Big bottles, spooky tunnels and stinky parks.

We farewelled our small but immaculate place at Whitianga, wept at the nearby petrol station as we re-filled the car, and then worked our way south down the east coast of the Coromandel Peninsular.

The way consisted of coastal vistas from the sweeping mountain bends, as well as mobile traffic jams (known as campervans) and foolish/freakishly fit cyclists - complete with panniers (that's bike-talk). The highway left its coastal path at the picturesque township of Tairua (with volcanic peaks sitting just off-shore), before heading through the mountains once again to Kopu and then south to Paeroa.

"What's at Paeroa?" I hear you ask. Just an over-sized homage to the L&P brand of lemonade! If you can cast your minds back to the old lemonade icy-poles, you'll be able to conjure up something akin to the L&P flavour. 

I've very patient children.

Not far down the road from Paeroa is the Karangahake Gorge, with an abundance of walks through a series of old gold mining and prospecting sites (and spooky tunnels, lots of spooky tunnels).

We opted for the Windows Walk - which purported to take about an hour (return or each way remained to be seen). There were a few swinging bridges spanning the rivers before the walk proper - which Hamish took great delight in agitating.

Hamish confirmed the bridges do indeed swing.

We came across some ruins with a complete lack of any safety features, so naturally the kids were all over it.

My thoughts alternated
between "oh my god" and
"oooh - that'll be a nice picture!".

I've no idea either.

We left the path (so rebellious) to take a look at the mountain stream, as well as allowing Lily to get up close and personal with a bunch of spiderwebs.

We followed the mine cart rail into a very small and very dark mine entrance. The primary tunnel was dotted with openings, giving a view to the gorge below, but was pitch black for the sections between.

There were many side-tunnels that appeared to just disappear off into the inky distance. One particularly jovial message of "HE IS STILL IN THERE" certainly upped the creepiness factor of above-mentioned side-tunnels.

Well that can't be good...

Nup - we're fine with the main tunnel thanks.

One of the very welcomed
"windows" along the tunnel.

We eventually made it back to the car park unscathed, and set off once again - thoroughly impressed with Karangahake Gorge (not so much with whatever denizen still lurks in the hidden depths of the mountain).

There was a bit of driving to be had on the way from here to Rotorua - with a few of the locals making frequent use of both sides of the road to assist in their cornering, impending hill crests or not. The clouds were looking pretty ominous as we descended into Rotorua - but the rain largely held off.  

ZORB - Rotorua

The chilly conditions (you call this summer?!) assisted with very small numbers of people actually being there, which made for a nice change. After a change into swimming gear (the "summer" zorbs are filled with water), we piled into a minivan that careened up a fairly bumpy road to the top of a hill. There was a guy that appeared to be whipper-snippering the track even as giant, inflated balls went hurtling overhead.

There appeared to be a dual straight track (for racing) as well as the far more convoluted sidewinder track (for completely up-ending occupants). Entry into the Zorb was somewhat less than graceful - attempting to dive into a small opening while not losing your board shorts. The water slooshing around inside was warm at least. We (Jen and I) took on the boys on the dual straight track. They took an early lead - but our "advantageous proportions" saw us blast past them (and nearly knocking down the staff) at the bottom of the hill.

I was trying to shake the image of being deposited unceremoniously through a small, circular opening onto the ground - but couldn't. The sidewinder ride was insane - hurtling towards a ramp, before keeling over backwards and being treated to a heavy-rinse cycle going goodness knows where.

We drove into town, and located Kuirau Park - which is just a normal town park to walk your dog, have a picnic - oh and enter into the pits of Hades. It didn't smell as badly as I had anticipated (although we share a house with two boys so there is that), but Josh put on a superb displayed of wailing a gnashing of teeth regarding the scent of sulphur in the air.

There's our picnic rug back there somewhere.

Travelling down the "Thermal Explorer Highway", we arrived in Taupo - our destination for the next couple of nights. There was a small thermal tub in our back courtyard, the hot water supplied from the subterranean geothermal water-table (fortunately, there was also a cold water tap so we didn't end up broiling). Despite the fact that it had finally started raining - we decided to take a plunge.