Today was a travel day. We flew first to Wellington and then on to Rotorua where we will be staying for three nights. Rotorua has about 77,000 residents and 75% are Māori.
When we were in the Wellington airport, we ate lunch while we waited for our next flight. Catherine said that O.A.T used to spend a few days in Wellington, but they don’t anymore since the feedback the company received was to stay longer in Queenstown and Rotorua. I’m so happy they changed it since Queenstown was wonderful and the four days we stayed there were fabulous.
Catherine has asked us to start conversations with the locals and she gave us questions to ask. 1. What do you love about New Zealand? 2. What is your favorite food? 3. What would you like to see changed in the country.
I’ve been busy asking the questions and so far, these are the answers:
- The people, the beauty of the country, nature
- Pasta, Lamb, Rice and Chicken, BBQ
- I’m happy with the government now, I’d love to see the rivers cleaned of algae, I’d like the government to allow people who have two homes to let the homeless live in one while the residents were at the other home.
Interesting answers to the questions. And today in the airport, the lady I was speaking to said New Zealanders can’t believe that with so many people living in the United States, how can Trump and Biden be the candidates for president? Interesting. I told her most of us agree!
We boarded our plane which was a turboprop and the flight was great. Instead of seeing the mountains and glaciers of the South Island, we flew over volcano and geothermal terrain on the North Island. There is geothermal activity all over caused by the underground thermal springs and you can smell the sulfur in the air.
Our coach took us to the Government Gardens that are near our hotel and we also saw the Rachel Spring. The Rachel Spring (Whangapipiro) is a geothermal pool that is a popular attraction for visitors to Rotorua. The pool is smaller than other thermal springs in the area. The flowers in the Government garden are blooming since Rotorua is warmer in climate than Queenstown was. It was in the 30’s when we left the South Island and now we are in the 60’s. There is a thermal Polynesian spa within walking distance to our hotel, and you can choose to soak in the public bath or have a private couples room. We’ll have to see if we have time to partake.
Our hotel room is beautiful…brand new. They are refurbishing all the rooms so we are lucky to have one of the newly refurbished rooms.
We had a delicious dinner and then it was off to bed. We have a busy day tomorrow.
Rachael Spring
Our jet boat group!!
Pedro our jet boat driver from yesterday.
We have seen a few park/conservation areas in other towns. The trip probably similar but I don’t think you stayed a night in the outback. That was wonderful.
Maybe surpringly, we liked Wellington. I’m surprised they short changed it. However, we really like Rotorua as well. You must have missed the wonderful park/conservation area in Wellington. You are mostly doing the trip in the reverse order that we did but we went in Oct/Nov.