Waterfall pool swim and feeding eels

Our route today

We had a nice day today, wild swimming in the natural pool below Owharoa Falls.  It was wonderful.  Children and adults climbed part the way up the rock-face of the waterfall and dived or jumped in.  We didn't though.  We ended up swimming behind the waterfall curtain and sitting on a ledge, listening to and seeing the water falling around us.  It was magical.

A bit later on we took a drive to Waihi and had a wander over to a viewpoint overlooking the opencast gold mine which has yet to re-open because of rockfalls. 

We continued on to Waihi Beach and drove a long the sandspit to Bowentown and had a lovely view of the lagoon and surrounds.

On the way back to Katikati we went to a McDonalds to use the WiFi to check-in our flights online.  Unfortunately Paul's check-in failed for some unknown reason so it looks as if he will have to check in when we drop our luggage off.  If he can't fly then I won't go on my own!

Back at Katikati Naturist Park we took some old bread crusts to the river to feed eels that swim up the river. We had to wait for about 5 minutes or so after throwing the first few pieces of bread before the eels came, swimming upstream to were we were.  It was amazing seeing them.

Afterwards we had a nice soak in hot tubs and a cool swim in the pool.

Sadly we will have to leave this lovely place and head to Auckland tomorrow.  We have a flight to catch the day after.

Photographs

Owharoa Falls

Waihi

Katikati Naturist Park

Hot and cold spring rivers, and a naturist campsite

Hot & Cold river/hot spring

Today it was time to leave Rotorua Farm Stay and see where the road took us.  We stopped to soak in the Hot and Cold spring rivers on the way.  Once again we enjoyed rubbing clay all over ourselves and soaking it off, and relaxing.

From there we headed further north in the direction of Tauranga to Katikati Naturist Park (http://www.katikati-naturist-park.co.nz/) which is a naturist campsite with a few chalets.  The campsite is lovely. It has a pool, sauna, 2 hot tubs, mini golf, a pentanque court, a play area for children,  a river to swim in, you can feed the eels; barbecue facilities and kitchen amenities,  a small shop, etc.

Mini golf at Katikati (photograph off the internet)

After unpacking we had a game of mini golf - Paul won hands down!  I have a problem with accuracy...  One of more permanent campsite owners has a cat which plonked itself down on the mini golf green to sun itself.  We didn't mind it watching our game but we ended up having to play our balls around it - an extra skill we could add to our mini golf skills!

The campsite has WiFi which is great because we can try to plan what we would like to do tomorrow.  However, we had a bit of trouble with the internet.  Paul went onto his telephone and discovered that there was WiFi and there was a prompt to get a voucher code to get access to the internet.  So he went through the motions of getting the code but the code was never sent to his telephone in a text message; and he couldn't log on to get access to his email to see if a code was sent there.  We went to reception to find out what the problem was.  Apparently you had to physically buy a voucher from reception and use the code.  Although the wiFi seemed to be Katikati's own wiFi (even though it was named as such), it wasn't really - they got a special deal from the network for users.  Paul wasn't terribly happy because he had naturally paid money for a service that he wasn't getting.  Eventually the campsite owner agreed to give Paul a voucher to log into the network.  Soon afterwards Paul found that he had also access to the package that he had originally tried to sign up with!

Today's route, more or less.

Oh, a smile a while moment...  One chap at the campsite, obviously batting for the other side, brazenly asked him about his penis tip full piercing. Paul didn't bat an eyelid and said it was fine, didn't hurt. Methinks the chap is going to go to Rotorua tomorrow for one!

PHOTOGRAPHS

Hot & Cold

Getting white clay from the river bank

Mix it with a bit of water to make it more into a paste

Smear the paste on. 

Lovely gooey stuff!

Rinse off and relax.  The clay also works as a good sunscreen
for shoulders and face!

Katikati Naturist Park 

(Photographs off the internet)

Entrance to reception and small shop

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

Sadly the sign has been defaced...

 

Okere Falls

VR Rotorua Lake Resort