Rotorua

Well we certainly have lots to tell since my last update!  We spent a nice day in Auckland hiking up Mt. Eden, which is a (fortunately) dormant volcano, but you can see the giant crater in the centre that now is filled in with grass.  There were beautiful views of the city from the top.  In the evening we took the ferry to a little suburb of Aukland called Devonport and it was really lovely.  We found the most popular place in town - a fish and chips restaurant where they wrap them in lots of paper!  So nice!  It took about 40 minutes for our food to be made so we got our appetites up by going for a pint down the street.  Then we sat by the water and had supper as a sun set behind Aukland city.

The next morning we got up early so we could pick up our car.  We headed out of Aukland and south towards Rotorua.  The scenery here is absolutely amazing!  There are endless grass covered hills with sheep and cows grazing.  Its lovely just to drive and take it all in.  Our first stop was the grocery store 'cause it's kind of expensive to eat out here so we stocked up on some basics and enjoyed a picnic lunch by the side of the road.  We found a campite and spent the first night in our "Hubba Hubba" tent...easy to set up but a little tight for room :>)

Rotorua has a lot of semi-active volcanic activity, so we went to this place today where there were lots of hot pools with huffing steam and stinky sulfer smelling gas.  In fact this whole areas is kind of stinky!  I felt like we were on one of those "angry planet" episodes...I've never experienced volcanoes that close up!  Some of the lakes were absolutely beautiful.  There were deposits of Sulfur, Silica, Iron, Carbon, ect and they all had really beautiful colours.  There were also these mud pools that reminded me of the bog of eternal stench (if anyone has ever seen the moving Labirynth.)

Tomorrow we plan to drive to the coast and spend some time relaxing on the beach.  Hope you are all well.

Love Hanna and Dan

Auckland skyline

 Crazy volcanic stuff at Rotorua

 Stinky pools of bubbling mud.