The personal and professional website of Douglas Van Bossuyt
Somewhere up in those clouds is Mount Doom. It seems appropriate that we couldn’t see it due to cloudy weather. We stopped at a pul-off for lunch in the hope that we’d see the clouds lift. It never did.
This road was pretty epic to drive.
Heading down from the high mountain plain, we went through rolling farm country.
And even saw a rainbow!
Kristen and I stopped in Rotorua for the night. We found that the town has a liquor ban in effect on most of the downtown streets and in the parks. Evidently they have a spot of trouble with public drinking.
Rotorua is famous for being in the middle of the North Island’s geothermal area. Next to the campervan park we found mud pots and pools bubbling away.
It’s a good idea to not wander too far from the track lest you find yourself falling into a mud pot.
The mud pots are stinky, as Kristen points out in this video.
Be all that you can be! Be part of the NZ Army!
No one has told New Zealand that the Concorde no longer flies.
Time for a pint!
Pint glasses make good lenses.
It looks like Rotorua fancies itself the Las Vegas of New Zealand.
Fish and chips time! We had to fight to get the ketchup. In New Zealand, as in Australia, it is called tomato sauce. How quaint.
Later that evening we relaxed in the hot tub at the campervan park.
And then played on the playground.
After having gone on the previous cave tour and getting up close and personal with glowworms, Kristen and I found it a bit of a let-down to do the actual Glowworm Cave tour. After being shuffled through some uninspiring caves, we were loaded onto an aluminum boat with 20 or so other people and sent through a water-filled cave where we couldn’t take pictures. The above photo is looking out down the river where we exited.
The boat that we took through the cave. Seriously. If you’re going to this area, check out the other cave rather than this one. This cave was cool and all but the other was way better.