Kiwi Country

We have now arrived on the North Island of New Zealand and are in the town of Rotorua on a big lake surrounded by mountains. We arrived yesterday, landing in Auckland from Melbourne, Australia. We picked up our car and headed out to Thames, arriving at our resort, the Miranda Holiday Park a few minutes before it closed. We rented a chalet and enjoyed a soak in the Hot Springs. This morning we drove down the coastline, seeing lots of beautiful beaches, before heading inland to Rotorua. Tonight we are at Anne's Volcanic Motel.
In the morning we have a whitewater trip on the Kaituna River, with the highest navigable waterfall, a 21 foot drop. Hope it is fun! Tomorrow night we are attending a Maori Experience with a Hangi (meal) to learn about the original inhabitants of this country.
This area produces avocados, corn, kiwi, apricots, and the most beautiful heads of lettuce I have ever seen. We also saw many vineyards were grapes are grown for wine making.
The trip is going good, we are getting the hang of driving on the left side of the road, we are kinda finding that we enjoy hot tea, fish and chips are pretty good and all the electrical plugs must be turned on before using. We splurged today and bought a small bag of ice for a good cold coke, around here you are lucky to get a cube or two.
The weather is great, warm during the day and cool at night,