We are in Tauranga

Hurray! I got my camera back. There was a note attached to it that said that a couple with an accent left it there the night before. If you ask me , they have the funny accent. Anyway, we got up to the same wind and rain as the night before and the forecast didn't look good for most of the country. So we decided to get out of Wellington and head north. After about 15 minutes of driving the rain stopped and from then on we had a mix of sun and cloud and warm temperatures. Lucky us. We had heard that Taupa was a good place so that is where we decided to spend the night. We got a great motel right across from Lake Taupa and right around the corner from a neat British style pub (just to make Ian feel at home). And I swear to god that while I was in reception registering the skies opened up and in no time at all the streets were flooding. I asked the lady at the desk if the weather had been changeable that day, she said "Oh no! it's been so hot this is a relief" I wanted to jump over the desk and throttle her. At least the pub was close enough that we only got moderately wet. Too bad because it really was a beautiful spot.

Got up this morning again to rain so decided to move on again. We arrived at Wai-O-Tapu where all the thermal pools and boiling mud pools,etc. are at about 1:00. We no sooner got inside where they sell the tickets and downpour again so we decided against spending all that money to wander around in the rain. Carried on to Rotorua and had a nice Japanese lunch. By the time we finished lunch the sun was out and it was hot and steamy so back we went to Waimangu Volcanic Valley and saw some thermal pools and boiling mud pools for free. By this time of the day it was not possible to take the expensive tours. Again, lucky us.

On the road again to Tauranga. We have a motel right across from the water again AND it's not raining! Had a nice prawn, scallop and chip dinner. We just watched the forecast for tomorrow and it looks like it will improve start to improve. Monday and Tuesday look brilliant--- we leave on Wednesday. Hopefully we'll get one more beach day.

We have decided to stay here for two days and do some side trips. We aren't far from the Bay of Plenty so that should be interesting.

The Santa Claus parade is on Saturday so maybe we'll take that in. We're starting to look forward to coming home. 

Ola` (just getting ready for Mexico)

Linda and Ian

P.S. I don't believe it ---It's raining again!!!! #*@#**