Tuesday, February 8, 2011

Day 34 Tauranga, New Zealand

We arrived into Tauranga while it was fairly dark this morning. Ed, Becky & I had a car rental waiting for us on the dock as we got off at 7:30 am. It was off on another adventure, this time to Rotorua where we headed out to the Wai-O-Tapu Thermal Wonderland. Here we found geysers, fumaroles, mud pots, steam vents and beautiful scenery… This is one active geothermal area. We spent a few hours there exploring all the sights and taking many, many photos before lunch. After lunch we headed out again, this time to the McLaren Falls Park which was closer to the port. The Park is a beautiful scenic nature preserve with a lot of hiking trails and a couple of nice waterfalls. On the way to the falls we stopped in a lovely little town, Te Puke, where we had some refreshments and a lot of good laughs…. What a name. It turned out to be another excellent day. Ed did a fabulous job of driving on the left side of the road and negotiating a gazillion traffic circles… Great day!

 

 

4 comments:

Margie said...

Te Puke Seafoods but that place wasn't too crowded. Loving all these great pictures.

Anonymous said...

Te Puke... oh my! Well I just googled it, and it means "the hill" (much better!). Anyway, looks like you all had a great adventure. What a great idea to rent a car and sightsee like you've been doing, so long as you know where to go and what places to visit. So far, you've definitely gone to some real gems. Thanks again!

Michelle

Jennie said...

Hi Jeff,

You have reminded me with your wonderful photos of the smell of Rotorua, that rotten egg gas smell!
Great photos which I do enjoy seeing each day.

Jennie

Sweets said...

Just catching up on your blog... I just have one question... Was it as good as the Clam Bar???