Rotorua, NZ

Oh my goodness! I didn't realise I have abandoned this blog for almost a month already. Apart from busy facebooking, October seemed to be a busy month. I had to organise an event and then prepared for a trip to Rotorua, New Zealand. It was a conference that my company sent me and my colleague to. As usual, I always have mixed feelings when I need to travel. Happy that I can visit NZ but I know I will miss the two guys at home like crazy. The day I arrived KLIA, I was practically running from the plane to the arrival gate to meet them. It felt so great to be home again.

Back to the NZ story, after much consideration, we have decided to go to Rotorua one day earlier and make the most out of it. As we know that we will not have the time to look for tour packages after we arrive, we booked a day tour online before we depart. It cost us NZ$225/pax (RM472), which included all the entrance fees, a lunch and transportation (pick-up and drop off at our hotel). It turned out that we were the only tourists of the day. We got a mini bus and a tour guide all to oursleves.

The tour included visits to (now here comes all the funny names, which I can hardly pronounce):

• Wai-O-Tapu Thermal Wonderland
• Waimangu Volcanic Valley
  
• Rainbow Spring
  
• Agrodome
• Te Puia

Other than those places, we also visited the Mount Maunganui, the nearby surfers beach and the Port Tauranga, as part of the conference's field trip.

The smallest aircraft I've ever boarded-The Beech 1900

Inside the aircraft-That's the first time I saw the cockpit.

Aerial view of Auckland

A thermal pool at the Wai-O-Tapu Thermal Wonderland.
There are many thermal pools with different colours
due to the different types of mineral contents

Another thermal pool which is yellowish and orangie.


The Lady Knox Geyser near the Wai-O-Tapu.
We were told it erupts at 10.15 a.m. sharp everyday.
After the visit I know why. After some introduction
to the visitors, the guide pour some chemicals to activate it.


Waimangu Volcanic Valley. The walk around the area took almost one hour.


Another colourful thermal pool at the volcanic valley.


The most beautiful scene of the day.


That's me and the tour guide at the Waimangu Volcanic Valley.
A little bit like Jurassic Park scene in the background.


The Rainbow Spring. The fishes in the pond are Trout.
We saw some native birds and a Kiwi bird here.
I thought it's a small bird but the Kiwi is the size of a hen.


The Agrodome where we saw a sheep shearing show.


The Pohutu Geyser at Te Puia.



A cultural performance at Te Puia. A group of Mat Salleh
tourists paid for the show and so happened we were
walking by and watched the free show.


The lovely surfers beach near Mount Maunganui


Another shot of the beach. Took this photo in a moving bus.


Lovely sky at Port Tauranga.


One of the many spectacular scenes.


A common sight in NZ


One of my favourite shots

The grand finale-There were some fireworks near our hotel on the last night
we were in Rotorua. Photo was taken in the hotel room.

The runway at the Rotorua Airport.

Aerial view of Rotorua