We flew this morning from Sydney to Auckland, New Zealand. It was a short, three hour flight and the nice thing is that Air New Zealand has some kind of reciprocity with United, so we were able to sit in the equivalent of economy plus, which was nice.
We grabbed our rental car and headed toward Rotorua. It took us about three hours to get here, the ride is gorgeous. You only get about 30 minutes away from the airport and suddenly you’re in this beautiful, rolling green hilled countryside.
It really is just like the pictures, which we have 2k of. Also, it’s about twenty degrees cooler here, Australia was too hot for us!
We spent the afternoon at a geothermal park, watching the lakes steam and boil and the mud bubble up and burp droplets everywhere.
Tonight we went to a Maori cultural performance. It was fantastic. We were worried it was going to be cheezy but we were pleasantly surprised.
The haka, a warrior dance specific to each tribe, was intense, to say the least.
We are working on about four hours of sleep, so it’s off to bed early for us. Tomorrow, we are headed to the western side of the north island to do a cave tubing thing. Looks fun!
Posted by dad on December 14, 2009 at 8:49 AM
glad to hear your having fun. ALL good here
Posted by Mom on December 14, 2009 at 10:20 AM
thanks for all your descriptions of the different places. A lot of fun and some scary moments. Can’t wait to see the pictures when you get back. great adventures. love you both Mom