12 - Tirau and Rotorua

Today, we had a traditional Kiwi breakfast -- muesli, then hopped in the car for sightseeing. We first stopped for coffee and sweets at Tirau, which is a tourist destination for locals. The town's novelty is its artistic display of corrugated iron sculptures -- each business downtown has one.

At Rainbow Springs we fed trout, saw kea, swans, tui, paradise ducks and a Kiwi (the bird, not the fruit)! Too bad none of the Kiwi pictures turned out. This was also the first chance we had to see an actual Silver Leaf Fern, New Zealand's emblem.

We had a picnic lunch in a city park in Rotorua (which is NZ's Yellowstone). We walked around looking at the steaming water and the boiling mud pots. The park is cleverly called the "Scented Garden". What? They didn't think we'd notice the scent was sulfuric? There were also two pools where the hot water was funneled into large sitting areas. We sat and soaked our feet for a few minutes.

Because it was late afternoon before we arrived in Rotorua, we opted not to pay the entrance fee, but rather peak over the fences and hedges to see the main attractions at Te Puia. They have a geyser similar to Old Faithful where it spouts regularly and for several minutes at a time. We had dinner at Gerry's - fresh tarakihi fish and chips, then packed our bags and left for Whangamata. The road to Whangamata winds through the mountains, so we were happy when we finally reached our destination.