Te Aroha to Rotorua

Travel blog about our trip to New Zealand in October/November 2008
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Pieter
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Te Aroha to Rotorua

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28 October 2008 - Rotorua, New-Zealand

Day 10 of our holiday, first it’s time for a damage report. Camper life isn’t easy, it is and stays small, the lumps and bruises show for it. Where? Bruises on the back and the knee, lumps on the head and a bruised tow. Furthermore, through all the bouncing on the road I’ve got my kidneys in my neck and my balls in my stomach :lach2: . luckily the roof of the campervan is raised, otherwise we would need a bigger hat. The road workers from Eersel could learn a lot over here, even they can’t get so many potholes and bumps in the road surface.

But all this won’t spoil the fun we’re having, the alt in the evening is back to a tenor in the morning and we are happy to go on the road again. Today we left for Rotorua, here we want to stay for 2 days to take a close look at all the geothermic activities. The weather was very beautiful today with a bright sun in the sky and some magnificent clouds, ideal for all the stops we want to make. First we went to the Waihere falls, but the hike to the falls would take some 45 minutes and because there is still a long way to go we decided not to walk up to the falls.
We could see the falls from the park site and took some photos, including the surroundings, because it’s very beautiful there.
After a detour a friendly motorcyclist helped us on our way again and so we drove up to Matamata in the hope to get a glimpse of the Shire. The only thing we saw was the welcome sign which stated Welcome to Hobbiton, but any directions to the place were missing. The farmer askes for 20NZ$ per person, but isn’t smart enough to get some directions in place.
By the way, more people have this problem, 3 kilometres in advance they let you know there is a roadside café ahead, but not at the site itself. You’ll get a glimpse of it when you past it and by then it’s too late to drop the anchor.

Bethlehem was by accident our next stop, where we fixed ourselves a cheese and onion sandwich, which of course was very tasty. It was here where I had a strange meeting and to be honest, I still don’t know what the meaning of it all was. We were getting ready to leave again when all of a sudden a woman stood next to the campervan. She didn’t say anything, nodded hear head, smiled at me and pointed at the campervan.
When I asked if there was a problem I didn’t get an answer, but she pointed again at the campervan. After Margreet poked her head out of the door she smiled again and crossed the road. Here she started the lawnmower again to finish the lawn. I know I’m brutally handsome and very attractive (… :lach1: :lach1: -M-), but this was weird.

After a good laugh we got on our way to the Bay of Plenty, where we took a stroll on the beach, overlooking the Southern Pacific Ocean. There were people fishing with an ingenious device. They had a little floating device with a battery operated motor and a timer and wile this was going out into the ocean they attached lines on the main line. After the timer finished, the float stopped and the lines could then sink to the bottom. Fun to see and very ingenious.
It was very lovely at the beach, but we couldn’t stay to long. Back on the road again we were heading to Whakatane, where we made stop for some gas. The nights are chilly, last night we had some frost, but that’s oké, it gets some personal contact :knip2: which is good and very nice when it’s cold outside.

Because the weather is really lovely we took a sit on a terrace and drank a lovely glass of ice cold pineapple juice, meanwhile looking at the broad back of a lady, who did everything she could to keep this broad back :lach2: , and a sparrow trying to pinch something from her plate, but it didn’t stand a chance!
Because we didn’t want to arrive late on our next campsite we went on our way again, the last leg of this trip wouldn’t be fast because of the winding road, plus the stop we wanted to make at lake Rotoma. The lake was sparkling in the sun and we even spotted a beautiful place to live, just above the lake with a beach, but that’s for when we hit the jackpot :knip2: .
Last stop, Rotorua, and after some searching we found a campsite, not the one we intended because we couldn’t find it. Because it’s not a very good one we’re already looking for another place to stay.
We’re going to ignore all the touristic stuff around here, because we are more interested in nature. Culture is also big here, but what we don’t know we’ll find online.

I think there’s plenty to read again, so it’s time for me to stop. I’ve still have to sort the photos and make them smaller for uploading, after which they will be available for you. It seems all of you are waiting to hear from us every day :lach2: (P)


Oké, my time to tell something. First of all that darn lady at the Bay of Plenty, I think she was going for a quickie with my MAN in OUR campervan, unbelievable. I bet she thought she was living on the Bay of not Enough .. :lach1: . I think she hadn’t seen me, because I was busy with the sandwiches .. but when I got my head out of the door she left without saying a word! I still don’t get it.
But oké, the day began really cold, with wet grass from the rain yesterday ergo, it’s all grassy inside the campervan and we only got a soft brush. On the floor there is carpet laying over the linoleum, I wonder who thought of that?? Only the linoleum would be enough, which is easy to clean. Not very practical, but that’s the English influence I guess :sad1: .

It was nice to talk to Dyan and later to Heit & Mem over the phone and this morning I’ve spent the remaining time on the prepaid card with a phone call to Marijke. We were just up and she would go to bed within the hour, weird to think about. The headaches were going very well until now, only the last 4 morning I had to take an injection just before getting up.
With all my stumbling about in the small space ( there is no hiding in the bathroom :lach1: ) Pieter is also awake very early, which means our days start early. This might be the reason for being corny as a camel with three lumps early in the evening!
The facts for who’s interested, here are the links to the last, the current and the future campsites, because our original schedule has gone overboard and we will not be staying here for two nights.
This is a crummy campsite on the bypass of Rotorua and we want to leave as soon as possible.
Yesterday campsite: www.tearoha-info.co.nz/HolidayPark (which was very nice), today: www.redwoodparkrotorua.co.nz (which we’ll forget) and tomorrow we hope to stay on the most luxury campsite near Taupo: www.taupodebretts.com We have high expectations regarding this campsite.
Plenty to do for the Google mappers :knip1: :lach1: . Tomorrow we’ll be visiting the thermal parks, we want to see what Mother Nature is cooking up around here.
The Maori shows we leave for what they are, we can read up on their history and most of these shows are just for the money ( I’m sure they mean it all to be very serious ). Point is, we want to get away from the crowds and the fast driving cars, we have those plenty at home. Furthermore, they all seem to have V8 engines and they make a lot of noise! All in all it shows that our schedule sucks :lach1: . (M)

PS, the “fush and chups” are excellent, internet sucks and very expensive. I think there are some guys here laughing there pants off about all the people that are dumb enough to pay what they ask for.
Today we only will be uploading this story in the “internet café” , because Wi-Fi sucks on this campsite. After uploading we’ll check the comments if there are any and that’s it. (P)

PS 2, the next blog will follow in a couple of hours.
Don't put your mouth into motion, before your brain is in gear.
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