Day 26, 27 & 28 – Rotorua, eggs & Tarawera

Well, here we are, the weekend again.

Saturday was a fun, family day out.  We set off to Rotorua to have a look at all the hot mud-pools and geysers.  We took State Highway 36 from Tauranga to Rotorua (approx 1 hour drive) this turned out to be almost off-road/quarry driving at one stage as they are currently upgrading the road at The Mangorewa Gorge.  When you drive into Rotorua you get a distinct smell of sulphur wafting through the air vents, prompting the inevitable, ‘Who farted?’ question.

We headed straight for Whakarewarewa to Te Puia, the New Zealand Māori Arts and Crafts Institute. 

(Picture:  Aidan at Te Puia)

Aidan hasn’t been here since he was 2 years old so he couldn’t remember much, if anything about the experience.  The full name is Te Whakarewarewatangaoteopetauaawahiao.  Yep none of us could pronounce it first time either.  This apparently means, ‘The gathering place for the war parties of Wahiao’.  What better place to spend your morning?

After walking around the first few mud-pools, Aidan contemplated for a moment before proclaiming that, “It smells like Nan’s egg sandwiches!”

“It smells like Nan’s egg sandwiches”

The largest geyser is known as Pohutu which can erupt up to 30 metres high.

There seems to be lots of spiders and their webs around these parts, much to Tania’s delight.

Before we left, Aidan stumbled across a mirror.  Took a little while before we figured out it was actually a carving and not a mirror:-

Once we left Whakarewarewa we headed towards the Green and Blue lakes to have a picnic.  Turned out that some boating thing was on at the lakes so we drove towards Lake Tarawera instead. 

(Picture: The Blue Lake)

 (Picture: Aidan paddling at Lake Tarawera – Mount tarawera in background) 

After having our picnic and driving about for a bit we headed back towards Tauranga.  This time we took State Highway 33 via Te Puke to avoid the roadworks.  Tania and Aidan both fell asleep on the way back giving me peace and quiet!

Back in Tauranga just in time to watch the sun sinking below the horizon once again.

 (Picture: Tauranga Harbour)

Sunday was a pretty quiet day.  Spoke to the oldies on Skype for a bit and then Tania and Aidan went to Heather’s for tea and I went for a couple of pints at the local pubs.

Similarly, Monday was quiet as well.  Aidan complained of a sore stomach in the morning which seemed to get miraculously better once he didn’t have to go to school.  Did the whole job-hunting thing again and that has been about it.