New Zealand - Rotarua

Long day ahead of us so what you need is a good nights kip. Around about 3am, the thunder and rain sounded somewhat like the Edinburgh Tattoo but with the pipes faded out. Man alive, we had about 14 hours of very heavy rain. Chris and Helen had said they'd heard it was the worst spring for 20 something years but we hadn't really appreciated how generally wet it can be. So, for the next section you will see the words: rain, wet, stinky rather a lot.

Having deposited a fair selection of deep fried fish in a plastic bin we left the stinky motel room and headed back down the Coromandel Peninsula. We followed the same route down but I drove this time - thankfully, it was so wet I had to go dead slow and it didn't make either of us want to throw up our Uncle Toby's Cheerios! We passed through Wilson's Bay but didn't stop for the obvious photo gag - we've had plenty of other opportunities.

The intent was a walk around the Karangahake Gorge - an old mining establishment with assorted remnant left over including the conversion of the old mining bridges and tunnels into a walkway. Regretably our visit coincided with the 14 hour torrential downpour. We did about twenty minutes of getting thoroughly soaked before deciding we were totally ill-equipped for this kind of nonsense. We therefore set off in an increasingly misted up Green Machine.

While on the roads in New Zealand we have found a number of things: if a junction can be put on a concealed bend - it will be, the Green Machine's 4th gear is worthless on hills, roadworks require a 4x4 to circumnavigate the terrain they offer as an alternative, surfaces are designed to be slippery in the majority of conditions and in general you're never driving quick enough. That aside, the roads are really quiet at this time of year. We can't believe the choice and freedom in accommodation we can have as we're a little early.

Anyway, as we were wet through we continued to Rotarua - it genuinely stinks. Imagine rotten eggs or a stink bomb - imagine it city wide...you're almost there. The town itself is somewhere we gave little time to. There's the museum we should have visited and apparently it's a mecca for mountain bikers. Instead we went to the Polynesian Spa. Once there, it was a choice of venues dependent on ailments. J9 and I weren't willing to confess too much so went for the Lake Pools. A series of lakeside open air pools of 36 - 38 - 40 - 42 degrees. It is apparently very relaxing and to be fair, once you'd overcome the aroma it was like an extended bath - though stinky. We emerged sometime later with glowing skin! After this it was a case of J9 fighting for a shower space and me picking myslef up after getting concussion again from another wall mounted shower head.

The next stage was simply a drive to the hotel. However, we had discerned a somewhat ropey performance on the roads in the wet and found it was due to a flat tyre and not entirely my bad driving. After purchasing a fruit-fest for tea we headed to a garage to get some air. The psi gauge said 7...only 25 below ideal. We pumped it up only for an audible hiss to be heard - think it's a goner. Therefore had to change a tyre for the first time ever. It seemed to go alright so I hope we make it to Napier.