Day 51
This marked the day we headed for the Rotorua region. We left the beautiful town of Taupo in which we'd spent a full week enjoying the Christmas period. I rarely say this but I Thank God that we had found such an absolutely wonderful place to stay.
That said, Day 51 marked a very eventful day (for the wrong reasons) *ominous music*.
Rotorua
After stocking up at Pak n Save, we headed northward for a (considerably) measly hour bringing us to Rotorua, a place known for geothermal activity such as geysers and such.
Travel Distance: 81.1km (63 min)
From: Taupo - Rotorua
The Redwoods (Place to visit)
We headed straight for the top item on TripAdvisor's places to visit - The Redwoods. This was a great place to enjoy a peaceful walk in the woods. The babies went crazy but who were we to stop them from running amok.
There was a treetop walk in the vicinity. Decided not to go on it as we had a few places to cover in the day. Sophie wanted to be carried like a baby so Mummy duly obliged.
Carl's Jr (Restaurant)
In case you've somehow been living under a rock (a pretty huge rock for that matter), Carl's Junior is a pretty decent fast food outlet. As this was the first outlet we'd seen in the entire trip, we jumped at the chance to drive through and get ourselves some burgers so we could have a picnic at...
Lakefront Drive (Place to visit)
This was a spot in front of the motel we initially planned to stay at, the Ledwich Lodge Motel. It's a lovely open area with nicely trimmed fields. We feasted with gusto while checking out the carnival being set up for New Year's Eve.
And of course, the children wouldn't have their fun and laughter without a playground.
Pak n Save Rotorua (Supermarket)
Supermarkets are a great place to stock up especially when going to the relative boondocks for the next 3 days.
Travel Distance: 56.1km (50 min)
From: Rotorua - Kawerau
Kawerau
We planned to stay at Tarawera River Lodge Motel, located in Kawerau (a good hour's drive) for a total of 3 days ie. over the New Year period.
But lo, things were not to be as we had planned.
Upon arriving at the motel, the owner told us the motel was full, despite our booking through Booking.com. I thought she was joking until she showed us her records.
At that, I was an internal state of panic as it was:
1. 6pm
2. The children were hungry and
3. It was the day before New Year's Eve ie. alternative accommodations would be not exactly be easy to get (putting it very mildly).
For obvious reasons, I decided not to flip but to try to keep a balanced state of mind to assess what options we had on the table. The owner did share certain motels (one to be precise) in the vicinity which we ultimately took up.
All I can say is, at the end of the day, thank goodness this did not happen on New Year's Eve.
Kawerau Thermal Motel (Accommodation)
The owners were pretty friendly and passed us the key for the night. On opening the room, we could tell this wasn't exactly the Ritz but at least, we were very much relieved that we had a place to stay for the night. We could tell that back in its heyday, with its pool, it would have looked pretty darn good.
Day 52
Today was New Year's Eve, 31 Dec, so to kickstart the festivities, we started early back for Rotorua.
Travel Distance: 56.1km
From: Kawerau - Rotorua
ibis Rotorua (Accomodation)
As time was limited and there weren't that many places we could book as it was peak holiday season, ibis Rotorua happened to be a good spot. We knew there would be the Glo Festival going on where there would be fireworks so we thought this would be an ideal spot.
Ali Baba's Tunisian Takeaways (Restaurant)
We settled on Tunisian food and I gotta say their pizza is really good stuff to munch on. Very glad to have tried this restaurant.
Glo Festival & Carnival
So we hung out at the carnival (that was being set up the day before) and settled down at a spot in front of the music festival, called the Glo Festival. There were some blokes singing their hearts out so we gave them good cheer while we were there.
Fireworks
So to top the day off, we scouted for some KFC to take back to our rooms. As we anticipated that parking spaces would be high in demand, we walked and walk we did.
After trudging back to our rooms, we had some good wine while feeding the babies and managed to celebrate the New Year with some fireworks from our hotel window!
This marked the day we headed for the Rotorua region. We left the beautiful town of Taupo in which we'd spent a full week enjoying the Christmas period. I rarely say this but I Thank God that we had found such an absolutely wonderful place to stay.
That said, Day 51 marked a very eventful day (for the wrong reasons) *ominous music*.
Rotorua
After stocking up at Pak n Save, we headed northward for a (considerably) measly hour bringing us to Rotorua, a place known for geothermal activity such as geysers and such.
Travel Distance: 81.1km (63 min)
From: Taupo - Rotorua
The Redwoods (Place to visit)
We headed straight for the top item on TripAdvisor's places to visit - The Redwoods. This was a great place to enjoy a peaceful walk in the woods. The babies went crazy but who were we to stop them from running amok.
There was a treetop walk in the vicinity. Decided not to go on it as we had a few places to cover in the day. Sophie wanted to be carried like a baby so Mummy duly obliged.
Carl's Jr (Restaurant)
In case you've somehow been living under a rock (a pretty huge rock for that matter), Carl's Junior is a pretty decent fast food outlet. As this was the first outlet we'd seen in the entire trip, we jumped at the chance to drive through and get ourselves some burgers so we could have a picnic at...
Lakefront Drive (Place to visit)
This was a spot in front of the motel we initially planned to stay at, the Ledwich Lodge Motel. It's a lovely open area with nicely trimmed fields. We feasted with gusto while checking out the carnival being set up for New Year's Eve.
And of course, the children wouldn't have their fun and laughter without a playground.
Pak n Save Rotorua (Supermarket)
Supermarkets are a great place to stock up especially when going to the relative boondocks for the next 3 days.
Travel Distance: 56.1km (50 min)
From: Rotorua - Kawerau
Kawerau
We planned to stay at Tarawera River Lodge Motel, located in Kawerau (a good hour's drive) for a total of 3 days ie. over the New Year period.
But lo, things were not to be as we had planned.
Upon arriving at the motel, the owner told us the motel was full, despite our booking through Booking.com. I thought she was joking until she showed us her records.
At that, I was an internal state of panic as it was:
1. 6pm
2. The children were hungry and
3. It was the day before New Year's Eve ie. alternative accommodations would be not exactly be easy to get (putting it very mildly).
For obvious reasons, I decided not to flip but to try to keep a balanced state of mind to assess what options we had on the table. The owner did share certain motels (one to be precise) in the vicinity which we ultimately took up.
All I can say is, at the end of the day, thank goodness this did not happen on New Year's Eve.
Kawerau Thermal Motel (Accommodation)
The owners were pretty friendly and passed us the key for the night. On opening the room, we could tell this wasn't exactly the Ritz but at least, we were very much relieved that we had a place to stay for the night. We could tell that back in its heyday, with its pool, it would have looked pretty darn good.
Day 52
Today was New Year's Eve, 31 Dec, so to kickstart the festivities, we started early back for Rotorua.
Travel Distance: 56.1km
From: Kawerau - Rotorua
ibis Rotorua (Accomodation)
As time was limited and there weren't that many places we could book as it was peak holiday season, ibis Rotorua happened to be a good spot. We knew there would be the Glo Festival going on where there would be fireworks so we thought this would be an ideal spot.
Ali Baba's Tunisian Takeaways (Restaurant)
We settled on Tunisian food and I gotta say their pizza is really good stuff to munch on. Very glad to have tried this restaurant.
Glo Festival & Carnival
So we hung out at the carnival (that was being set up the day before) and settled down at a spot in front of the music festival, called the Glo Festival. There were some blokes singing their hearts out so we gave them good cheer while we were there.
Fireworks
So to top the day off, we scouted for some KFC to take back to our rooms. As we anticipated that parking spaces would be high in demand, we walked and walk we did.
After trudging back to our rooms, we had some good wine while feeding the babies and managed to celebrate the New Year with some fireworks from our hotel window!
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