'Fartytown' aka Rotorua and Lake Taupo

Following the beautiful scenery in Coromandel, we parked Frodo in the sulfur smelling city of Rotorua. This town is well known for its bad smell from the local thermal pools, for Maori culture, hippie like attitude and a lot of spas. We didn't really do as much as we could have in this town, but made sure to get as much of the smell as possible. First day we headed about 30 km south of Rotorua to Wai-o-tapu Thermal Wonderland which has a large amount of different craters, pools, steaming mud and other extremities. The entrance fee is a bit on the expensive side (about $27/person), but it is worth it (you'd be surprised how one starts paying more-than-usual attention to discount vouchers during travelling :)). There are several paths/walks one can take throughout the park. The longest one lasting up to 2-3 hours I believe. The tracks take you through numbered sites for which there is a brief explanation as to what it is all about. I guess the main attraction is the always steaming Champaign pool with slight reddish rim formed from all the deposits. If I recollect correctly, the pool is about 60m deep, so quite a pool. After walking through this wonderland for 3 hours, we needed to get some fresh air into our lungs and our legs some needed rest, so we decided to enjoy the facilities and services of SPA QE organization. Jenni went for a therapeutic massage and I did a mud bath. SPA QE offers cheaper prices for treatments than the world known Polynesian spa, so it is a good bargain. However,I have to say, the mud bath, was not all that it is made out to be. Sitting in a bath of mud water (not really mud) for 20 mins does probably not equal a nice massage, but at least it was half the price (mud - NZD 45, 1 hr massage - NZD 80).

After we spoiled ourselves in Rotorua, we were off to our next destination, Lake Taupo. On the way there, we made a quick stopover at famous Huka falls which were quite spectacular, even though it was raining a bit. The water there goes from a wide river which is about 4m deep into a very narrow passage which is 10m deep, so you can imagine what that does to the water :). Very impressive and the water is so blue.

We had only one goal at Taupo and that was to catch some fish. The area here is very well known amongst the fish enthusiast as a trout capital of the world. We were determined to give it a go, but were quite shocked by the prices some of the fishing guides charge, so ended up hiring a couple of rods and spinners from a local Rod&Tackle shop where we also got an expert advice on the common fishing spot. I was so excited, I really could not resist and that night already went out to a spot to try the luck. After a couple dozens of casts, I was able to hook one, but it fell a few centimeters short off the allowable size, so my 37cm catch had to go back in. Neverthless, it got us pumped for next day of fishing. The following day was a georgeous sunny day, which was a nice change from the previous overcast streak. We found ourselves a nice spot between two bays and went after our business. After 3 hours of casting and reeling, no fish shown even a slight interest in our spinners, however, a few trees got the hang of snagging our spinners. Even though we saw some trouts swimming around our base, we ended up empty handed and helped put up some spinner Xmas decorations on the nearby trees. At the end of the day, it was a great day, but a bit disappointing as we had to settle for another pasta for dinner :) with no fish.