Onwards from Melbourne

I did forget to mention in the last blog that we also did the Neighbours tour while in Melbourne, I know its really touristy but we decided it had to be done, despite the fact that neither of us have watched Neighbours in years. The tour involved a bus ride to the studio but as they were filming we couldn't explore it. They then got one of the starts to come out and meet us but neither Rich or I knew who she was (she plays Toddies cousin Georgia apparently). After this we went to Pin Oak Court where the street that they use for filming outdoor street scenes.  We got to pose with the sign and look at the houses then we headed back to central Melbourne. It was a cheese tour but a good way to kill a couple of hours.

So back to our journey out of Melbourne. We caught a flight to Sydney then had another flight to Auckland where we arrived just after 11pm. As we had booked a relocation hire car for pick up at 7am in the morning, we decided (well Rich did) that we may as well stay in the airport for the night as it would be nearly 1 by the time we made it to any hostel. Auckland is rated as the best airport to sleep in for the whole South Pacific but it wasn't the best nights sleep we have had. Once we picked our car up we headed to Coromandel which is a historic town. After a nice walk around the town and a walk in the hills surrounding the town we got back in the car and headed for Cathedral Cove where we went snorkeling and looked at the large passage that has been created in the rocks. After a couple hours there we headed for our accommodation which was in a bird park that had an attached caravan and cabin park. We did get to look around the bird park but after been chased by ducks and geese (we did take bread to feed them which could have been a mistake) we decided to head to the local town for a couple of hours before heading to our final destination of Hot Water Beach where you did holes in the beach at certain times of the day and hot water comes up meaning you have your own little hot tub on the beach.

We then had to return the car and jump on a coach to Rotorua which is a geothermal town and essentially all smells like rotten eggs which can be a bit overpowering. There is loads to do and we have been to see a geothermal wonderland which have various different pools and mud flats which bubble due to the heat and air from beneath the ground. We also had a couple of hours in the local spa which has 7 pools of different mineral waters which come from the various hot springs. The temperature varied in the pools from around 38 to 41 degrees. It was lovely to relax in the pools, even if you couldn't get away from the smell.

Now we are preparing for another coach down to Wellington where we are picking up yet another car and driving back to Auckland, stopping at some caves on the way up.