{"id":112,"date":"2010-04-08T06:29:00","date_gmt":"2010-04-08T06:29:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.hodson.ca\/NewZealand\/?p=82"},"modified":"2013-10-28T01:30:06","modified_gmt":"2013-10-28T01:30:06","slug":"day-5-auckland-to-rotorua","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.hodson.ca\/Travel\/?p=112","title":{"rendered":"Day 5 \u2013 Auckland to Rotorua"},"content":{"rendered":"

Written by: Nadine<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"Rotorua\"\u00a0<\/p>\n

We have a busy schedule planned for today.\u00a0 After some early morning shopping and breakfast in Auckland, we picked up our rental car for the drive to Rotorua.\u00a0 The drive would take about 3.5 hours, and would be our first experience with a right-hand drive vehicle.<\/p>\n

Below are a few photos of the drive.<\/p>\n

\"P4080388\"<\/p>\n

The landscapes we drove through include rolling hills, lots of trees, lots of cows and a few sheep.\u00a0 We are hoping to see more sheep in the South Island.\u00a0 We took many of the photos through the car windows, so it does not do justice to how beautiful this place is.<\/p>\n

We stopped here for a quick break.\u00a0 The stream was cold.\u00a0 I dipped my feet in, and while it was cold and slimy, it was still fun.\u00a0 Not as cold as Georgian Bay, but cold enough.\u00a0 Dave did not go in the water.<\/p>\n

\"P4075931\"<\/p>\n

\u00a0\"P4075942\"<\/p>\n

\"P4075948\"<\/p>\n

Mom wanted to know what kind of car we got; it\u2019s a Ford Territory (shown below).\u00a0 It was conveniently large for our luggage and very comfortable.\u00a0 We ordered the SUV so we could have a comfortable trip, and also so we could get better views of the many sights we would pass along the way.<\/p>\n

We got the hang of driving here pretty quickly.\u00a0 Dave did most of the driving in Auckland because I was too chicken to try to drive in the city or the motorway.\u00a0 But once on the open road, I took over and it is not too bad.\u00a0 We had an argument over me missing the roundabout turn and Dave making sound effects because I got caught off guard with all the roundabouts here.\u00a0 But I am a pro now.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"P4075956\"\u00a0<\/p>\n

A good part of the drive from Auckland to Rotorua had a canopy of trees over the road.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"P4075961\"<\/p>\n

The speed limit was 100 km\/h.\u00a0 The roads were twisty and at times very narrow.\u00a0 But there were a lot of viewpoints to stop and check out the surroundings.\u00a0 This place is really a beautiful country.\u00a0 And, by the way, the people are also amazingly convivial.<\/p>\n

\"P4075972\"<\/p>\n

I mean it.\u00a0 I can drive the other side now!\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"P4075980\"<\/p>\n

Getting into Rotorua.\u00a0 We are starting to smell the sulphur in the air, but our hotel is in a sulphur fume free zone so it does not smell too much.<\/p>\n

\"P4075987\"<\/p>\n

We attended one of the cultural experience shows put on by the local Maori.\u00a0 It was basically a feast (hangi) cooked the old fashion way with \u2026 I don\u2019t really remember but it was cool!<\/p>\n

Below the \u2018chief\u2019 unveiled the food, cooked in a big pit in the ground, which consisted of chicken, lamb, stuffing, potatoes and sweet potatoes.<\/p>\n

\"P4080510\"<\/p>\n

The food was OK, but I expected more spice.\u00a0 The lamb was very tender and the sweet potatoes had a really nice smoke flavour\u2026 But I was underwhelmed\u2026 I expected something different.\u00a0 They catered too much to the tourist\u2019s taste I think.<\/p>\n

\"P4080512\"<\/p>\n

A simulation of the Maori warriors coming down the river.\u00a0 The photos does not really do the entire experience justice because it was dark, the sounds of the forest were spooky and everyone seemed very quiet.\u00a0 It was well done, but a little too much waiting around, especially in the cold night temperatures.<\/p>\n

\"P4080537\"<\/p>\n

\"P4080553\"<\/p>\n

We got to see the glow-worms and kiwis.\u00a0 Dave and I actually saw 2 kiwis.\u00a0 What really surprised Dave was how large kiwis really are.\u00a0 I did not have any expectations so \u2026. I thought they were weird and very interesting.<\/p>\n

Unfortunately, because our tour through the nature park was at night, which was a fabulous way to see the park, we could not get any good photos.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Written by: Nadine \u00a0 We have a busy schedule planned for today.\u00a0 After some early morning shopping and breakfast in Auckland, we picked up our rental car for the drive to Rotorua.\u00a0 The drive would take about 3.5 hours, and … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[16],"class_list":["post-112","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-2010-new-zealand-australia","tag-new-zealand"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.hodson.ca\/Travel\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/112","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.hodson.ca\/Travel\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.hodson.ca\/Travel\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.hodson.ca\/Travel\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.hodson.ca\/Travel\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=112"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/www.hodson.ca\/Travel\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/112\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1587,"href":"http:\/\/www.hodson.ca\/Travel\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/112\/revisions\/1587"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.hodson.ca\/Travel\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=112"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.hodson.ca\/Travel\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=112"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.hodson.ca\/Travel\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=112"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}