Continuing the theme of a slew of photos, and not much text… After we finished up in Hobbiton, and ate a full buffet lunch at the Green Dragon Inn, we drove southeast to the town of Rotorua. Rotorua is a resort town that smells distinctly of sulfur. We got in just as the sun was setting and the lady at the reception counter recommended a night-walk through the redwoods, and so back out we went. Wait! (I can hear you asking…) Did you say redwoods? And yes, I did say redwoods… For some reason (that we never did really figure out), they discovered that New Zealand’s climate is very friendly to redwoods, and so why not? They planted a grove of redwoods outside of Rotorua. Today you can go on walks through the canopy or zip-line through the canopy, or (like we did) walk through at night, to enjoy the light installation by David Trubridge.

This is a theme that we have discovered on this trip – species after species that have been introduced by humans to the unique ecosystem in New Zealand and all the dramatic effects… Humans have brought everything from trout to deer to hegehogs to Maori kiore… Which brings me to another mind-blowing fact about New Zealand – humans didn’t arrive here until around the year 1250. When they arrived, the ecosystem only had 4 mammals – all of which were bats. Otherwise, the two islands were covered in birds, birds, and more birds.

Anyway, back to the task of putting the photos below in context. The next morning we packed our day: we started with a tour of a working farm, then a visit to a kiwi hatchery, then some adrenaline with some luge runs and finally a cultural dinner and performance to learn about the Maori people. We finally fell into bed. The next morning we took a quick dip into a thermal hot tub at the camp site and then we took off to continue our adventures in Taupo… More to come!