Hamurana

Gorgeous nature anywhere - that would be kind of a good description for the day. I've spent the whole morning and afternoon with Stephen, who operates "Real Rotorua Tours" and takes travellers to non-crowded nature spots. In the morning, when a french girl was also joining, the focus was on forests, rivers and lakes, in the afternoon, when I was the only customer, the focus was on geothermal spots. The absolute highlight of the day already was the first: Harumana, an amazing forest with native New Zealand- as well as Redwood trees, a beautiful river and at the end of the trail the Harumana springs that make up the river. The three of us were the only people over there and could enjoy the colors, the birds singing as well as the silence. For the first time in my life, I saw black swans, but there were many other birds as well. We spent more than an hour over there, I could have stayed way longer! The next stop was Okere Falls, the highest waterfalls in New Zealand that are commercially rafted. We followed a nice trail in that valley. After some hot chocolate and biscuits that Stephen provided, we drove to a viewpoint between the Blue and the Green Lake. The light was not optimal though, the differences of colors were not to be seen clearly. We stopped by two more lakes and then made our way back to Rotorua. Séverine, the French, and I had lunch together at a Vietnamnese take away, then she headed on to her afternoon program and I met up with Stephen again.Read more