Thursday, March 27
Rotorua to Tauranga. This photo (left) was looking out of our tent in Tauranga. (First, many thanks to Bruce at "Talk" To Us for letting us hook up and send out.) We rolled around the Western side of
Lake Rotorua and headed up and out of the Rotorua crater, taking the
direct and less frequented road to Tauranga. The road snaked its way
northward through heavily forested countryside. At one point near
Ngawero (it seems to only exist on maps) we dropped into a dramatic
narrow gorge filled with gangly, gnarled trees. We emerged out of the
gorge into a vast area of fresh clearcut. It was here oddly enough that the road turned into an amazingly (and mysteriously) treacherous gravel surface.
It was like riding on ice. Compounding this traction problem was
the convex shape of the road surface -- peaked in the center and falling
away at the edges. If we strayed too far away from the center line, we
would slide helplessly into the ditch, pulled down by all the dead
weight hanging out over our rear wheels.
Before descending into Tauranga, we were able to catch a great vista of the coastline and Bay of Plenty from high above -- a volcanic cone (Mount Maunganui) poking up from the shoreline with a distant island (Motiti Island) mirroring it from behind. We've seen sightings of the Easter Bunny and his partner in a parking lot outside of a chinese "takeaway".
