From Tauranga to Rotorua

This morning, we drove from our VRBO in Tauranga to Rotorua. We drove through a number of gorges, including Gopi Gorge. Rotorua has a population of 77000, which is about half of Tauranga. The road was narrow & winding, in places. We made it safely, and did some shopping. Then we visited Kuirau Park, which has quite a few geothermal pools. We could see the steam from these pools as we drove into town. The whole town smells of sulphur. Many of the pools were bubbling and were over 100 degrees C. The pools were on walking trails set up around the fenced off pools. We sat and soaked our feet in a cement pool with a water temperature closer to 100 degrees F, and were warned against putting our head underwater to prevent possibly being infected by amoebic meningitis.Read more