March 29, 2016 Rotorua to Auckland

This morning we got a little bit of a sleep in relative to the rest of the trip however we we still rolling by 7:30 am.   Tom and Amy had booked a tour out Hobitown which is the movie set for the Lord of the Rings series and the Hobit series of movies.  Agnes and I were planning a trip out to Wau-o-tupa to see the geothermal geysers and other such smelly things.  

I helped load tom and Amy’s luggage as their trip was the first one out and then helped get our stuff organized.  After a breakfast sandwich at Dunkin Donuts Agnes and I were off to see the geothermal sites.

There is one main geyser at Wau-o-tapu which is called Her Lady Knox and it erupts once a day at 10:15 am.  So we had to hurray but made it in plenty of time.  We were wondering how they knew when it was going to erupt to such precision and were thinking they must somehow trigger it.  Sure enough at the appointed time a park guide came out gave a little talk and then added a surface surfactant (soap) to the throat of the geyser and a few minutes later it erupted.  Old Faithful and all of the Yellow Stone geysers just erupt without any assistance so kind of a cheat.  However it was quite spectacular never the less as there quite a large plume of water which went about 20-30 meters in the air.  After the geyser show we wandered around the rest of the geothermal area viewing various bubbling mud pots, steam vents, Sulphur pits and other smelling things.  It was quite fantastic to think you were walking on what could be a huge volcano. 

We then hurried back to Rotorua to meet up with tom and Amy for the drive down to Auckland.  It turned out to be much further than anyone had anticitpated as it didn’t look that far on the map. Then the last 15 kms into town were on a freeway which was totally gridlocked.   After circling the block a couple of times and some miss cues Amy’s phone came to the rescue and we were into the hotel driveway.  We were all glad to be here amd happily handed the car off to the valet. 

For supper we headed down to the wharfs which are right below the hotel.  It was a beautiful setting and we all ordered the national New Zealand dish “Fushenchups”  (fish and chips).  The fish was very fresh and tasty.  I have always like fushenchups but have never eaten it so often.  Tom and Amy are on the plane tomorrow and it was a great way to wind up our time together.

Terry