Rotorua 28/1/10

After lunch we drove to Rotorua. Parked near the Government Gardens and went to visit them. It used to be a spa. There were several buildings from the mid- Victorian era set in a park laid out about the same time. They obviously take their bowling seriously. There were 5 or 6 flat green pitches. There is a golf course and launch areas for boats to go on Lake Rotorua amongst other things. The buildings were not in the main used for their original purpose. One building was let as a function suite, one was a huge pavilion for the bowlers. The Blue Baths is an outdoor pool and concert venue and used to have a first floor cafe (which did not appear to be in use).
There is an alkaline pool boiling away at 212 degrees Fahrenheit called Rachel's Pool- it could easily have been called Rachel's Poo from the sulphurous smell. Of course someone had thrown a beer bottle in it.You could hardly see the liquid from the clouds of steam hanging over it.

One of the buildings was the Polynesian Spa but we never got that far. We walked into the Blue Baths and bought an ice cream which we ate sat on a Victorian bench overlooking a bowling green that was being relaid, then toddled off to the main building which is now the Rotorua Museum and Art Gallery.
It cost $12 dollars to get in and we must have missed some of it because there wasn't much for your money. I bought Lucy a silver and paua shell ring. Then we looked at the museum shop and had a cuppa in the cafe. One of the exhibits was about the campaigns of the Maori Regiment. So many young men died. There were portraits of all of the soldiers and officers. Many of them were smiling and looked like really nice chaps. Mum and I were talking about how some looked European but had Maori names and some looked Maori and had European- mainly English, Scots & Irish- names. I said there must have been a lot of intermarriage between both lots of settlers, and Mum said she didn't think so, it was like Yorkshire here. Not what she meant to say. I howled with laughter and people didn't tut although they must have thought I was being disrespectful.
After 2 hours the money on the car ran out so I left mother drinking tea and went to put some more money in the meter. When I got there I couldn't as it was one of those no return spaces, so I moved the car into a space right outside the cafe where parking was free! We finished our drinks and walked through the park down to the waters edge. On the way we went over a footbridge spanning a stagnant pool, surrounded by flax plants and saw 5 or 6 adult pukeko with several chicks. These are a native bird standing around 14- 16 inches tall, blue bib, red beak and wader's legs. They move like road runners. They are also pretty tame; we stood about five yards away before they sauntered off. (Francis says they are like pheasants- pretty stupid, always getting run over)
We returned to the car and set off back to Cambridge. We met with the famous New Zealand roadworks on the way back. The maintenance consists of putting tar on the road surface, covering it with a layer of coarse chippings then getting cars and other traffic to drive over it to shove the chippings into the tar. They even move the bollards to make sure all the chippings are run over. No wonder the car hire company said they weren't worried about paint chips! Its unavoidable. Even at 30kph the chippings spay up behind and to either side of the car and they aren't small.
Called at Fran's on the way back to pick up my sunglasses, I'd left them on Tuesday night. Rained when we left but nothing up to the previous two nights. A bit of thunder and lightning but nothing spectacular. Took a cold & flu remedy and went to bed and 9.30pm.