ROTORUA

The drive from Hamilton to Rotorua is very beautiful. The road is surrounded on both sides by green hills, trees, cows, and HUGE amounts of sheep. You pass through small town after small town and each one has a Tip Top shop. We spent a little time in Tip Top shops......eating ice cream. Tip Top has so many different ice cream choices that we would never dream of.....Hokie Pokie, PassionFruit, and Goody Goody Gumdrop. We managed one or two days without Tip Top ice cream cones, but it was hard.

We stayed in a very nice hotel in Rotorua called the Novatel. We decided to stay there because we could purchase a place at a Hangi Maori dinner. This dinner is cooked under the ground with coals. The dinner had an after dinner show that was typical of Maori dancing, singing, and history sharing.

This picture shows the area the food was cooked underground. The buffet allowed you to choose what you wanted from venison, lamb, pork chicken, potatoes, salad, kumara (similar to sweet potato), soup, rice, steamed pudding, carrot cake, pavlova, and fruit. The meal was very good.

Johnny is looking just a fierce as the warrior.

John and me posing with the Maori Chief---Johnny has one

of these Maori skirts and should wear it at the next family party.

These were beautiful Maori maidens dancing with the warriors.

Brittney did beautifully learning to do the Poi dance.

John was already a Haka expert.

We had a great evening celebrating the Maori culture. The next morning we began our journey to see the geyser and hot pots outside of Rotorua. The rotten egg smell is in all parts of the city. I am one of the lucky ones that likes that smell. By the time we left the next morning, both Johns had a headache from the smell. We had the best breakfast of the trip at the Novotel breakfast buffet. I think John and Johnny each had 4 return trips for food. We all loved it. As we were getting ready to leave the hotel, we went in to the bathroom and met these adorable, funny women who were getting ready to run a relay. I had to take their pictures because they were so funny.

These cute runners had on superman underwear, tutus, and fairy wings. They were good sports to let me take their pictures.

John and Brittney waiting for the geyser to explode. A park officer explains about the geyser and then he adds soap to the funnel. There isn't much time between the soap being added and the geyser erupting.

The geyser shooting out hot soapy water. Old Faithful won't have to worry about competition.

The geyser is in the background.

We piled in our car and drove down the road to the hot pots. There are hot pots that have wooden paths you are able to walk on to view each pot. We took about an hour and a half walking to look at each hot pot. It was a cold day, but a fun day.

I loved this particular hot pot with its kiwi green color.

Brittney and I are doing her mom's "Girls Rule" pose.

We then drove on to stop and see these magnificent falls.....Huka Falls. This water is so powerful that it provides 60% of the hydro-electric power in much of the north island. It is such a valuable resource for the people.

Our stop for the night was in Taihape where the 3 Righteous sisters live. Taihape is known for having the largest corrugated metal boot. Taihape is the world's gumboot powerhouse.

We went visiting Denise and Jodene Chase and had a marvelous reconnection. We visited for about two hours and laughed and cried together. What amazing wonderful women.