Glenn left at 5.55am and drove back up to see Cathedral Cove. When he arrived at 6.30am there were around 15 campervans already parked up with their occupants making their way to the same Cove.
We were driving south today on the thermal explorer highway and had a quick couple of stops along the way. One of them being at a town called Paeroa that is famous for the manufacture of a soft drink known as L&P. It has a comically pretentious advertising slogan "world famous in New Zealand" and we were on the lookout for the giant L&P bottle in the town. Yep we saw it and then headed further south.
Arriving at Rotorua by early afternoon we visited the The Redwoods, at Whakarewarewa Forest, which has magnificent Californian Coast Redwood trees and a great variety of walks and mountain bike trails. Following the Pohatoroa track we encountered a first glimpse of some of the geothermal activities that Rotorua area is famous for, a faint bubbling and gurgling hot mud pool and excitedly took several photos of it. When we reached a lookout point over the forest we bumped in to a jogger who gave us instructions to a better lookout. And was he right, a brilliant view over the thermal hot springs area with geysers blowing, brightly coloured sulphur ponds bubbling and steaming and the smell of rotten eggs in the air.
As we drove to our next home stay with Hiliary, we were quite smug that we had seen this from a great vantage point and for free.
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| Cathedral Cove |
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| Cathedral Cove used in Narnia film |
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| The mud pool experience |
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| The geyser letting off steam |
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| Dwarfed by the Redwood trees |
Yes the redwoods do dwarf you Yvonne. The pictures of the Cove and mud pools are Awesome. Thanks for sharing.
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