24 degrees, cloudy am, sunny pm
Got up early still smelling faintly of sulphur to head up the mountainside via the Skyline Gondola using some discounted tickets we bought for an early start. Early being 9 am. Turned out to be a good idea as the place was almost empty and we had it mostly to ourselves for the first hour or so. Very peaceful ride up in a gondola lift to a lookout point overlooking Rotorua and the lake.
Then we went did the first of our four luge rides down the mountain starting with the scenic track. Back up to the top via a ski chair lift and then down again a further three times on the intermediate track. Great fun but four trips was enough especially as more people were joining us towards the end.
Took a stroll around the hillside paths in search of the Silver Fern, the national emblem of New Zealand. Took some finding but we did track one down eventually after asking an employee. Not an exciting plant!
Back down in Rotorua we found a park that the guide book said had hot lakes and mud pools that could be paddled in for free but the paddling area was closed so we headed off to find a swimming lake off to the north of Rotorua. Had a long drive round a couple of lakes but couldn’t locate the swimming area and as the weather was closing in we decided to call it a day and went back to the hotel and sit on the balcony to find the lake gently steaming.
