Ryan & U'i's Pacific Odyssey: NZ Day 26

May 31

Day – Drive to Rotorua, Brief tour of town

Night – Lake Otakawa DOC camp site

I don’t know how to describe Mount Maunganui. It is a “fun” and “friendly” place, for a lack of better words. Coffee shops, boutique shops, and standard shopping outlets lined the streets. The area is a mixture of a retirement community and a Kiwi weekend vacation spot. It is definitely peaceful with a nice ocean backdrop. There is a beachfront walking path, and a beautiful hike to the top of the Mount adjacent to the Holiday Park. To be frank however, it was like any other coastal town in a developed nation, and didn’t have too much draw for U’I or I. The showers and bathrooms at the holiday park were nice, but by mid-morning, U’I and I were ready to get on the road see more of what NZ had to offer. Hil and J were dying to relax with some down time (driving all the time does get really old), so we parted ways and decided to meet in Rotorua the following day. U’I and I headed out of town, through the busting port of Tauranga (the largest city on the Bay of Plenty, bordering Mount Maunganui), and into the mountains bound for the old “cultural” area of Rotorua, not too sure what to expect.

The drive was really nice, going through several reserves at the bottom of a gorge. The road eventually dropped into a basin, on the west coast of Lake Rotorua. We drove through the town, checking out some of the places we planned to visit the following day. We continued on to the south region of the lake and drove an additional 5km to Lake Otakawa where our DOC campsite was located. The lake and campsite were beautiful and well kept. We were the only ones there, and watched the sun go down serenaded by black swans and small birds. Peaceful times, though it got extremely cold in the van that night (no heaters without power and no power at DOC sites). We bundled up with everything we could. The down comforters kept our bodies warm, but anything exposed (faces, noses, fingers, or toes that might creep out) went numb quickly.