From Auckland to the Coromandel and Tauranga and Rotorua

http://www.kiwi360.com/Kiwi360/WELCOME_IDL=7_IDT=538_ID=3025_.html
http://www.hellsgate.co.nz/
http://www.tepuia.com/things-to-see-and-do/index.html


We left real bright and early and decided we really want to stop at this Kiwi orchard!!
Seems Kiwi 360 is the only outfit that promos the locally grown product on our local scene. anyhow had an interesting tour round the garden and then a very good gander through the shop, where - yes - we succumbed to temptation and bought a few things!! I also wanted to take a pic like this
<-------- however as you will see from the next picture - on the day we arrived they put up scaffolding to Repaint the thing - tough luck!!



The scaffolding is up. They are going to repaint it on 2 colors - half as it is and the other half with the new zespri kiwi fruit colors!!









The Kiwi fruit is a surprising packaged food and has some amazing healing properties - if you can trust the sales blurb!! Here is the orchard. The seasonal pickers are employed for three months and can earn about NZ $ 15 per bin filled - which should take about an hour to fill. And they do literally strip down all as in ALL kiwi fruit of the vines.






Our lunch table - often we would grab a snack on the side of the road or beach or wherever it was convenient to stop.
I was the healthy type and had a orange and some blueberries and maybe a bite of chocolate plus some form of drink!!
This made for no dishes and no washing up and easy peasy meal!! Keen observers will spot my Scouting survival gear on display, and yes it has been on two trips to Europe and is a very handy gadget to take well anywhere really!








One cannot describe the smell via a picture. Lets just say the sulfur and other things combined remind me best of rotten eggs.
You really have to see the action to go with this to appreciate the whole thing. This particular blub blub action was snapped in a place just north of Rotorua (hells gate) and was fun to watch for a while. mamabear was very impressed with the whole thing - smell and all!!
Basically a huge swath of NZ sits on volcanoes and a very thin earth crust (about 1000 to 1500 meters) - and here in this part (Rotorua) it heats the water up to 150 degree Celsius and THAT makes for good thermal action on the ground. With it comes the smell. However local maori being ingenious also used the boiling water pools for cooking and some of the pools for healing!! I can imagine - after a succesful raid on another tribe for food and woman - a soak in the hot pools to wash away any lingering aches and pains would just be the right ticket!! Hmmmm I am tempted - especially the mud bath pools - but im sure there are some restrictions re who can smear how much where on whom!!