Rotorua...photo heavy

We were up bright and early this morning to go on a small group tour to some places around Rotorua. Turned out we were the only people,  so was a private tour!!
We started at Ohinemutu at the Maori village there...I don't knkw hoe people live here as there is steam coming up everywhere, there would be no problem heating your house in winter!!

Here we are outside the meeting house

Imagine this in your yard, you could boil an egg in 2 mins or cook corn on the cob.

Looking over the lake to Mokoia Island

Frkm there we went out towards Wai-O-Tapu and stopped to see the boiling mud on the way

I didn't think the smell was strong or bad but a young American girl was retching as she was going down the path, she was not a happy camper!!

Mud in action.

From there we went to see Lady Knox geyser along with hundreds of other tourists, something is put down the geyser to encourage it to erupt on time, 10.30 thanks, it does it other times by itself  but is not conducive to tourism!!

When we arrived

Cameras at the ready

Here we go! It shot water up to about 5 meters but was hard to photo with the tablet.

From there we went into Wai-O-Tapu and did a 1.5km walk around to look at the craters and boiling things

One of the ink pot craters

The Champange pool , the overflow brings lots of minerals with it causing all the different colours.

Another crater, could be Inferno Crater.

Lots of sulphur around this one.

We came back to the motel for lunch, then headed out to have a look at the Lake

One tiny corner of Lake Rotorua. As we were driving around we heard bagpipes so found a park and had a watch and listen

We missed the competition that was on but got to see the massed bands which was awesome. 

My favourite building in Rotorua which now houses the museum, originally it was the bath house building where people used to come and "take" the waters here...great mineral water to cure all ills!!!

 Are you still awake???

I will finish up for now. 

Kia Ora.

Blogging friend

Today we drove (with only a few wrong turns) to Kihi Kihi, just out of Te
Awamutu and to Threadbare Cottage and to Julie. We have met through blogging and we thought it would be wonderful to meet in person this time I was in New Zealand.

Julie made us a beautiful lunch, we had a bit of a chat and then had a look at her wonderful cottage....I  wish I  could put smell into a blog post as the smell going into the cottage was just heavenly!!!

We received a special welcome to the cottage....how good is that!!

Here is a look inside at some of the beautiful things on sale

The other end of the shop, there were so many things I would have liked to take home with me, Julie makes so many lovely things.

We were given a gift each in a personalised bag

I have untied the bow so it isn't as pretty as when I was given it!! Inside was

This, which opened up to

These, which the tablet has put sideways once again!!!

The mug mat smells of cloves and is just heavenly and the soap has lavender and calendula in it and also smells divine!!! It will be beside my bed tonight. 

I did buy a couple of things that I couldn't resist, but they are wrapped jn bubble wrap to get home, so should stay that way for now. 

We had a wander around the garden, the cats Blackie and Pippi kept well away from us strangers, then the time  came to take our leave.  We had a wonderful visit, thank you Julie for making us so welcome and for looking after us so well.

From Julies we drove for just over an hour to Rotorua and I am pleased to say we didn't get lost...thank you Julie for the directions,  they were spot on!! We went to the tourist info centre to get a map to find the motel and found we were not far down the road. We settled in...we are in an upstairs unit so that meant carrying everything yp the stairs......had a cuppa and then it was time to go out again to Te Puia and a Maori cultural evening.

We saw the opening of the hangi, then were officially welcomed onto the marae and into the meeting house.  Then there was a musical performance, with tourists going up on stage to join in, then we had dinner, a feast  of food, including pavlova.....I was sitting next to an Aussie from Brisbane,  so a lively debate went on all evening as to where the pavlova was first made...I won, although I think he thought he won!! Lol!!

To dinish the evening off we went to see the geyser but sadly it had performed before we got there. 

Enough from me for one day, time for bed!

More culture to see tomorrow.

Happy days.