8 June 2008 - TAKING IT EASY!

8th. We headed down the pacific coast highway and done alot of sight seeing, we even saw a wild pig. We went to Hot water beach. You can dig a your own spa in the sand and it fills up from underneath with warm water. We arrived as it was getting dark so we gave it a miss. There was alot of people in pools chilling out and drinking. If we had arrived early it would of been great to just sit in your own pool with a crate of beer and just chil-ax.

9th. Washed all our clothes in the laundromat, filled the van AGAIN and went on our way. We stopped at a gold mining town and sat on a viewing platform waiting for a scheduled explosion at the gold mine which was very big. We waited 40 minutes after the set time, gave up and moved on. We did make some peanut butter and jelly sandwiches today and they are good. Yum Yum Yum!\

10th. Today was a completely relaxing day. Writing post cards, feeding the black swans and reading our book. The swans were bigger than the ones back home and they hissed and flapped there wings at me. Drove through a town called Bethlehem then settled down in Hannah's bay. Lake Rotorua is just perfect.

11th. It was another couch surfing experience today with a family called the Sucklings. I washed Eggy and we headed for the city. We parked on the outskirts to avoid paying parking fees and happened across a park called Kuira which has alot of thermal activity. Hot pools, hot water lakes, bubbling mud and lots of steam. We enjoyed our walk around the park and it was all free. We arrived at the Sucklings at 6pm with a sponge cake in hand. We met Jeff, Vicki and little Michael. Had coffee and cake and was entertained by Michaels magic tricks and ninja turtle moves. We showered and was in bed by 10pm. They were nice people but a little hard to communicate with.

G.MABE