Road trip to Rotorua!

Helpful driving advice on the forgotten highway!

Keeping our eyes open and trying not to puke!

Cool bird!

Farmland everywhere!

Using the underground thermal activity to heat food!

Pretty church in Maori village.

Dig your own hot tub, o.k. footbath at a hot water beach on the lake!

Hot Chocolate, lucky boy!

Our Kiwi adventure, with a little trick photo!

Some people refer to this area as Rotovegas, while it is more touristy than much of New zealand, not even close to Vegas.  Things we learned ...
1) Everywhere in New Zealand is farther away than you think. (We pulled into our cabin at 11pm (An hour after curfew)

2) Although most of New Zealand is coastal, most of New Zealand is not flat!

3) Wild goats are very cute and look like they are right from a Billy Goats Gruff picture book!

4) Flooding attracts really cool birds!

5) The nearby volcano erupted exactly 99 years before Peter & Shelley were married.

6) The Kiwi bird is a very strange bird indeed.  It has wings that are so tiny he can't use them and has a claw at the tip.  Has feathers that look like fur.  When explorers first sent a sample of this bird back to the mainland they were accused of playing a hoax.

7) Every town here, no matter how small seems to have an incredible playground, pool, and garden.

8) Inland New Zealand probably looks a lot like Vermont used to look.  In between towns and mountains it is nothing but farmland.  But I have to wonder, who is drinking all this milk.

9)  There are not very many people here.  We travelled to a touristy spot at a touristy time and rarely had to wait in line or traffic.

10)  After touring around a bit, we feel lucky we chose Opunake, just the right mix of everything that is important to us.