Rotorau, Whaka, Wai-O-Tapu, Hobitton, Tongariro Crossing

As you can imagine 4 girls travelling in a small Diahtsu car didn't leave too much room - especially as my bag is so long it doesn't fit in the boot area even if nothing else in it - but we managed. And there was not a make up bag in site!!

The Lake House Hotel - our very cheap hostel in Rotorua which was like an old haunted hotel but was run by really friendly laid back staff and in a good location on the outskirt of the town centre.

The view from the Lakehouse Hotel balcony - over Rotorau Lake. Rotorau is built in a thermal volcanic area and the lakes and streams bubble away and steam rises out of the street drains - it also smells constantly of sulphur (so I am told!!).

The Whakarewarewa Thermal Village (and that's not even the full Maori name!!) - but everyone just calls in Whaka!

Lots of interesting Maori statues around the village and on the buildings. The Maori's don't have any written history of their cultures and each village's story/history is told in the carvings on the buildings.

The Whaka village has a long tradition of 'guiding' and have always been welcoming to foreign visitors showing them around the village and other areas. One of the traditions that came from the early visitors to the village was 'Penny Diving' - where the tourists through coins into the lakes and the local kids dive into retrieve them.

A Maori meeting house - where the tribe would meet to celebrate weddings/birthdays/greet guests or discuss war options with rival tribes.

A Thermal Microwave - the steam and heat produced from the volcanic sulphur is hot enough to allow the locals to cook anything in the ground - even bread!! They call this 'Hangi' and we had a traditional Hangi cooked meal whilst at the village - the food was similar to what you would have at home - chicken, potatoes and veg but cooked differently!

Veggies like this corn on the cob can be dropped into the thermal pools and boil very quickly - and surprisingly enough there is no taste of sulphur on the food.

The Maori Cultural Show - the dance moves used come from the old war preparations by making aggressive moves and very ugly aggressive facial expressions - the hope was that the enemy would be scared if that didn't work they would be mentally prepared for fighting and have their adrenalin flowing.

Some audience participation - only the men were allowed to take part in this dance...

Meeting the locals.

Saying goodbye to Jay and Simone who left us to go off on their own adventures.

A lesson here - never sit behind someone eating ice cream in a moving car!!

Wai-O-Tapu - which means sacred waters - one of the many thermal areas to visit around Rotorua n- lots of pool craters, blowholes etc.

The Champagne Pools.

At least the entrance fee including getting a sauna.....

The mineral lake - all the colours vary just a short walk apart due to the different chemicals produced by the volcanic activity.

The Lady Know Geyser - quite impressive to watch just how high this shoots up hot water. It was discovered by early miners in the area who saw a little gurgle of water from the hole and put down some washing powder to wash up and the nearly had a heart attack when this resulted in a full eruption of the geyser......they still use the technique of adding a little powder to stimulate this geyser into action for the tourists.

You wouldn't want to go for a mud bath in these mud pools will temperatures above boiling point!!

So as sad as I am as a Lord of The Rings fan I couldn't pass by Hobbiton and not stop - this is the farm where 'The Shire' scenes in the Lord of the Rings movies were filmed. There is not too much of the set left as part of all the filming contracts was the immediate removal of all sets after filming finished but due to bad weather some of the work out here was halted and then by the time they were able to come back so many people had started visiting the site it was decided to keep a few of the Hobbit houses as a tourist attraction.

The Shire - Chom Poo Moo things she would have made a good extra as a Hobbit in the movie - but as she is a bit of a gossip I'm not so sure she would have been able to fulfill the secrecy agreement that was part of the contract - none of the people in the movie were able to tell anyone about their involvement till after the release of the final part.

It is a stunning setting - miles of rolling fields and no sign of any modern life (telephone poles etc) which is one of the reasons it was picked as the set.

Andrea went hunting for one of the Hobbits - she likes men with really hairy feet :-)

The view from Bilbo Baggins front door - the locals had no idea that this movie was being shot here as the farm is so big and remote and as army trucks were being used for a lot of the set development they had been told it was just manoeuvres practise!! They only realised when they saw the scenes through this door and recognised the mountain range in the background.

Though there are 35,000 sheep in New Zealand none of them past the auditions to be in the movie - they flew in a different breed of sheep as they wanted 'The Shire' to have an old English feel!! That's a lot of disappointed sheep.

I got to feed one of the baby lambs.

We certainly got lucky with the weather on our trips as there was a big storm on the way home.

The start of the Tongariro Crossing - one of New Zealands best one day trekks. As it is quite busy we opted for an early start and got dropped off just after 6am - luckily it was high enough that we were above the early morning clouds.

But there was no need to worry as quite quickly the sun came out and we had some amazing views.

Mount Ngaurhoe - Lord of the Ring fans may recognise this as well - Mount Doom in the movie was based here and a lot of the scenes set there were filmed in this area. Chom Poo Moo thought it must have been a challenge for poor Frodo and Sam to climb up here as they are only small like her!!

There were not always nice paths to walk and here I managed to slip on my bum going down the steep hill!!!

Andrea with a little more concentration manages not to copy me and stayed on her feet.

The Emerald Lakes.

Chom Poo Moo wanted to know what the reference in Lord of The Rings to 'Dwarf Tossing' so she got a little demonstration!!

So many beautiful views on the 18km trekk - hard to choose which one's to put on the blog.

Then out of nowhere - about 3 hours walk from the end of the trekk we came accross some workmen doing some maintenance work on the path - all the equipment gets helicoptered in but we never found out how the workers get here - a 6 hour trekk each day to get to work - no wonder only a small section of the walk has a path!!

Our luxury cabin and fancy sports car.

After lots of trekking someone obviously needed to get there washing done so used the fence as a washing line!!

We hadn't had enough walking so next day we set off on a much shorter easier walk around another area of the National Park.

No bridge over this section of the river - luckily it hadn't been raining too much so we managed to get across without getting too wet.

It's not often you get a Dragon fly sit on your hat - this little guy was very curious of the strangers in his land!

Mount Ruapehu - a popular ski resort in the winter.

A few more still to go......