The Road to Rotorua

The drive to Rotorua from Wellington was eventful. We witnessed a car wreck happen right in front of us. It was quite scary but amazingly, given the look of the cars, no one was seriously injured. We were impressed with how many people stopped to give aid. One young guy had the forethought to direct traffic around the accident. He actually did a better job than the police did later. Because we were the following car, Joey got to give a statement to a policewoman. She took down everything he said including, "obviously, the accident was not avoided." (I don't think Joey realized what he sounded like when he talks; reading his statement was an interesting experience for him.) Seeing the accident was a shocking start to our drive but the rest of it was pleasantly uneventful, and (as seems typical for NZ) quite lovely.

A couple of hourse into the drive, the Desert Highway provides the first glimpse of the thermal activity that Rotorua is known for. You are driving along, sheep on one side and forest on the other, and then the ground starts to steam. It is lush, green New Zealand country with thermal vents. A cool -- and unexpected -- sight.

The road also passes by Mount Tongariro. The rain ceased just as the mountain got into sight. We couldn't see the top of it, but the bottom was neat -- a lovely cone shape with a second bump to the side. Hiking the Tongariro Crossing is definitely on our to-do list for next time. This time, it was a little too wet. It may be summer in New Zealand but the mountain still had snow on it.

Rotorua announces itself further down the road with the smell of sulphur. More on that in the next post.