The city of rotten eggs

We're currently in Rotorua, which is supposed to be the biggest tourist destination in the north island. There are tons of tourist shops, but the whole damn place reaks of sulphur from the various thermal vents, holes and mud bubblers. I have no idea what else to call them, but they're like a cauldron of boiling mud that stinks like crazy. Bring on the tourists!

We did some more photographing and walking around the three big volcanoes, then stopped for lunch in the city of Taupo. It's across a huge lake from the volcanoes, so then we got even more photos. Noticing a theme? We're pretty much all about pics. Our 2 gig memory card is already full. We tried to do some tourist shopping for family, but just couldn't get into it. I did get my customary shot glass, so at least that's taken care of. I was worried. Not sure where we're off to tomorrow, but we're down to 3 and a half days. Short trip, this is.

Just another day of mountains

We ran into another American tourist/traveller yesterday and he said "I hate this country. Every time I think I can't see anything more awesome, I see something else. I'm always stopping for photos." Uh, yep. That seems to be how it works.

We drove from Queenstown through a mountain pass yesterday to the west coast of the south island. All day, just stunning mountains and turquoise colored lakes and rivers. It didn't seem natural. Then, all of a sudden, we come around a corner and we could see for a good distance. After being surrounded by mountains for two days, it was odd to see a lot of sky. Just like that, we were at the coast. It's a little warmer, but not much.

Today, we're off to see a couple of glaciers. I've never seen one, but I'm sure it'll be cool.

We've been staying in hostels, which is always interesting. But last night, for the wrong reasons. To save some time today, we stayed in a place close to what we wanted to see today. Bad move. This place is shoddy, a little smelly and, as E said, "gross." I don't know that it's gross, but not the finest establishment ever. We'll have to step back up to "decent" hostels from now on. Lesson learned: Always ask to see the rooms before you pay for it.

Chilly boxes and invisible penguins

We went in search of at least one of New Zealand's native penguin species. No luck. They were apparently out to sea eating while we were there. Oh well. Saw some great coastlines and drove along the very southern edge of the country, which is about as far south as you can get w/out hitting Antarctica.

But on the way back north, we hit the nature jackpot. On our way to Queenstown, where we're staying tonight, we saw some of the most amazing snow-capped mountains seemingly rising strait out of a long, finger-like lake. Unreal. We tried to load at least one of the probably 100 photos we took, but couldn't' get this computer to work. We'll try at the next stop, but that feature may have to wait until our return. Suffice it to say, we felt like were in a movie set or something. It looked fake. Can't wait to see what we'll do tomorrow. This whole no-planning thing is exciting, but stressful. Hopefully we'll figure out our plans at least a day ahead of time.

Oh, and a chilly box is just a cooler. I just love the name.