New Zealand Explorer Motorhome Tour - Days 11-12

Before heading to Rotorua we popped a few miles north up the coast to the headland at Opito Bay, where we were rewarded with the most beautiful white sandy beach at Otama Beach making the twisty drive well worth it.

We drove through beautiful forest to our next stop at Rotorua where we were whisked off to the Te Puia Thermal Reserve for dinner and a Māori cultural performance. The evening ended by the reserve’s hot springs hoping for a display from the Pohutu Geyser. It did not show but we soaked up the atmosphere with our Maori host’s singing whilst warming our bottoms on hot rocks and supping hot chocolate in the steaming darkness.

The following morning I scouted out a shop selling $25NZD slow cookers so we can get some meals cooking whilst we’re out exploring by day. The campsite cooking facilities are like nothing we’ve seen on sites back home with ovens, microwaves, toasters and some pots and pans; but with a long forest hike ahead of us we would be glad not to have to cook after our exertion.

We teamed up with a couple of fellow travellers for the 11.5k Tokorangi Pa woodland track that started through a stunning Redwood plantation.  We saw many tree ferns, pheasant berry, highly scented yellow flowering gorse and even some bluebells.

With dinner already bubbling away in the crock-pot it was a treat to soak my tired limbs in the campsite’s sulphur-rich hot mineral tub before the group briefing on the route for the next day.