Our flight was at 10am. Quick drive to the rental car office, they took us to the terminal by van. The terminal was larger than the one at Dunedin, the domestic and international terminals were next to each other and connected. We checked in, got our boarding passes and went over to the international section, where it was quieter, and shared a pot of tea.

No metal detector check, just walked to the tarmac, up the steps and we were on the plane. Flight was longer than I expected, probably cos it was a small plane (one of those with propellers). We were served cookies and tea and eventually we touched down at Rotorua.

Another regional airport, the rental car lady was there with a noticeboard waiting for us. She took us back to town and left us our car -- a 2.2 Camry, much bigger than the Pulsar.

Our motel was the Coachman Inn, along the main hotel street. Room 8 again, same as Christchurch. Room was okay, large kitchen with 2 hobs (yay!) and a spa tub. The furniture and decorations were little old though.

Drove out to town to have kebab, not as good as Dunedin. Then to the information centre and around the lake. North island was definitely more populated and there were a lot of cars and people and much much more built up. On the way around the lake we stopped off at the agrodome and looked at the zorb. I wanted to try, even before coming here, ever since I saw it on TAR; just watched other people today though.

A short drive away to the Mamaku Blue blueberry farm, tried the blueberry wine and liqueur and the juice. Ended up buying some liqueur and the juice as well as some jam and chocolate as presents.

The lake drive was okay, a letdown compared with south island scenery. we stopped a little way for photos, then went to the Blue and Green lakes. Honestly, disappointments.

Still light out, went to Woolworths and bought mussels and lamb chops for dinner. The mussels were the best, so sweet and fresh. We opened the second of our pinot noir, very nice.

***

Leisurely start today, our main aim was to head for Taupo. On the way we stopped at the Waimanga geothermal area and after a short debate decided to pay the $28 each entry to the reserve. Wow, so worth it. The walk was quite long, but well marked and explained. There were 3 stop-off points and a bus took people back to the entrance, so they didn't need to walk back.

The frying pan lake, cathedral rock, and inferno crater lake were awesome. We took the harder Mount Haszard hiking trail between bus-stop 1 and 2, quite steep and harder than we were used to. Then it began to rain. Then it poured. Eeep. We were so glad we had our waterproof jackets cos we hardly felt the rain. We missed the bus at bus stop 2 so we walked the extra 15 mins to bus stop 3. nice. We were very very happy, even though we were damp and hungry.

Short drive in the rain to the prawn farm. Too late for any activities, we had a late lunch of 1 kg large prawns. Quite nice, but not as prawn tasting as they could be. These had pinchers too, the first time I've seen them.

Just about enough time for the honey place before everything closed. It was still raining hard. Bought honeycombs and tried the hokey pokey ice cream - yums. A favourite.

Bback at Rotorua we went to Countdown to buy more mussels and venison. Happy that we had another nice dinner.

***

Today's target was Waitomo caves. It was supposed to be 200+ km but the drive was extremely boring. Nothing to see, windy roads, narrow and winding, rain one minute, sun another.

The cave more than made up for it. The glow worms were astounding. They're just larvae and they make thin strips of gunk that hang down from the ceiling of the cave to attract food. There were thousands of them in the dark, we were in the boat and there was silence and darkness, the glow worms were bright enough to give light. It was romantic.

We were very lucky, there was a fire last wed that destroyed the entire ticket office and shop and it had only reopened again this week. Luckily none of the smoke ended up in the caves. No wonder they were so disorganised. The river level was rising and any higher they'd have to close. And if CO₂ levels got high they close the caves too. We were very lucky.

[ETA: 30 December 2005, some despicable people vandalised the caves, spraying graffiti on the caves and limestone formations, forcing it to close again. So awful.]

On the way out, we stopped at a home farm and bought an ostrich egg. Empty, since we couldn't have eaten the entire egg -- equivalent to 24 normal eggs. We did buy a small ziploc bag worth of frozen ostrich egg that was about a quarter (ie 6 hen eggs). The lady very kindly gave us some herbs from her garden too.

We were very hungry, and by the time we had lunch it was 3.45pm. We headed towards Te Kuiti, the nearest town. After investigating several cafés we decided on the Chinese takeaway. My god -- the mountain of fried rice and the fried noodles without noodles, in-teresting.

Drove the longer but faster way back via Hamilton. Another visit to countdown to get asparagus, mussels, clams and more venison. Couldn't stay away. I fried the venison rarer today, I think I have the hang of it now.

***

Tried making ostrich omelette for breakfast. Very thick. Didn't scramble properly. Couldn't finish it. Heated up the fried rice again, for the trip.

First, zorb! $45 for one trip down. They didn't have the strapped in version, and most people went for the wet one anyway. So they gave me this yellow clingy outfit to change into, I was glad I had a swimming costume underneath.

A Land Rover ride up the slope with 2 other people. When it was my turn, the guide told me to take a running dive into the zorb that he had already filled with warm water. It was stuffy inside, and of course pretty wet.

I chose the zig-zag course, which was supposed to be more fun -- at least it was longer and more bumpy. The guide tapped the zorb and I pushed it down, it was slippery and rolled around a lot, quite difficult to stay on my feet and I didn't even try. I went "weeeee!" all the way down, it was a little dizzy and I think I ended up going backwards. And it was me in this zorb.

Heh, they didn't call it "spin cycle" for nothing, it did feel like being inside a washing machine during the spin dry cycle. It was fun, although I might not do it again.

After the zorb, we popped by the blueberry farm and bought a carton of juice for the trip. I was hungry, so I got started on the fried rice. What a good idea, to pack some food for the drive.

Long long drive to Auckland, only 236km but a lot of traffic and slow moving vehicles. There was even a traffic jam on the motorway on the way into the city, a big difference from the open roads on South Island. Staying at the Kingsgate hotel, much like a travelodge.

Got checked in then drove out to city centre, looked for parking space. Damn, expensive. Eventually we gave in and parked at the Sky Tower. Luckily we validated the ticket at the souvenir shop (bought a few fluffy sheep) and it saved is $11. The charge for 3 hrs was $18 and we only paid $7.

Walked around the very busy city. Lots of Asians and Koreans. Stopped by Starbucks, for veg pie and berry muffin. It was extremely windy by the time we reached the bay.

Bought sushi and sashimi to eat at the hotel, didn't want anything too heavy. Took the car out again after dinner to drive over the harbour bridge and to look for some ice cream but with no luck.

Back to hotel, it's the end of our trip now. Sad but happily satisfied.

***

We got up around 6am, had breakfast (the only hotel that has breakfast included) and set off at 7.30am-ish. It was a miserable day in Auckland, rain rain rain. The drive to the car return office was free of traffic, and the guy there took us to the terminal in the same car.

Auckland airport was the largest so far, but there was a hellishly long line at check-in. Turned out the baggage handling / conveyor belt system at the airport was down. So we weighed our bags, the check-in lady came out of her booth and attached the tag, and then we had to wheel our bags ourselves (following a trail of uniformed staff) to the side of what seems to be the baggage warehouse. Then a window opened and we shoved our bags in. sheesh, first the eftpos system breaks down for 2 hours on one of the busiest shopping days of the year, and then the country's largest airport has a systems failure on Christmas Eve? Not doing well, them Kiwis.

Anyway the flight was full. Day flight, so I only managed to nap occasionally. They fed us well, we had a nice lunch of chicken and cake; tea of ice cream and shortbread; dinner of beef noodles and cheesecake. Food on Air New Zealand has been impressive.

No personal screen, only the large screen at the centre. Had to change headphones a couple of times before finding a pair that worked. Watched most of Bewitched, some of Goal! but wasn't interested in the third film, a little league baseball fatherly film with Billy Bob Thornton.

Most of the time I read Geek Love, which I brought for the trip but hadn't touched at all. It soon captured my interest. It's twisted, yet compelling, and easy to read. It basically appeals to anyone who never wanted to be just a grey, nameless cog in the conveyor belt of life; anyone who wanted / knew / liked it that they're a little bit different. I got to page 306 by the end of the flight.

We took over 2,800 photos during the trip, when sorted and duplicates eliminated we got it down to around 1,600. I've only posted a tiny selection here, I put about 800 on flickr:

Set 1: Dunedin to Queenstown
Set 2: Queenstown to Franz Josef to Christchurch
Set 3: Rotorua to Auckland

***