Rotorua

From the moment you arrive in Rotorua, you know you're somewhere quite different.
The scent of sulfur permeates the air, nearby geothermal hotspots spout geysers, acrid-smelling mud pools bubble and belch, and warm geothermal ponds create a kaleidoscope of color.

I think he caught a whiff of the town....
Downtown Rotorua
Wai-O-Tapu Thermal Wonderland is located about 25km south of Rotorua. One of the more popular features, Lady Knox Geyser, erupts daily at 10:15am reaching heights of up to 20 meters and can continue to erupt for up to one hour. I arrived at the park when it opened at 8:30am, so I would have plenty of time to view the park and then head over to the geyser. I was on the orange path around 9:15, when other tourists in the park started racing off the paths to see the geyser.
I thought it was insane to save a seat for an hour, so finished the orange path and started on the yellow path. After finishing the yellow path, I headed back towards the visitor's center. By this time it was 9:20. Oops. My watch stopped. It was really 10:45 by the time I got to the visitors center, then it was to my car to drive the road to the geyser. As I was heading in, the hoards of other tourists were racing out, trying to be the first back to the main park. Above is the tail end of the geyser. No wonder the park was so empty and relaxing while I was there :-)

Try to stay on the path while walking through hot sulfurous gas. The smell stays on your clothes, too. Woo hoo.
{Interesting sidebar ... If you use the British spelling "sulphurous", spell check recommends "sumptuous". Can you think of a worse-fitting alternate word? }
Champagne Pool
Devil's Bath. Makes you wonder if he was bathing in radioactive waste
Boiling pools of mud... up close and personal

Rotorua is the spiritual home to the Maori. No trip to this area would be complete without visiting the ultimate tourist trap... the Maori Hangi (similar to a Hawaiian Luau). It's a bad buffet and cultural show all rolled into one very large price.

I hoped to meet the Maori model who posed for this statue!

No such luck... :-P
The Buried Village shows the history of Te Wairoa, a village buried when Mount Tarawera erupted in 1886.

According to local legend, the Maori High Priest who lived in this whare (dwelling) was 110 years old. He prophesied the eruption, to then have his home smothered by mud and ash. However, after four days buried beneath Mount Tarawera’s debris, he was unearthed alive!
Trout stream

Te Wairoa Waterfalls is about a 20 minute walk from the museum

small rapids below the falls
View of Lake Tarawera
Fern by Lake Tarawera Taking a drive through the bush.
No wonder my rental agreement prohibited me from driving on unpaved roads! :-)

Taupo to Napier

Lake Taupo is the largest lake on the North Island and is known for trout fishing.

North of Taupo is the Aratiatia Dam, which opens several times a day to generate hydroelectric power. When the dam opens the Aratiatia Rapids fill with water. Tourists then have the opportunity to ride a jet boat beneath the rapids. I took the ride and it was a lot of fun.
The dam releasing water
The rapids filling....
A black swan on the lake above the dam
South of the Aratiatia Dam is another high volume flow of water. At Huka Falls, the falls aren't big, but the volume and speed are quite high.

Waipunga Falls can be seen on the drive from Taupo to Napier

Napier is known for its Art Deco buildings.A view of the downtown from the porch at the bed and breakfast where I spent the night.

Sunrise over the ocean, taken from the porch at the bed and breakfast.

Flowers in the Napier Botanic Garden

Mount Taranaki

After I decided to go to New Zealand, I was looking at guidebooks to find interesting places to visit. I saw a picture of this lake with the mountain in the background and instantly put this location on my "must see" list.
Lake Mangamahoe, with Mt. Taranaki in the background
Duck on the lake
The glockenspiel in Stratford. A couple times a day it opens up and plays a scene from Romeo and Juliet.

Stratford is an interesting little town. All of the streets have Shakespearean names. I actually hadn't planned to spend the night in this town - my goal was to drive all the way to New Plymouth and use that as my base for Mount Taranaki. I'm glad that I started to get too tired to drive any further, since this town is close to all of the trailheads at Egmont National Park (Mount Taranaki).

I spent 2 nights here with the friendliest people in New Zealand. David and Edna were extremely gracious hosts at their bed and breakfast, The Pretty Croft, and you couldn't beat the rate or $45NZ/night for a single (and I got the nice room).

Even though my first day was really cold and rainy, I got a few short walks in between downpours. This is Dawson Falls.
You pass through this section of "goblin forest" while hiking the Wilkies Pools Loop Track at the Dawson Falls entrance of Egmont National Park.
More "goblin forest" can be seen on the Kamahi Loop Track at the East Egmont entrance.
The low alpine plants along the Enchanted Track at East Egmont.
The rocky upper peaks of Mt. Taranaki. There were still small patches of snow on the peak in early fall (late March).



The obligatory picture of New Zealand sheep
The windblown southwestern coast, by Hawera

The black sand beaches of the west coast
Sign indicating that I had the right-of-way at the one lane section of road.
I decided not to argue with this truck, and let them have the right-of-way
Bridal Veil Falls near Raglan, in the Waikato district.
On the coast heading back to Auckland. The Coromandel range is in the background, and if you look at the black dots in the water, you can see a New Zealand green-lipped mussel farm.

Aukland

City Skyline

I really didn't spend much time in Auckland. I arrived around midnight and headed straight to a motel near the airport. In the morning, I picked up the rental car and headed to the Coromandel Peninsula, avoiding most of the city. On my last day in New Zealand, I arrived back in Auckland around 3 PM, dropped off the rental car, put my luggage in storage, and caught a bus into the city. I headed back to the airport around 9 in order to catch my midnight flight back to the US.

Skytower up close and personal.
The same view at night - but lit up and blurry (guess I shouldn't have had that last drink at dinner)
Sunset over Harbor Bridge