Day 3
Rotorua
11.02.2011
22 °C
Hello again! I’m a little behind as I haven’t managed to find anywhere i can get online since I last updated. So this will be a brief update on what has been a superb three days, in which we’ve travelled almost all the way down to the south tip of the north island.
On our third day we went to a town called Rotorua, where we decided to do some mountain biking.
Most of the towns and cities we’ve been to so far have tourist information centres called ‘i-sight’, which is pretty handy. We asked there for their recommendations in terms of mountain biking and they directed us to some company on the outskirts of the town called Planet Bike – sounds pretty major and legitimate, right? Well. We pulled up in what was a dusty car park and there was just a large truck with this brand-name painted on the side. After a few seconds one of us murmured; “Well this must be it...” Anyway, as has been the case a few times so far, first impressions were not to go by; lovely chap running it, fantastic quality mountain bikes (GT) and not a bad price.
We then took the map and headed up into the mountains and thick forest on what is supposed to be (and I’m not surprised) the best mountain biking in NZ. We were out for three hours and we were knackered. Em took a bit of a fall and grazed her leg, but other than that it was perfect!
After this we started heading towards a national park called Tongariro, on which we would embark on the Tongariro corssing, the following morning at 07:00am. An early night was needed! Especially after the bike ride. Just in case I don’t sum it up properly and for anyone who is interested, here is some info - http://www.tongarirocrossing.org.nz/?gclid=CM2X76Dj_6YCFQEGbAodkBtKeA
When we arrived at the park we had pretty much driven past nothing for about an hour and a half, very strange. So when we got there and saw people that was enough of a relief, but we then found our accommodation that we had booked and it was brilliant. I would compare it to a Centre Parks chalet, but without the toilet, shower and kitchen...Basically a bed in a wooden hut, but it was cute and right in the middle of this national park, with mountains all around us and a fast stream running around the back of our little hut. We ate crackers and smoked salmon Philadelphia and called it a night.
Posted by cagardner 00:44 Archived in New Zealand
