Rotorua

Our first week in NZ was spent in Rotorua. We stayed with our friend Nan (from Colorado, USA) who had a posh time share apartment which she generously shared with us. Then we bought our own campervan, more on that later.We looked around the town which has a strong sulphur smell due to the mud pools and bubbling activity under the earth. (It has been the only place where the smell outside the campervan is worse than the inside!!
Nan and I explored the museum of Art and History. This is a view from the top of the building. In the cellar, we looked around the pipe network which used to supply the building(once a spa retreat) with hot thermal water and mud baths.
We also went to Whakarewarewa which is a thermal reserve and a Maori cultural area. Maoris live in the village while we tourists look round. We saw a Fantastic display of singigng and dancing in a very small hut, very underplayed, but some indcredible voices which brought tears to our eyes!
We also went to the Rainbow Springs Kiwi Encounter. Here they are trying to save the kiwi bird from extinction with no funding from the government. The kiwi is a national icon.So many companies use it and everyone identifies new Zealanders as kiwis, I was really surprised noone of note was sponsoring such a noble cause.
Some of the other photos are of Aranui cave (in the Waitomo District), full of stalactites and stalacmites.Steve and Em are looking awe-struck! The Waitomo district has 300 limestone caves. We went in a boat into one cave to see hundreds of glow-worms, but no photos were allowed there. Amazing sight, we all had to be very quiet while we sat in dakness watching the tiny lights on the ceiling, amazing.