hot springs

the plan for today is to drive either north to hot springs or south to a volcanic area. we decide on south. navigational confusion leads us north, to Hell's Gate geothermal park.

first, though, it's breakfast in town. for those who came in late... "town" is rotorua. today is Thursday 12th March. I'm using a swype keyboard for speed and hoping to avoid too many ridiculous typos. and not worrying about upper and lower case.

so, breakfast in town. at a cafe with paintings on the wall and an artist painting "guard your mind"?! in the corner. several of the paintings provide a social conscience message, we suspect there is a message in, guard your mind.

we are in town so that Deb can get a new battery for her watch. it's done while we are next door eating breakfast. by a man who seems to know what he's doing, he wears a loupe(?).

we drive... north. to Hell's Gate. we follow a guide for 90 minutes, well worth listening, he's very interesting. we're not sure if we paid extra for the guided tour. i think it's an entry fee and a guide goes round now and then.

steam, mud, sulphur and hot water. amazing!

unfortunately we forgot to bring hats, left them back at the motel. so we get a bit pink. yes, it's another cool but sunny day.

where to next? somewhere for lunch? we drive on along the road, following lake hoitytoity or something like that. it's a pleasant drive through forest.

we reach a small settlement and a beautiful view across the lake. no sign of cafes or even shops. we turn back.

back past hells gate, back to the main road. there's a shopping centre, we stop. have pie and sausage roll for lunch in Papas Cafe, a little place in the corner of the shops. a nice little cafe to suit the very ordinary shopping centre.

we buy milk and biscuits in the supermarket. plus indigestion and headache tablets for Deb, this time she's just a little bit crook. poor Deb :-(  we forget to buy a daily paper -- for the crossword, we have read the news.

then home --via Neil hunt park, where the walking will be based. just to see where it is.

home, to rest and recover for a couple of hours.

we go out to dinner, to eat streat again. this time we eat at a meat place. Deb has steak, i have Moroccan minced lamb burger. it's okay, i wouldn't go out of my way to have it again. i prefer my meat with nothing more than salt and pepper. and a bit of charcoal :-)

after dinner we walk round town. tonight is street market night. if we'd thought of it we could have had dinner in the markets... but we agree that it's better to sit in a comfy restaurant.

we take time to read about eat streat, very interesting. specially designed and built as an eating area. including underfloor geothermal heating. with retractable roofs for any weather conditions. it has a very pleasant vibe.

back at the hotel, we plan for tomorrow. nothing too strenuous. then we will register for the walking, in the late afternoon.

some more relaxing... and that's another day, done.

Nick Lethbridge  /  consulting dexitroboper
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"The beautiful thing about learning is that nobody can take it away from you." … B.B. King
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