Slight detour

Upon arrival in Rotorua, we headed to the Whakarewarewa Māori village to learn a bit more about Māori history and culture. The village is at the south end of town, and built around geothermal features. Specific pools are used for bathing and cooking vegetables, and thermal vents are also used to steam food. Steam leaks out of the ground all over! Our guide prepared some corn in the 90C water for us to try. 











We then went for a late lunch at the pub. On the way, I spotted a WSP office!

Isabelle and I took advantage of the geothermally-heated pool and the mineral baths at our hotel. The radiator in our room also worked off geothermal heat. It was super awesome. We finished off the night watching the Sweden-Argentina soccer game. With Canada’s exit from the tournament, we’ve switched allegiance!

The next morning I checked on our route for the next couple of days, and discovered that the roads south of Tūrangi, our next overnight stop, were all closed due to snow. So we are taking a new route instead: Rotorua to Napier to Palmerston North. It’ll be a big driving day, but it means we will pass through the gap of Rohan instead of braving the snows of the Pass of Carahdras. We won’t be able to see Mt Tongariro as closely as we had hoped, unfortunately. It was used as a mountain in the Lord of the Rings. Here’s a few photos from the drive:

Waipunga Falls 

Winding roads


During this drive, I noticed that the livestock in the pastures switched from predominantly dairy cows to predominantly sheep. There’s also a lot more orchards and wineries about. We’ve been paying about $2.60NZD per litre of fuel. It’s a bit hard to swallow, but the cost is worth the scenery here - it’s stunning. The rivers have gone from small but deep to very wide, shallow, and filled with angular stones.  

We took a short stretch in Dannevirke, a town that leans hard into its Nordic roots:



New Zealand’s playground game is strong!

After a long day’s drive, we finally pulled into our emergency AirBnB that we booked in the morning. It’s big, comfy and has laundry and beds for everyone! 

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