Day 18. Monday 21st November 2003
Whakapapa Village - Matamata

What a day of contrasting weather! Woke up at 6:00am and it was raining quite heavily. Looked outside and we were in a mist. Jeff went and investigated what was happening and indeed it was cancelled. We were a very disappointed but knew it wasn't worth the risk. Decided to make the most of the day and set off early for Rotorua via Taupo. Roads were alright but not as scenic as the South Island— we agreed South Island was definitely our favourite.

Stopped off at Huka Falls (see the gallery), impressively powerful waterfall but not a big drop. We also stopped off at Craters of the Moon, our first geothermal activity visit. It was quite early in the day so there was only Jeff and I there and we were wandering around in the mist. We were stunned by the steam, sounds of water boiling and moving about. Quite an eerie place and nothing like anything else we've seen before, also quite smelly (sulphuric).

Drove on to Rotorua and the Maori Heritage Centre. Looked around at the crafts and managed to catch the performance, singing, dancing, and the Haka. Saw some carving taking place and visited the Kiwi Bird house. Lots to see around the geothermal area, hot mud pits and geysers, we saw the "Prince of Wales Feathers" geyser going off and that was impressive.

It was now lunchtime and very hot. Decided to drive to Matamata as place where some of Lord of Rings was filmed (anoraks, yes). The guidebooks didn't say anything about the town but it turned out to be nice and was quite a big town. Booked our "Hobbiton" tour through the visitor centre for 10:00am next day. Found an old but nice campsite just on the outskirts of town. It was still nice and warm and the bonus of the campsite was it had outdoor spa pools, naturally heated by geothermal activity and we spent some time soaking ourselves in there.