Rotorua

We went to Rotorua for the weekend. It was about a four hour drive, so we left early on Friday. The weather was nice and clear making the drive quite pleasant. We had rented a Rav 4 for the trip so we were able to fit all 5 of us comfortably. Meena drove half the way (why was she following this truck?) and after a little coffee break I took over (and there was joyful singing). By the time we got to Rotorua it was a bit dark though but we didn't have too much trouble finding the lakeside house that we had rented. It seemed like it was a bit of a drive from the city but later when we went back to Rotorua to pick up supplies, it seemed a lot closer.



Since Sunita couldn't get off work early, she and Anita drove out later. They only came in after the rest of us returned with the groceries. Meena had brought food from home, we had that for dinner. It was Anita's birthday that day, and we had picked up a cake for her before we left Auckland. It was this yum orange cake and we had it after dinner, after the cake cutting ofcourse :)

Saturday, the weather changed! It was cloudy, cold and there was a bit of rain too. Perfect day to lounge. We had plan to go to the slopes, but they said the weather there was even worse. So we just spend the day in Rotorua. Chu had not done the luge before so we started off with that. It was actually kinda fun going down on the luge with a little drizzle, but sitting on the seemingly long chairlift ride back up was not.

After lunch at Pizza Hut, we spend almost 30 minutes trying to figure out what to do next. Some of us went home to lounge. The others went to a park in the middle of Rotorua to check out some hot stuff. There had been a thermal eruption a few years ago and had left a bunch of hot springs and mud pools behind. It was quite an experience.

That evening we went to the Polynesian Spa and sat in some really hot spring water! Like, really, really hot. 42 degrees. Centigrade.

Sunday was glorious. We had a hearty breakfast out in the picnic table. But we had to leave our goodbye note and head out right after that so that we could make it back in time to say goodbye to Gita who left to work in Australia... It was hard to say goodbye after knowing for four days. It was only four days, but... it seemed like, three.