Little Lolly's Small Adventures: A drive and waterfalls

A snapshot of today's route but not the actual road route

It was raining when the taxi fetched us from our B&B accommodation but it didn't put too much of a damper on our day. We were looking forward to exploring and seeing where the road would take us.

We drove to Te Puke and then headed along small roads to Raparapahoe Falls where we took a walk down into the gorge and along the river to the falls. (By now the rain had stopped.) It was a pity we didn't bring towels otherwise we would have swam in the natural pool below the waterfall. I was tempted to strip off and then drip dry afterwards but I was a bit of a 'wimp'! And Paul wasn't keen on going for a cold dip either!

We headed towards Rotorua and stopped to Okere waterfalls where we did a nice walk along the river bank above rapids and falls. The area is a good place for white river rafting but we didn't see any rafts whilst we were there. The river was in full swing, swollen from recent rains.

On reflection, I am glad the Maasdam headed to Auckland a day earlier, rather than cruising around White Island. We saw quite a bit of storm damage; trees uprooted, broken branches, a couple of roads were damaged and washed away at the sides.

We headed to Rotorua where the smell of pungent sulphur brought back a few memories from when I visited Rotorua a few years ago. We found free WiFi at KFC and surfed for a hotel or B&B for the night. Accommodation in Rotorua and its surrounds are pretty expensive but we managed to find a place, a few kilometres away, which was reasonably priced.

Panoramic view of the hotel garden and lake from our room

The hotel (VR Rotorua Lake Resort) was back towards Okere Falls, in an area called Mourea. The hotel is situated on the shores Okawa Bay on Lake Rotoiti.

We weren't disappointed. The grounds of the hotel were beautiful and we were upgraded to a lake view room at no extra cost. There was a small swimming pool as well as a hot tub in the courtyard of the hotel and we had a bit of a 'bubble' in the tub soon after we arrived.

We are tired now. I'm full of cold and want to rest but unfortunately though there is a bus-load of tourists staying at the hotel and they are speaking very loudly, others shouting to their friends from across their ground floor rooms. We ended up closing the room windows to mute some of the sound rather than allowing a nice cool breeze in.

We shall see what tomorrow brings!

PHOTOGRAPHS

Raparapahoe Falls