Rotorua, North Island, New Zealand

16th November – 17th November 2017

Once we finally made it to the bus stop, we had a little wait before we boarded the bus from Mount Maunganui to Rotorua. It was only a short journey, so within an hour and a half, we were there.

After we got off the bus, we literally had to cross the road to get to our hostel – good hostel searching from Joe this time. We were able to check in, but we couldn’t go to our room yet, as it was still being cleaned, so we put our bags in storage for a while. When we checked in, the lady at the desk gave us a voucher for a tour company called ‘Peter Pan’; although we weren’t interested in any tours, particularly in Rotorua as we were only staying there for one night, we wanted to have a look anyway, as apparently there were freebies on offer.

After we had dropped our bags off and had been shown around the hostel, we went for a walk up the street to the Peter Pan office, stopping in a few other shops along the way. When we got to the shop, we looked at a few brochures and had a chat with some of the people who worked there about different offers. We also managed to collect some other vouchers for bars and restaurants in the area, including one for a free drink. We spent a little time in the shop, looking at different tour offers in other areas of New Zealand, before heading back to the hostel for lunch.

Back at the hostel, we ate some of the leftover fajitas from dinner the night before; however, we still had some left after lunch, so decided we would have to have them again for dinner, so that we didn’t waste them – I don’t think we will be making fajitas again for a while! Once we had finished lunch, we were able to go up to our room, so we took our bags up and left them in there.

Once we had settled in the room, we went back out to explore Rotorua properly. Rotorua is known for its sulphur hot springs and the smell that comes along with them – it is a very smelly town. We walked in the opposite direction to what we had in the morning, towards the lake. As we were walking, it started to rain, which was very annoying as the views weren’t very clear.

When we got to the lake, we sat there for a while and enjoyed the rainy views. There were some geese-like animals in the water which were huge, so we stayed well clear of those. After we had sat for a while, we started to walk along the lake front, towards the sulphur geysers.

Unfortunately for our noses, we could smell the geysers before we could see them. The smell was so strong at some points along the walk, I couldn’t bare it. Luckily, it had stopped raining by the time we reached the geysers, so the views from that side of the lake were much more beautiful, as the sun had started to come out. Some of the geysers that we could see were so hot, the water in them was boiling, which was weird to see as the lake water which was right next to them was cold.

We stayed at the geysers for as long as our noses could stand, before we carried on a bit further around the lake. The path that we followed led us by the lake and through the woods, to a park.

After our walk, we decided it was time for a café trip, so we went back to the original point we started at, on the lake, and found a café. We ordered drinks, and sat outside and enjoyed them in the sunshine.

As it got later in the afternoon, we made our way back to the hostel as we had some things to sort out for the next few days. We spent some time at the hostel sorting ourselves out, before walking to the supermarket to do more food shopping – it feels like we spend a lot of time in supermarkets, but we can’t keep our food fresh for long as we move about so much, so we have to buy it often.

After the food shop, we went back to the hostel for dinner – more leftover fajitas. We thought it would be a good idea to cook some of the food we had just bought and keep it in Tupperware boxes, while the kitchen was quiet, so that we only had to heat it up when we wanted to eat it.

Once we had eaten dinner, we chilled out for a little bit, before heading back out into Rotorua. On a Thursday night in the town centre, there is a night market, so luckily, we were in town on the right night. We wandered to the market and looked at the different stalls. We ended up treating ourselves to dessert there: we shared a piece of chocolate cake, which we think might have had cheesecake in the middle, and then we shared a sugar and lemon crepe.

After we had finished at the markets, we wandered down ‘Eat Streat’, which is the main street for bars and restaurants, where you can sit outside but you are still under cover. One of the bars on Eat Streat, was the bar which we got the free drink voucher for, so we took advantage of that and had a drink in there.

Once we had finished our free drinks, we walked back to the hostel to get ourselves ready for the next part of our adventure. We packed up and got a relatively early night, ready for an early start so that we could collect the car we are hiring for a four-day road trip around East Cape!

We woke up early the next morning, so that we could collect the car as soon as the hire place was open. We got ourselves up and ready and set off walking at about 7.40, after we had done some research for the rest of the day. It only took us twenty minutes to get there, despite the app saying it would take us forty; we’re starting to realise it’s not the most reliable app, but it works when we don’t have wifi, so it’s good enough for us.

When we arrived at the car hire place, we literally had to sign a couple of forms and we were given the key – there was no explanation at all into how the car worked or what petrol it took, or anything and everything was written in Japanese. We didn’t realise any of this until we had driven away, so there wasn’t a lot we could do about it at this point.

After collecting the car, we drove back to the hostel to collect our things and check out. While Joe brought the bags downstairs, I made us some bacon butties for breakfast, before we set off.

Once we had eaten, we loaded up the car and headed off on our four-day trip around East Cape.

One night in Rotorua was enough for us. The weather was a little bit annoying, but in the gaps of sunshine that we got, the lake looked beautiful; it was just a shame that it smelt so bad. We were happy with our visit though and we thought it was worth it for the night. Time to move on now though…

To travel is to live, Katie x