Rotorua day 1

We got on a bus and drove from Auckland to Rotorua. Beautiful country. Cows, lamb, horses!! Along the way, we stopped at Hamilton Gardens. A beautiful collection of themed gardens. Everything here is in early spring, so it's very beautiful! The best was the Surrealism Garden...it had moving trees, oversized items, and just fun. The Egyptian Garden was a very close second.

From there, we stopped at a Kiwi Hatchery. A kiwi is a flightless bird about the size of a chicken. They are nocturnal and close to extinct, so we only got to see the ones being medically checked. The size of egg they lay is crazy big!! Equivalent to a human birthing a 34 pound baby! No thanks!

Dinner and drinks at the hotel. We are gearing up for tomorrow, when we will watch the New Zealand All Blacks rugby team compete for the World Cup!!! Our tour leader is VERY excited!Read more