This is the fragrant city of Rotorua - one of the most touristy spots on the North Island with some three million visitors annually. Volcanic activity defines this part of New Zealand, and nowhere is this more obvious than Rotorua. Here the daily business of life goes on among steaming hot springs, explosive geysers, bubbling mud pools, and the clouds of sulphurous gas responsible for the town's eggy smell hehe.

Much like on the East Cape, Maori tradition and history is big stuff here. In fact right after I took this shot, a fight broke out between two Maoris just down the street behind me hahaha!

And here's one of the sources of Rotorua's delightful stench. This crater lake is part of the massive Kuirau Park, smack in the middle of town.

Kuirau Park erupted back in 2003 and covered much of the park (including the trees) in mud. In here you can find bubbling ponds, steam pissing out everywhere, and...

...mud! Lots of mud, bubbling and spewing. If cameras could capture smells, these two would make you want eggs for dinner. Videos here and here.

Back in town there's even a thermal foot spa thingy - good stuff! So that's sunny, smelly Rotorua in a nutshell.

And this is Tauranga (pronounced Tao-wronger), currently home to 120,000 but is one of New Zealand's fastest growing cities so that number is going north. We left Rotorua late this morning in pissing rain, and arrived here early this afternoon in pissing rain. That being the case, we booked ourselves into a cabin and cowered in front of the TV until the sun showed itself again this evening.

We're sticking around Tauranga for the day tomorrow so we were in no rush to see anything today, however there was one thing I definitely wanted to have a nosey at. Back on October 5th, the MV Rena container ship ran aground on a well-known reef 20km off the coast of Tauranga, resulting in an oil spill that was declared New Zealand's worst ever maritime environmental disaster. A couple weeks ago it broke in two in bad weather, and the stern section has now sunk. More info here.

The beach itself was spotlessly clean today and there were kids flailing about in the water. When the Bay of Plenty area cops some really bad weather though, another container or two of the 1,368 the Rena was carrying hits the drink and its contents washes up all over the beach hehe.

After yesterday's rain we got our first good look at Tauranga today and I was pretty impressed - it's a really nice and vibrant little city! But be that as it may, we didn't hang around long.

Instead we spent the bulk of the day here - the awesome Mt. Maunganui or simply "The Mount", barely a ten-minute drive from central Tauranga. Sun-seekers flock here during the summer, and The Mount lays claim to being New Zealand's premier surf city (they apparently even teach surfing in high school!).

These notices have been placed all over this long stretch of beach regarding the Rena, which I talked about yesterday that beached 20km offshore back in October.

And we had these things flying over our heads all day. A two-day weekend air show kicked off here this morning - very cool.

Surf's up! Oil from the Rena began washing ashore five days after its grounding, along with crap from the several containers it dropped into the sea. No trace of any of that now though.

Looking over the main beach of Mt. Maunganui, which is named after that big 232m hill there - an extinct volcanic cone. You can walk to the top of that in about an hour if you're keen enough.

From one nice beach to another, tomorrow we're back on the road again and heading up to the Coromandel region which has some of the North Island's best white-sand beaches. Beauty!

We woke in Tauranga this morning to a blustery one, and after several minutes of trying in vain to fold our tent up nicely so that it packs away small, we gave up and just stuffed the bastard in the boot/trunk of the car anywhere it would fit hehe.

Our first stop of the day was quite a poignant one for me. Paeroa is the birthplace of Lemon & Paeroa (L&P), an icon of Kiwiana (the collective term for anything uniquely connected to NZ life and culture, e.g. hokey pokey, jandals, and pavlovla - I'll let my American viewers look those up for themselves ;) A century or two ago an underground spring of mineral water was discovered in Paeroa. In 1904, a government-funded analysis of the water stated "It is good for dyspepsia and pleasant to drink... were this spring in Europe it would be very valuable for it might be used for medicinal purposes." Then in 1907 the Paeroa Natural Mineral Water Company began bottling the water. Soon afterwards, some bright spark added lemon flavouring, and the distinctive taste of L&P was created. The iconic soft-drink, marketed as "World famous in New Zealand", continued to be manufactured in little Paeroa (today home to just 4,000) until 1980 when production was transferred to Auckland. If you ever get the opportunity, I suggest you try some :)

Anyway, from Paeroa we continued north, to views like the shot on the right.

Welcome to the Coromandel! This massive peninsular juts out into the Pacific Ocean, with a mountainous spine separating it into two distinct parts. The east has some stunning beaches, and the west we'll be checking out tomorrow.

When Auckland shuts up shop for Christmas, New Year's, or long weekends (such as this one), this is where it heads - every old lady, man, and his dog.

We arrived mid-afternoon, parked up, and started walking to one of the nicest beaches in the area. Apparently the Chronicles of Narnia were filmed around here somewhere - might have to go watch that.

This is the awesome Cathedral Cove, named after the cave on the right there linking Mare's Leg Cove to Cathedral Cove. Oh, and according to Wikipedia, The cave and beach was used as the tunnel through which the children first re-enter Narnia in the movie version of The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian, so there you go :)

Apart from the occasional tourist boat that stops in for a quick look before moving on, this place feels completely isolated and secluded - bliss!

After an hour or so of lapping up the sun on the beach, someone had a little something stuck on her face hehe.

From Cathedral Cove we drove a short way round the road to something quite extraordinary. This is Hot Water Beach, and yes all of these people are digging holes on the beach and sitting in them hehe. For two hours either side of low tide, you can access a specific area of the beach where hot water oozes up from beneath the surface! Bring a spade, dig a hole, and you've got your own personal spa! So where does this hot water come from? Some 2km below the ground right here is a layer of molten rock, a remnant of volcanic activity some five to nine million years ago. Ground water seeps through fractures in the ground and collects in underground reservoirs which are heated by this molten rock. The heated water rises through these fractures and back to the surface at a rate of 10-15 litres per minute. The temperature of the water when it reaches the surface is around 60 degrees Celsius (140 degrees Fahrenheit) - too hot to lay in, but when it mixes with incoming waves from the sea it's just right. From Hot Water Beach we found ourselves a hostel and called it a day.

So yesterday I said we'd be checking out the western side of the Coromandel peninsular today, but with the weather closing in we instead passed through most of it and made a beeline for Auckland.

We did make a couple stops though. This is Coromandel Town, a very quaint little spot which is home to 2,000 and crammed with heritage buildings.

Gold was discovered here in 1852, and it was all on for a couple decades before the gold ran out and everyone pissed off again.

"Free candy" - looks legit. So we're now in Auckland as I write this - New Zealand's largest city and one I really feel I should get to know a bit (and we've got three days here in which to do that :)