Rotorua
Checked out of Huka Lodge this morning (Yes, there' s been a day without an entry!)... but there's a reason: yet another migraine attack!
We had a super morning in the windiest city on the planet: Napier. We went for a guided tour on foot around the art deco centre. Napier was flattened by a massive earthquake and rebuilt over about 2 years in the early thirties. Art Deco was still in vogue and used reinforced concrete rather than brick. Anyway, despite James howling round the city, it was a great tour.
 
Before we left, the wind picked up to the usual ridiculous level, and we set off after our coffees were blown of the table.
I think it was partly the stress of gripping the wheel so tightly that did me in, because by the time we reached the swankiest (and definitely the most expensive!!) hotel in New Zealand I was starting to suffer... after a lie down and some of AstraZeneca's finest Zomig I fet alright and stupidly enjoyed my dinner with a couple of gin and tonics and shared a bottle of wine with Catherine. Bad move, because I woke with the most fearsome pain in my head in the middle of the night, and it was with some effort that I managed to compose myself for our short drive on to Rotorua. So my lovely break from the camper van wasn't quite the relaxing treat I'd imagined.
Rotorua is perhaps the smelliest place on Earth - on any other day this would've been fine, but the rotten eggs flavoured steam clouds were almost too much on this particular day!
 
So it was with greenish hue I managed a walk around the Maori village, watched some singing and dancing (with James clapping in all the wrong bits and shouting "More butter" for some some reason), before retiring to the top of the van with a cold flannel on my head. Catherine went walking round the town and said next to perfectly clipped lawns would be bubbling pools of sulphurous mud! Kind of like 'Craters of the Moon' but smellier.
After my R&R we walked into town and fed James most of our dinner later he'd finished his!
5:22:37 PM 
|
