January 21, 2019
Today's final destination was Rotorua, the land of geysers (expected drive time 2.5 hours). We started the day by walking out to the beach to see the sunrise. There was a layer of clouds near the horizon, but they did not obscure the sun. It was quite cool and windy.
After checking out of the room, Heinrich got his chance to drive. He drove to Whiritoa Beach. There was not much traffic, but once again the road got very twisty with many sharp curves. Coromandel Peninsula is full of them. The good news is that it seems to keep the tour buses away. The beach was pretty, uncrowded and quiet.
It was time to say farewell to the beaches of Coromandel. We headed inland and stopped briefly at Owharoa Falls. The falls were very pretty, and it was another place we had to ourselves.
Then it was off to the Karangahake Gorge. We took the Windows Walk, about an hour hike round trip. This was a gorgeous forest with tree ferns. The walk went up an old gold mining route with a large tunnel. We walked on the old mine rail tracks. The gorge views were very nice. We brought our flashlights to use in the tunnel.
Heinrich noticed that we were going to drive right through the town of Te Aroha, where Mokena Geyser was located. So we looked up directions on how to get there. It was a short walk to the geyser from where we parked the car. The eruption is from an old capped well, and it started only a few minutes after we arrived.
We drove on to Wairere Falls, but upon arrival we found the track to the falls was 45 minutes each way, so we skipped it.
On to Rotorua! We took a small detour north of town to Hamurama Springs. We found out they were charging $18 per person to enter, new as of 2018. It used to be free, and there are lots of complaints in Internet reviews. So we skipped it and instead drove across the street to the lake shore where we had a nice picnic lunch.
We drove to Rotorua Thermal Holiday Park, where we will be staying for the next 4 nights. We rented one of the kitchen cabins. It is a small mobile unit with a queen bed and two bunk beds, kitchenette, and TV. It reminded me a little of the budget cabin in Yellowstone. This has better facilities and is cheaper.
In the evening we drove to the New World supermarket to buy food for dinner for 4 nights. Then we drove to
Kuirau Park in downtown Rotorua. This was a great little thermal area with many mudpots, scummy holes, and a large hot lake. All free!
While at the park I heard musical sounds. At first I thought it was someone playing a recorder for entertainment in the park. Then I realized the sounds were coming from a tree, and it was a bird! It was one of the prettiest songs I have ever heard from a bird. Later on I found out it was a New Zealand bellbird. Bellbirds can be heard throughout Heinrich's Kuirau Park video, especially from about 9'00 to 10'30 and 12'30 to 13'30.
Dinner back at the room was chicken tikka masala and rice.
More videos: