view possible. We were lucky enough to find a couple of silver ferns, the national fern of New Zealand. Upon closer examination, we found that the top is a normal looking glossy green, but the underside is a light silver color that looks like a reflection of the sunlight.
We continued uphill and came to a fire road, which appeared to have not been used in several months. The last signpost was well behind us, so we randomly picked a direction and followed it around a small hill until we came to a clearing in the trees. From here, we were rewarded with an excellent view of Rotorua. The thick billows of steam rising from the thermal activity gave us the impression that the city was on fire. I was determined to find the end of the trail which earlier signs had indicated was at a quarry and mountain peak, but as we had been hiking for an hour, Janet turned back and I followed her.
Walking downhill was much easier. Now, we only had to stop to make sure we were on the right path. We almost missed the turn from the fire road to the path in the forest since it was hidden in the underbrush, and neither of us had remembered to leave bread crumbs.
Upon reaching the level ground, where we had met the elderly gentleman earlier, we went to the right and followed the loop back to our car. When we got back to the motel, all we could think about was resting our tired feet. It didn't take long to realize that we were wasting the day away, so we picked ourselves up off of the couch and began to drive to the geysers. On the way, we stopped at a little village of craft shops called, The Little Village, where they demonstrated wood turning on a lathe, and other crafts. Janet wasted no time finding the spinning shop and spent some time discussing the merits of various models, as I looked around. Although it was fairly close, we drove to the rear entrance of the Whakarewarewa Thermal Reserve. The map we received at the gate numbered the various points of interest. We followed the numbered map along the two hour path stopping every dozen yards or so to view the various fumaroles, boiling mud fields, and hissing steam holes. The Puarenga Stream ran through the reserve, and the boiling mineral rich water deposited crystallized silica on the terraces behind Ngamokaiakoko, the Frog Pool. It was so named because the bubbles of hot gas break the surface in such a way to give the appearance of a frog jumping across the pond. We stopped at the half-way point at the Maori Arts and Crafts Institute. Since it was a Saturday during the tourist season, it was fairly crowded by New Zealand standards. After spending a reasonable amount of time viewing the carved canoes, we tarried to watch a native Maori girl work with native plants to extract the fiber needed to weave a mat.
As we strolled back towards the rear entrance, almost on cue, the main attraction, the Pohutu Geyser, erupted. We hurried to get closer to it and sat on a bench to watch it. Our haste was not necessary as it was still going full blast for fifteen minutes. When we made our way to the exit, we had to walk under the mist which was condensing into rain. We didn't get too wet, and the water, which had time cool considerably as it fell to Earth, didn't burn us.
We drove back to the motel only to discover that we had worked up quite an appetite. We realized that between the hike and the geysers, we had walked for a total of four hours, and it was just lunch time. We went around the corner to the main street and got two orders of fish and chips at a take-away restaurant (what is call a take out restaurant in the States). We took the newspaper wrapped packages and ate at our kitchen table in the motel. The fish was good, but quite greasy. We stored some of the ample chips that we could not eat in the refrigerator.
Now that our hunger was appeased, we had to do something about our tired feet. We changed into our swimming suits and headed for the mineral pool. We hoped that the pool would be cool enough to enter this time, but since it was still early in the afternoon, the pool had not cooled as much since the morning refilling as it had the previous night, and neither of us could get into the water. Instead, we swam in the vacant, 100 degree swimming pool. The water was heated by a small water fall of boiling water trickling into the far corner, so, by moving closer to the hot water inlet, it was possible to find a spot which was not too hot or too cool.
We took turns showering back in our room and relaxed before dinner. Even after the large lunch it wasn't too long before we wanted to have dinner. With maps in our hands, we navigated a couple of back roads and started up to Aorangi Peak. It took only ten minutes to make the ascent to the top where the Aorangi Peak Restaurant was located. We arrived at 6:00 PM and made our way upstairs to the view bar for a before dinner cocktail. The large windows afforded us a view of the city of Rotorua, the thermal area, and most of Lake Rotorua. After one round, we headed downstairs to the restaurant. Even though we were the first customers of the day, we couldn't be seated at the windows since they were being held for people with reservations a full hour or more from then. We took our time enjoying meals of lamb and venison as the sun took its time to set. On the way back, we only stopped to pick up some cream for my breakfast cereal, and then went back to our motel for the night.
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Chapter 6, April 16: Rotorua to Havelock North
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| Packing is never fun. This time the job seemed easier. We figured it was because the suitcases never really got emptied, but it was more probably because we were heading to the high point of the trip: the farm stay. Once packed and loaded in the car, we said farewell to Gwen in the office along with our compliments on a fine motel. |
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