Making our way to Rotorua

We had a slight change of plans and took a quick early morning flight from Wellington to Auckland. The fuel prices here are INSANE! It was actually cheaper to fly (our tickets were $50 each with luggage included) instead of making the 8 (!!) hour drive as we'd originally planned. We ended up saving about $300 by flying and renting a car in Auckland to make the 3 hour drive to Rotorua instead of the 5 hour drive from Wellington with a one-way rental car return to Auckland. It is about $60 USD to fill a TINY car's tank here and the roads are so curvy and hill that fuel economy just is not there.  

Trying to use a payphone- HA!

No travels are without adventure, though. We landed in Auckland and found that Enterprise's location was not an on-airport location. It was about 2 miles away and required a phone call to get a shuttle. That would normally be fine except our phones don't work here. We had to use a payphone for pretty much the first time in likely 20 years. It was HILARIOUS. 

We eventually got our little car and made our way down to Rotorua. The initial drive into town is just like driving into an American town. It was so strange to see a McDonald's, Burger King, Subway AND a Wendy's all right next door to each other in a small town in New Zealand. It turns out the Wendy's is new and they're amped about it. Too funny! 

Getting stocked up on water #Americans

Rotorua is known for its geothermal activity and its redwood forest. The geothermal activity makes the whole town smell of sulphur. It takes some getting used to. It turns out we never adjusted- ha! Jackson thought he just smelled badly for a bit which made me laugh- a lot. I love a good redwood so we took a long stroll through the woods. It was quite pretty. Their silver fern trees are really something!

Silver ferns

Maori sculptures

An easy trail! An easy trail!

The North Island (much more than the South Island) is very committed to keeping its native culture, the Maori, alive and well. All of the signs are written in both English and Maori. A lot of Maori still live in the Rotorua area so it felt very authentic there. It was pretty interesting. 

We decided to go to a nice dinner which isn't something we'd done much. We went to a Latin American restaurant that we'd heard good things about around town. It was quite good! In a huge compliment, their chimichanga reminded me of Chi-Chi's back in the day. YUM! I don't think a ton of Americans make it to this area so our waitress got a chuckle out of our "accents" while ordering and conversing with her. Too funny. :) We're just not used to being the ones with "accents" I guess.

YUM!

The hotel did have a geothermal hot tub that we had to try out. WHOA it was HOT! It got to about 110 degrees Fahrenheit. We had to let our feet float to the top because the bottom so hot we couldn't handle it. The locals like it even hotter. I kept saying if it were any warmer we'd have "people stew" being served! :) It was quite the experience! 

Our room had two beds which was odd. Jackson threw his stuff on one so I just slept in the other. It turns out he picked the wrong one. His bed reeked of sulphur. It was a stink pit! I couldn't believe it when I climbed in with him in the morning for a snuggle. We quickly moved to my bed which was without smell. Oh man, we just laughed and laughed about that one. Again, he thought he just stunk. It was amazing. I think I'll laugh about that for years to come!