Rotorua and Waitomo

Spent 4 nights in Rotorua, the thermal centre of New Zealand.  After watching the Lions beat the local team (Bay of Plenty), we visited a park containing impressive geysers, simmering mud pools and smelly sulphur fumes!



Te Whakarewarewa geyser

The thermal activity also heats some of the river water, and we found a lovely rural hot pool in a nearby forest to bathe in:



Sunlight cutting through the steam at the Kerosene Creek pools

Rotorua has a lovely setting, although the town itself is pretty ugly, and Kiwis not-so-affectionally name it "Roto-Vegas".  South of the town are beautiful forests, with Californian Redwood trees offering great tracks to walk along.  Rotorua is also situated on the edge of a lake, so we took a scenic cable car ride up to the top of a nearby hill and took in the views:



Lake Rotorua

We managed to work our way down the hill in a "luge", a small sled with wheels which flies along on a downhill track.  H was thankful to have brakes, and G was thankful it wasn't the Death Road (Bolivia) all over again! 

We then headed west, through the beautiful rolling hills of the King Country to the village of Waitomo.  This area is riddled with caves famous for their glowworms.  We took a guided caving tour (hardhats included!) and floated through an underground river with thousands of glowworms shimmering like stars overhead:



Troglophiles

Having a hire car has given us the freedom to get off the beaten track and explore a little.  We took a scenic drive along the Marokopa Road, visiting a natural limestone bridge, more caves, and the Marokopa Falls:

GG at Natural Limestone Bridge


 
Marokopa Falls