Rotorua to Auckland: Bubbling mud pots in Kuirau Park, Okere Falls,Walk around Mount Maunganui, Karangahake Gorge walk and swim

We left our youth hostel in Rotorua in a hurry to get to church. There was an Anglican church listed as part of the typical tourist itinerary right on the edge of Lake Rotorua, famous for its Maori carvings St_Faiths_Anglican_Church,_Ohinemutu,_Rotorua.. 

Inside the church: beautiful carvings and stained glass windows

We found out they had a service at 9:00, so we packed up quickly and went. It was a great experience. Friendly, warm-hearted people, a great sermon, and a bilingual service half in Maori, half in kiwi English. I got a better idea of how the pronunciation works and learned the word for God: Atua. Rich thinks Maori would be great for Scrabble, since there are lots of words with just 2 vowels, e.g. ai, but one would never use up the consonants that give the most points. I noticed that the minister kissed all the Maori congregants at the end and shook hands with the Caucasian ones, although at least half were mixed race. They invited us to morning tea afterwards and we chatted with several people. The lady sitting next to us has been living there for 40 years and I asked her if she liked it, since some people call is rotovegas for all the tourist hotels and souvenir shops on the main drag, but she said that there were 13 lakes around and plenty of non-tourist areas. 

Rotorua is famous for geothermal activity and there are vents all around the city. Afterwards, when we were walking in the park looking at bubbling mudpots and hissing steam vents, we met a couple we'd seen at church. Turns out that they are Americans, she a Lutheran seminary student in SF and a friend to one of my students and he a cs worker at Dreamworks. We had a long conversation with lots in common.

Steaming vent just outside the church

Hissing, bubbling mud pots in the local city park

We got a late start and tried to pack too much in on our last day, making a late arrival back in Auckland instead of a straight 4-hour drive, but it's hard to pass up all the treasures. We stopped at yet another waterfall. We tried to pass it, but couldn't resist. They're all different.

Okere Falls

Then we drove north to the coast to see Mount Maunganui. We were told it was only a 1 hour walk around this extinct volcano at the headland to the harbor, but stopping for pictures of crashing waves against the rocks, eating yogurt on a beach made entirely of shells, looking for a whole shell of a certain kind, taking pictures of sailboats and fishing boats, getting our feet wet... We decided we didn't have time to swim. So many places we would have been happy to linger for a couple of days.

Volcanic rock formations on the beach walk around Mount Maunganui

Eating yogurt on the shell beach

No sand, just shells amid the volcanic rocks

Then we drove for an hour for a planned stop for a walk in the Karangahake Gorge. It's an old mining area, and the short walk we picked took us over 3 suspension bridges and through an old gold mine tunnel (torch required) with lots of historical markers by bits of mining equipment. There were lots of people swimming in the river, so we broke down and decided it would refresh us to stay awake for the drive back. 

Walking through the old mining tunnel at one of the air shafts

One of the many suspension bridges, common in New Zealand

Got back at 9:30, still with a smidgeon of light, dumped all the dirty clothes in the washing machine, and made dinner out of the leftovers from our ice chest. The rooms we have now are right next door and the mirror image of the one we had before, so everything is backwards, a little disorienting when exhausted and trying to cook and unpack.

Rich is taking the car back to the rental outfit and is going straight to work after that. I get to laze around and skype and play recorder and do grocery shopping. Great trip.