Middle Earth is ALIVE!

I have too many photos to post from Manna's visit so I have to write another blog entry to show them off.

The girls went to stay with their Uncle Rodney on his Dairy Farm for the rest of the school holidays. They get two weeks off during Easter - between terms.

So while the kids were away - Manna and I got to let loose and have fun! Unfortunately, we were both suffering from really bad colds... which turned into the flu! We had intentions to walk the Tongariro Crossing - which is an 8 hour hike through craters and volcanic valleys... but we weren't well enough.

Soooo... we went to Rotorua to see the Geothermal activity. The day was a bit cool so the steam was extra steamy coming out of the earth! We saw natural mud pools bubbling up out of the earth. The whole place smelled like sulphur. It was alive with activity! To see a video of some bubbling mud click here. At any moment the earth could open up and eat us live!

No trip to Rotorua would be complete without a trip to the Luge! Manna doesn't have her licence so she had a great time zipping down the luge tracks on her cart. She wasn't as competitive as Brian... so she didn't give me any good races... but we had heaps of fun nontheless.

Brian has family in Rotorua - his cousin David lives there with his family. They were very gracious to let us stay with them for the night (thanks Grant and Kelly for giving up your beds to sleep on the floor in the lounge!). We had an easy dinner at McDonalds (which looks like a Marae)...
before enjoying the Polynesian Spa for a soak in the Sulphur Mineral Pools. Grant came along with Manna and I - and afterward we enjoyed sampling the testers in the gift shop! Grant was a great sport! He loved the fact that we were using him as a model for the products.... as he admitted that his mum would NEVER let him do this!

Yes, I bought some products.

The following day Manna and I drove down to Taupo and stopped at Huka Falls for a hike. To our delight we came across a natural hot river which flowed into the Huka River. It was off the beaten track and not at all a tourist spot. We thought we found a little piece of heaven. Too bad we didn't have our bathing suits! It didn't stop me from tearing off my shoes and hopping in for a wade...





It was like having our very own natural spa pool. Imagine having one of these in your backyard?



Our next stop was a place called "Craters of the Moon" which is like being on another planet. The place is SO alive with geothermal activity... the earth sizzles. To see some sizzling earth click here. New thermal holes appear daily - which is a bit of a worry when you're walking along the trails because it really could just disappear from under you feet and you could end up in a boiling hot mud pool just under the surface of the earth. Notice the sign... it says "Danger Unstable Thermal Area"... Crazy stuff.