Rotorua

We arrived in Rotorua late afternoon, and were instantly hit with the smell of sulphur from the thermal pools. Apparently it is pretty much constant so living there can't be too much fun. We decided to stay at a hostel which let camper vans camp in the car park and, despite having all the hostel facilities available to us, we cooked dinner out the back of Carlos in the car park. After a pasta dinner, and knocking up some falafel which we had bought, we went for a walk into town, mainly to go to the isite to make use of their free wifi. We also had a wander around the centre, in what is quite a pleasant town. After walking back to the hostel, and watching a bit of tv, we headed to bed. 

The next morning was quite an early start, for me anyway, as I got up for the World Cup final. After a fairly dull 120 minutes I was back at the van ready for breakfast. The weather was fairly good so we decided to head to the nearby park where there are loads of thermal pools. It's quite an odd place, with various pools filled with bubbling water everywhere and surrounded by steam, almost eerie. It was a cool place to have a walk around though. 

The weather had got even better in the afternoon, so we drove down to nearby lake rotorua for a picnic, and after eating lunch, we went for a walk around part of the shore. The lake itself was pretty big and looked quite spectacular in the sunshine. After a pleasant afternoon we went back to the hostel, ate (cooked in the kitchen this time), watched some my kitchen rules Australia, and then went to bed. 

The next morning we headed for the coastal road towards the east cape lighthouse, hoping that the good weather would continue.