Corncerning Hobbits, Rotten Eggs, and Mt Doom - Part I

From Huntley we made our way East through the back roads based on a locals advice.  We cut out the traffic and driving joy of Hamilton city center and instead made for the small town of Matamata on route to the Bay of Plenty.  Matamata should be a small quiet sleepy town in the central north island farm territory.  However the selection of this town to be Peter Jacksons 'Hobbiton' has transformed the town.  There's now a wide choice between KFC, McDonalds or Subway, and enough coach parking to fill half of Wembley.  We like all the other tourists passed through for a glimpse of this cinematic piece of history.  On route here it was very easy to see how this area could be turned into a part of The Shire.  There are small rolling hills throughout the countryside any one of which look like they could be selected for a film set.

From Hobbiton we made our way South to the larger town of Rotorua.  Rotorua goes by the name of 'Sulphur City' and to quote Mikey 'you can basically let one rip here and noone would ever know'.  Too true, the  city absolutely stinks of rotten eggs.  Rotorua is built on one of the biggest natural sulphur vents in the world.  The local park has bubbling mud pools, steaming eggy geysers and some hot pools you can soak your feet in.  These pools are said to have healing powers by the local Maori of old.  We tested them out but not having any injuries to speak of can't really comment on their healing powers, they were nice and warm though.

After a bit of time in Rotorua admirring the lake and local activites it was time to make a move before the smell started penetrating into our hair and clothes permenantly.  We are free camping as much as possible so nice hot showers are a bit few and far between at the moment.  That evening we headed South 20km to a beautiful free campsite which was on route to our next destination.  With only three other vehicles in the whole site we had a great lakeside view to bed down for the night.

The following morning we set of early for the nearby attraction of Wai-O-Tapu.  We are following the 'Thermal Highway' south at the moment which cuts diagonally (from NE to SW) down through the North Island, so there is no shortage of geothermal activity to be seen.  Wai-O-Tapu however  is supposed to be one of the best and is also home to the Lady Knox geyser.  We arrived early in the morning to ensure we could see her spurt sulpherous water 30 ft into the air.  Outside of the geyser we saw around 40 other geothermal active sites including the awesomly huge 'Champagne Pool'.  A massive steaming circular shaped pool with lots of red and yellow mineral based influences.  Of the other notable  highlights was without doubt the 'Devils Bath' a large pool with what can only be described as a lime green liquid filling it.  Again a natural mineral infusion has occured with some pretty unique visual results.

Heading further South we spent the night at another free campsite.  No showers, but it was on a (very cold) river which allowed for at least a partial wash.

We continued our route south to the city of Taupo.  Taupo is on the lake of the same name, which also happens to be the largest lake in New Zealand.  No matter where we go in New Zealand we never seem to be far from "NZ's biggest... NZ's oldest... or NZ's longest", its nice to recognize your achievements.  Lake Taupo is the crater filled result of one the biggest volcanic eruptions in history some 26,500 years ago.  Its a pretty big lake.  It was also clear blue sky with beautiful sunshine whilst we were there, so we spent some time down by the lake watching some paragliding and playing some mini golf (I won't mention who won).

In the distance across the lake we could just make out the Tongarrio National Park and its skyline dominating volcanoes, our next destination...