Camping at Lake Tarawera

Sometimes I leave it so long between blog posts, that I get a bit paralysed because there is SO much to post I don't know where to start!

So I'm just going to post a few pictures of our holiday.  We were meant to tag it on to the end of my Symposium trip but that didn't happen for a few reasons.  But after I was home a week, we left again.

This time it was off to Rotorua and camping on the side of Lake Tarawera, which is overlooked by Mount Tarawera.  It's a geothermal area and we were camping on Hot Water Beach, where hot water seeps up from the sand and runs in a stream from one area of the cliffs.  The ground was so warm it was like sleeping on an electric blanket!

Mount Tarawera in the background.  It's a volcano that erupted about 130 years ago, killing many people, burying a whole village and destroying the famous pink and white terraces.

In the mornings the steam coming from the far end of the beach was beautiful.  You couldn't really swim here as it was either too hot or too cold.

But round the corner there was a stream that had been dug out to form a hot pool - just like a spa only better!

This is back at the main dock.  Hubby had to make two trips, one with us and then one with the gear.

It was my daughter's sixth birthday while we were away so we took a trip up the gondola in Rotorua and down the luge - lots of fun.

We stopped in Tairua on the Coromandel on the way home as Hubby is involved in building a marina there.  Beautiful place and it has the best playground ever - according to the kids.

We've been home almost a week and there are potentially big changes happening in our lives.  More about that another time.  I'll just leave you with this picture of what I did to myself yesterday.  Check out the egg on my forehead.  Yup, call me egghead, I stood on a rake.  Today it looks better but I have a wee black eye.  Lesson learnt I hope.