Day 11 February 12th Rotorua from Hamilton

Rotorua Museum

museum gardens

thermal pool in museum gardens



The Green Lake

It was another beautiful day as we awoke in Hamilton and after breakfast we decided to go down the "Thermal Highway" to Rotorua where we had stayed and found so interesting on our last visit to New Zealand.  We parked at the beautiful museum building and wandered round the gardens and thermal pools (with their sulphur odour) before having a snack in the cafe.  Whilst there Christine spoke to a lady who worked in the building and she suggested we visited the ancient redwood forest nearby and two lakes called Blue Lake and Green Lake.  This local knowledge galvanised our plans for the afternoon and we soon headed off to find them.  We came to the redwood forest first which was brilliantly unspoilt and gave welcome shade from the heat - we could have spent a lot longer there.  After a short walk we got back in the car and found the Blue Lake which proved to be very scenic and popular with local boating people. 



the redwood forest

  I will have to add a picture of the Green Lake in the next day or so - it certainly had a green tinge compared to the Blue Lake.  After the time spent finding the lakes it was then time to head back to Hamilton where we went to our local supermarket to buy goods for our evening meal.  This has since been consumed and we are relaxing after another good day on our holiday.