Chaos, chaos and more chaos

As we boarded the bus this morning, I told Andy I thought we could just stay in Hot Water Beach. Digging hot pools on the beach is fun, and we could go back to Cathedral Cove, exploring the other coves on the way. And the campsite’s great. This was our third Top Ten Holiday Parks campsite, and it was perfect. Our cabin was amazing; the reception sells beers from local breweries; there was a huge fun inflatable pillow to jump on and it was very close to Hot Water Beach.

Andy got up early to se the beach again. We left camp at 8:30 and made our way back to Tairua where we had a twenty mins coffee stop. Being 9am on a Monday morning, all but two coffee places were closed. The group went to the one nearer the bus, we went to the other one and got two average flat whites.

Back on the road, it threatened to rain when we crossed the pass. A bit of the road was sectioned off due to a small landslide. The heavy rain we’ve had continued to make the news as 50mm of rain fell in West Auckland in just one hour.

We stopped at a viewpoint and it was lovely to feel the warmth of the sun.

We drove to Paeroa and let six cyclists out. Five minutes down the road, Holly asked Simon to go back as she’d sent the cyclists the wrong way (‘All part of the fun”). To be fair, she’s had little time to research a cycling route for them as the road we were on this morning was a detour; the normal road’s closed due to flooding. We caught up with them and what’s even more funny is that they had cycled through a sign informing them that the cycle path was closed due to flooding, so they couldn’t have carried on going the wrong way anyway. With that sorted, we got back on the road and made our way to Te Ahoha (which means The Love). We only had an hour until the cyclists met us there so six of us popped into the i-SITE, got maps and walked up the track to the waterfall. The track was well marked, up to the point when it wasn’t. We continued and saw a river with a small waterfall (we were expecting a larger one). The track continued across the river, but it was quite deep due to the recent heavy rainfall. We retraced our steps, trying to figure out where we’d gone wrong. We still don’t quite know.

We then thought we’d have a look at the town’s geyser. The map indicated we were in the right place and we laughed when we realised that it was the huge slab of concrete near us. The geyser goes every 40 mins, and we were confident we hadn’t missed it by trying to find the waterfall as there was no fresh water about so we sat down and waited. ‘Is that it?’ we exclaimed when it geysered. Yes, that was a pathetic attempt at being a geyser.

On the way back to the bus, I popped my head through the door of the museum. I had been tempted to do that instead of the waterfall walk but the review in Lonely Planet wasn’t that great. By the little I saw, I think they’re wrong and that would have been a better option.

The news greeting us back was that the cyclists weren’t back so we had a bit more time. Andy and I set off to explore. Te Aroha was a booming thermal and mineral spa town in the early twentieth century. There are still many historical buildings and they are well maintained. There are also some nice looking cafes, restaurants and antique shops. Tourists still come to experience the spas. I really enjoyed my time there, and wished we’d had more time to look around. Eventually, however, all cyclists were accounted for and we left 30 mins later than planned (one of the cyclists had made too many photo stops along the way).

It was a race to Matamata where we were picking up a new travel buddy, and where all but seven of us got off for their trip to Hobbiton. We only had 20 mins in Matamata to get lunch. Andy and I found a cafe and sat down to enjoy our sandwiches and smoothies when Holly came racing towards us, asking if we could get it all to take away as two people had missed the bus to Hobbiton and we’d have to drive them there. The reason they’d missed the bus in the first place is that despite being told that the bus was leaving at 2pm, they heard Holly telling us we’d have 20 mins for lunch and thought that applied to them too. We got there ten mins after the tour started so hopefully they didn’t miss too much.

The rest of us continued on the road to Rotorua. We had two hours to explore. As soon as we got off the bus, we could smell the rotten egg smell the town’s famous for. Rotorua is renowned for its geothermal activity and Maori culture. There are many bubbling mud pools and geysers – in town, near town and on the outskirts of town.

We decided to walk along Lake Rotorua to Sulphur Point and along the Lakefront. We did a loop, following the boardwalk path. Hot bubbling water and steam. The lake is rich in wildlife – we saw black swans, New Zealand Scaups, some pied shags and a few other feathery things.

Back in town, I had just enough time to get my dinner for later. It was close to 5.30pm by then so a few places were closed – or hadn’t opened today.

Back at the bus, we got the news that our departure time would be delayed as we were missing a passenger. Of the seven people who didn’t go to Hobbiton, three went on a luge thing adventure. Two of them had cycled back to the meeting point. The third person was to get the bus there. In the end, Holly sent Simon to camp so people could set up their tent and she would stay behind and try to figure out what had happened to the missing one.

Our arrival at camp coincided with the Hobbiton people being dropped off. The group had 20 mins to put their tent up as they were due to be picked up at 7pm to go to Tamaki Maori Village. The Maori experience is supposed to be authentic (read not too touristy). The village is in the Rotorua forest and guests are formally welcomed into the sacred grounds and taken through Maori art forms, ancient rituals and Maori traditions, signing and dancing.

Turned out that the missing person had decided to walk to the meeting point (about 4kms) and had misjudged their walking ability! Grumble, grumble. A few people are not happy with the chaos today (most of which isn’t Flying Kiwi’s fault). This group’s not gelling and it’s quite funny to see.

After seeing Andy off (he went to the Tamaki Maori Village), I went in the hot pools we have on site. That was nice and relaxing. I got chatting to a woman who just got married on Saturday. Her wedding was delayed by four hours due to the rain, and the marquee (which had been beautifully decorated) was blown away. She was cool about it all and was really enjoying the hot pools.

Back at the cabin, I had my dinner and spent the rest of the evening reading my book. Pure bliss.

The perfect end to a truly chaotic day.

It didn’t rain today and we got out of the bus to do stuff so yeah!