Saturday, 26.11.2016: Bay Of Plenty - Rotorua - Lake Taupo - Tongariro National Park

We leave the 'Harbinger House' in bright sunshine and make our way to Mount Maunganui. We climb it on foot to the summit. From there, we have a wonderful view of the Bay Of Plenty.

The next stop is Hobbiton (Movie Set), where the movie 'Lord of the Rings' was filmed. Since we are not real fans of Lord of the Rings, we find the entrance fee of 79 NZD (around 50 €) too expensive and we continue our journey to Rotorua.

This time our stop is the village 'Whakarewarewa - The Living Maori Village'. The still inhabited Maori village in the middle of a thermal area with smelly mud pools and erupting geysers is shown to us during a tour.

As darkness falls, we drive through Tongariro National Park and arrive at the remote 'The Crossing Backpackers' at 7:50 p.m. We seem to be the only guests along with 2 others. It's so cold in our room with an outside temperature of only 6 degrees that we have to turn on the small heater. 

On the recommendation of the hostess, we end the day at the 'Schnappes Bar'. The decor gives a Canadian feeling. The food is not so great for the first time on our trip. The noodles and the burger with fries are very bland and poorly seasoned.