Rotorua to Taupo

After our stay in our private room - yes we treated ourselves. it actually wasnt that much more expensive maybe like $5 each and we definitely needed it! We were headed to Taupo.
On the way we stopped at some mud pools which were awesome. They're the same as the hot pools but with mud. Some of them were bubbling so much they were going mental, i attempted to video one but failed. took some pics instead.

Mud Pools - Rotorua

Around the corner from the pools was a geyser where everydat at 10.15 it erupts. We were chatting about how it always erupts at 10.15 and there must be something in the water/air for it to happen. sitting waiting patiently and out comes this guy - me to Joe - "ooh a little talk about it and how magical it is" NOPE. He puts something similar to soap in it and it shoots up from that!!! Apparently many years ago there was a prison and the prisoners found it when they were doing washing! So much for my magic. The foam got super high though and was pretty spectacular to see. 

Lady Knox Geyser

The next stop was Huka Falls, these were awesome, they didnt seem that big but the colour of the water was a stunning turquoise, absolutely beautiful. 200,000 litres of water pass through there every second (i think)

Huka Falls

We then drove on to Lake Taupo - where you can fit Singapore in to it! There was a viewing point where you see the lake but that is only 1/3 of it! Its the biggest lake in the southern hemisphere. so all in all a pretty big lake.
Just abit out in the lake is a golf hole called hole in one - i wonder how many golf balls are at the bottom of that lake! Again there was nothing going on in the town. it was a sunday though and a very small town. 

Lake Taupo

We went for dinner in a small pub and there was a band playing. they were awful. but it turned into a fun night just playing pool with some of the others on the magic bus.
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Auckland to Rotorua

Finally we got to travel on our Magic Bus and start seeing NZ!

I had done a similar type of bus tour in Canada with my bestie Andz, it was pretty chilled and we saw loads.

As those of you who know Joe - he is very laidback =  me organising everything! So this was perfect for us, we literally did nothing and just showed up. result.

The first bit of the journey was going out of Auckland, we stopped off at Mt Eden - a volcano just outside Auckland with an awesome view of the city

Mt Eden - Auckland

View of Auckland from Mt Eden

Next stop was Paeroa, which is famous for the NZ drink L&P - Lemon&Paeroa. (I think it is lemon and spring water and this is where they get the spring water from for the drinks) We had some and it was OK - I could take it or leave it, sorry kiwis! This was the day we found out about NZ currency - 10 Cents looks like a penny and i whispers to Joe he just gave me the wrong change thinking he'd given me a penny! Luckily I looked at it before going back in demanding my $$!!

Paeroa

We carried on driving and 2 girls got out at Te Aroha - Maori for Love! I noticed lots of cows everywhere whereas I thought there would be sheep everywhere!!

We visited a place called Hobbiton - where they are filming in the Lord of the Rings, we stopped off at a place called Shires Rest where you go to see a tour of the set and they have super cute lambs.

The views of this area were just stunning. So green and hilly, the pictures do not do it any justice at all.

From here we made our way to Rotorua where we were staying for the night. Considering it was a Saturday you would think something would be going on. Nope it was absoutely dead. It stunk there too. coz of the sulphur but it smelt like rotting eggs. there were a few times were i gagged so much i thought i would puke. This was a really cool place, the lake was huge and you could get closer to the geysers, seeing water bubbling was pretty awesome. Over the other side of the lake you could see the steam from where they were bubbling!

In one of the parks there were also hot pools which we checked out so a weird thing to see. As i said the night life wasnt pumping so we chilled at the hostel in the hot tub - we actually met a guy who auditioned as an elf for LOTR! Random.

And that was the end of the 1st day adventure!

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60 Day Challenge - Day 7

  

Day 07 - A picture of your most treasured item.

 My snowboard!! I only have a picture of it on my phone and cant get it on here! 


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60 Day Challenge - Day 6

Day 06 - A picture of a person you'd love to trade places with for a day.

 


I struggled with this one! I 'm fascinated by her and her husband is David Beckham - phew.


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