Across to the sulfur springs

 We left the capital of New Zealand, Wellington, early this morning at 8am.

The first while of our drive today were through the hilly green landscape we had have for the last few days

Our first stop was at a park for bathrooms and hot drinks

This park in Levin had something for pretty much everybody including furry four legged family

As we drove along the center of the Northern Island we passed a windmill very much like the ones I have seen in Amsterdam 

Taihape was the name of the town we stopped next

It was just a small town we stopped by a train stop that had bathrooms and picnic tables

As lunch was provided for us. It was gotten from a group that is a charity. For each meal bought they provide a free lunch for a needy school child.

Then we drove on a road they called the high desert road

It reminds me of driving some of the Utah highways. It was the first area I had seen that was not lush greenery 

Taupo was another stop to use the restrooms and stretch our legs. We parked right in front of a gelato shop, so of course we made time for ice cream too

This is lake Taupo which is said to be home of some of the best trout fishing in the world

We only drove a short way until we stopped for pictures at this falls

There was a bridge over it about half ways down 

This is the other half, where the whitewater seems to end is a drop off

We arrived in Rotorua and had less than an hour to get settled into our hotel room before we left for our evening activities at this place.

This is the view outside the dining room where we had dinner

We had a buffet with many Māori foods

Then we experience a Māori greeting ceremony 

With the chief of the family greeting our leader

Some of the woman in our group got a poi ball lesson

While some of the men got a Hoka lesson 

The the men did some dancing for us

The woman did a true poi ball dance

Also a stick dance

Then we went outside and our guide pointed out the southern cross to me. This isn’t the best picture, but an iPhone took it through some geyser steam

We had hot chocolate while watching a light display on a part of the geysers 

Kiwi got into the picture with the stream in the background

It is almost impossible to see in the picture, but in the center of the steam two geysers are shooting up very near each other

That was our day today, except our bus driver on the way back to the hotel had us all singing “the bus wheels go round and round” as he drove the bus around the traffic circle several times. As you can guess it was not very busy on the roads in Rotorua tonight.