Once we figured out what looked interesting to do in the area, we checked out of the hotel and drove back into town to try to find something to eat. I thought it would be nice to eat next to the lake, so we started driving down and there was absolutely nowhere to eat. Just hotel after hotel. I just kept going, thinking there's got to be something around. We passed one hotel that advertised a restaurant too, but once we turned in, we realized that the place was under construction. Another eating place that my GPS said was nearby turned out to be nonexistent. And the last place we went to, we went all the way into the hotel and up to the restaurant on the second floor, where there was a janitor vacuuming the floor and we learned that the restaurant didn't open for brunch.

Well, I drove all the way back to where we initially got to the lakeside, and I kept going for literally one or two more blocks and there were eating places galore. D'oh! So we grabbed a nice brunch there. The waitress was really helpful and pointed out that since Patricia had ordered their special dish we also got another free dish with eggs and bread, so I had that. While we were sitting there looking outside, I thought one lady who had been sitting outside to smoke had left her scarf on the chair; she had taken a seat in the restaurant and I wanted to go tell her. But then Patricia pointed out that all the chairs outside for this restaurant had scarves on them. Haha. Oops.

After eating, we drove up to a nearby lookout spot, where we could see Tongariro, all covered up in clouds. It was a pretty nice day next to the lake, so it was definitely a good choice that we didn't go up the mountain.

Up the roads a little ways, we came to a small trail for Huka Falls. It was a very short waterfall, but somewhat wide, sort of like a miniature Niagara Falls. We asked someone to take our picture, and they took probably one of the worst pictures of anybody we asked. They took a picture just when Patricia was reaching up to her hair to brush it out of the way, but then didn't say anything or take another picture to fix it. And that was after I had already helped them take a picture for them. Oh well.

Next stop was Craters of the Moon, which is a geothermal area. I knew we were going to see a lot more geothermal type stuff up in Rotorua, but I had remembered reading about this place briefly when I was looking at stuff to do in New Zealand, so we stopped by. Yes, it didn't smell too nice. Some smoking craters, and a few spots that were bubbling. There was a lot of smoke, so it looked sort of like the valley was on fire or something (but the smoke was white). At one point, I decided to go on the extension trail, which goes up really high. I tried to run up, since Patricia was going along the much shorter trail, but I got ultra tired about two-thirds of the way. In the end, it wasn't that much to look at.

Our last stop at Taupo was at the Honey Hive. Bees are also a big industry in New Zealand, I guess. I had some delicious honey ice cream. They had several different flavors, and I didn't know which one I would like, so I asked for a sample, but the lady told me that they didn't give samples, otherwise they'd run out of ice cream. So I just went with her suggestion, which was honey with pralines in it (I forgot the name of the flavor). I turned out to be really good. But as I was eating it and browsing the store, I wondered if she would have given me samples if I promised her that I would buy an ice cream cone. I even would have taken only half a scoop to make up for the samples.

Besides ice cream, they also had free tasting samples of honey, like ten different kinds. For me, honey is really, really sweet, so I didn't want to try any for fear of sweetness overload. They also had free samples of honey-based alcohol, so I tried a couple. They were really interesting, so we grabbed a couple bottles as gifts. They assured us that we would be able to take it into the US, just as long as we declared it.

After we came out of there all happy and on a sugar high, we started on the drive to Rotorua. In the morning, I had thought that we could go to the Wai-O-Tapu Thermal Wonderland on the way there, but I had forgotten to look up that the geyser eruption was daily at 10am, so we had already missed it. We just drove up to the hotel at Rotorua instead. Hereafter, Rotorua will be referred to as StinkyTown. The whole city didn't smell, but large swaths of it did, due to all the local geothermal activity. Our hotel was right next to some of it. We could open our back window and see bubbling mud pits and a geyser that went off at all times of the day. So it gave us great views, but was also really smelly. I got used to it after a while, but unfortunately, being there also gave me probably some of the most smelly farts I've ever had. =p

After settling down a little bit, we drove into town to the local i-Site to see what kind of activities were nearby. After somewhat planning our activities for the next couple of days, we went on a small hike by the lake. There was more geothermal activity over there. We came across one family that stepped off the path to investigate some of the smoking holes closer, ignoring the warning signs nearby, so we quickly continued off in case something bad happened. There were like six of them, so there wouldn't have been a problem with them getting help even if something did happen.

When we got as far along the trail as was interesting, we turned off and made our way through the downtown area in order to get back to our car. Some lady who we had seen a few times walking along the trail as well stopped us and asked us for directions to some place or other, but we didn't know where it was. It was a little bit hard to understand her (we found out that she was from Korea). Afterwards, when we had gone for a block or so more, I was looking at my GPS and the place she was looking for was right there. I just thought she had something else.

We went back to the hotel to rest a little bit and on the way, stopped by a Pak 'N Save to pick up some supplies. It was a little weird because of the layout. Instead of being able to go to any aisle you want, they forced you to walk past all the fruits/vegetables and the bakery section in a twisty turny area before getting to the aisles. We picked up some water, breakfast foods, and I needed more batteries again. The batteries I got seemed to be a pretty good deal (like $10 for 8), but they turned out to be the worst batteries ever, I think. They were labelled as high energy or something, like the best of that brand. But when I put them into my camera, it right away complained of not enough batteries, although if I turned off then on the camera again, it seemed to be OK. I think activating the lens motor presented such a drain on the batteries that the camera thought they were on the verge of dying. When I put them into my GPS, my GPS would eventually die without ever telling me it was low on batteries. So yeah, I had to come back the next day again to buy the more expensive Energizer batteries.

Before heading out to the last activity of the day, we stopped by downtown and found an Indian place to eat. Being in an unknown area, we were too afraid to order to food spicy, so as a result the curries came out ultra mild.

We went up to Rainbow Springs Park next, since they turned on colored nights that gave the park a different experience at night time. Tickets were good for 24 hours, so we planned to go back the next morning as well. We weren't sure if we would be able to make their scheduled Kiwi tours, since we had other activities planned that would make it a close call, so we didn't buy tickets for that. The guys behind the desk were really helpful, even though at one point they told us that they don't normally work behind the cashier. Guess not that many people buy tickets late at night. They were more like keepers/security guards.

The park itself was pretty nice. There was an open air kiwi enclosure where we got to see some kiwis doing their thing, since kiwis are nocturnal. There's also a fountain where you can drink water from the stream where all the fish are (it goes through filters first). I thought it would be ultra cold but it was only cool.

New Zealand has sheep. Lots and lots of sheep. When we entered New Zealand, there were some signs in the airport that said that New Zealand had like 40 million sheep. As we drove from town to town, we also so a bunch of cows and some horses, but it was predominantly sheep. Sheep are interesting for us since I was born in the year of the lamb (year of the ram? goat?). Patricia is a horse. So I kept joking that she better watch out -- I have 40 million sheep behind me...and I was the king/prince of them! =) The sheep are also very scared of everything. You can drive by in a car and sometimes they'd all start running away. I figure there's some truth in that book that I read (Douglas Adams?) where he talks about sheep being scared by the sun rising.