Rotorua and Tarawera

A quieter couple of weeks following our 5 day sailing break. Shona has been working part time for 3 days this week standing in for the secretary in Malcolm's office and a day minding the office at Envirohub.
We had a lovely time meeting Moira and Linda from Tasmania when their cruise ship 'Dawn Princess' docked in Tauranga for 24 hours. They arrived on 7th November which was Rhian's birthday!

There were 2 ships in that day and apparently there are 2000 visitors and 1000 crew on each ship! So Tauranga must have been busy. We showed them our home and them went up to Rotorua, where we had afternoon tea and visited the Government Gardens and the museum. It was a lovely day.

On the Saturday we went for an interesting walk up to Lake Tarawera. The volcano last erupted in 1898 (just before our grandparents were born!) which caused red sunsets around the world and changed the local landscape significantly. The river now disappears through sinkholes and reappears through holes in the rockface at the waterfalls. Beautiful native forest and ferns as well.

 On Sunday we had our first poolside BBQ for Malcolm's colleagues, then went and met visitors from the UK, Sheila and David on their whirlwind tour.

In Rotorua we spotted this superb solar street bench designed by a local boy as well as the following notices which made us laugh!