When we last wrote we were flying to Auckland to get our replacement van from Wicked Campers. The whole flight was only about an hour and it was very inexpensive. We arrived in Auckland a little worse for wear and still unhappy with how this has turned out. The driver was good and reminded us how lucky we were that none of us got hurt. Hearing that made us realize we were caught up in sorting everything out that we didn't stop to be thankful for our health.

We arrived at Wicked Campers depot and picked up our replacement van. The guys there were very nice to us. They had our van ready to go for us and even offered to let us stay in the depot overnight. It is a camper van after all. This did help out a lot. It was late and we were tired. We gassed up the van and spent the night in a van depot. As it turns out it wasn't half bad. Jat & April were very welcoming. They invited us in for beer and to hang out. They had beer for us, and we spent the night chatting away about life and the differences between Canada, England, and New Zealand. It was a very nice night. The end of the day this whole experience has brought us much closer to the locals and really gave us a taste of what life and people of New Zealand are all about. They are still the genuinely nicest people on earth.

The next day, we drove to Hobbiton to see the village of the Hobbits. There's a separate blog about that one.

We ended up in the Top 10 Holiday Camp site in Rotorua. This was by far the best of the bunch. Free wi-fi, new bathrooms with loads of space for everyone, nice BBQ's and kitchen, and a great TV lounge with internet kiosks if need be. This was the full service camp site if there ever was one. On top of all that they had for free a large swimming pool and 2 mineral pools. In any of these mineral pools, be careful as putting your head in the water will give you "amoebic meningitis". Best keep your head above water. When we arrived we were tired from a lot of driving and sleeping in a van depot the night before. Felt a little like we were on the run from the authorities, but alas, life just isn't that exciting. We used the mineral pools, and man were they nice! Relaxing and very stinky!

Next day we sampled the town. Rotorua is a tourist town that attracts visitors from all over Europe and Asia. We noticed a particular concentration from Germany and China.  It felt like most people in the camp were German. I double checked Google Maps to make sure we were still in New Zealand and not Bahn, Germany. Luckily it confirmed our location, right before telling us that we used our internet quota and could no longer do any of our other online activities. Naturally, Anna was so pleased with this result! What attracts people here are the thermal pools and incredible spas. The whole town smells like a sulfur due to the amount of pools they have. This is a result of it being an active volcano back in the late 1800's.

We decided on a couple of attractions. The first was "Wai-O-Tapu Thermal Wonderland". This place is full of sulfur pools beautiful pathways. The intense smell of sulfur (imagine the smell of the Banff Springs, but magnified by 10). It's a lot like a constant fart coming from the earth that just never quits. The path ways were beautiful and the pools were so many different colours it was quite impressive. I didn't realize nature did a lot of the things it does here. You have to be careful here as the ground around the pools and along the vast sulfur pools is quite hot (over 100 degrees celsius) and unstable. Most of the pools are craters that formed as late as 1968. The colours are of lime green, lemon yellow, brick red, and cream of mushroom. Mist fills the air with adding a visual element to that pungent smell previously described. 3kms of paths took us about an hour and a bit. It was a very worthwhile tour. If we came earlier, say 9:45am, we could've seen the geysers shooting out of the ground. 

We drove around looking for the gondola using our GPS. The GPS decided to play smart ass and instead of taking us to the bottom of the gondola, it took us beyond the top! We spent a fair bit of time driving through suburbs and school zones and up, up, up these windy hills and roads until we realized we were literally on top of the damn thing! No use paying $50 riding it now!

The last activity was The Polynesian Spa. It is an incredible spa and a world top 10. We went to use their extensive network of thermal pools that look into a volcanic lake. We entered the adult spa that has no less than 6 pools. All ranging from 38 to 42 degrees. There were hot pools, cascading pools, large pools, small pools, all with a view. It was a very relaxing and incredible experience. If you only do one thing in this town, try out the spa pools. They are incredible!

Well that's it for our time in Rotorua. Next stop is to take back the party van and say hello to Auckland!