Is that you I smell? Or Rotorua?

I hope Rotorua doesn’t get unfairly short-changed in our memories because… we have reached the point in our trip where most of us are sick of most of us. Except for Cameron, who unfortunately never tires of being glued to me. And Quinn, whose irritation with any one person has nothing to do with their behavior and everything to do with unknown whims inside his brain.

After spending all of all of these days with all of us, not only does James now have a complete appreciation for my frustration at the end of some home days when I hiss “I just don’t want to hear my name again” under my breath, but every day he tells me he too is OVER hearing the word “mom”. “What would you say, it’s gotta be 250, 300 times a day they say it?”

I wouldn’t necessarily say my kids are Mama’s boys, but certainly every little thought that comes into their minds needs to be shared with ME specifically. A privilege at heart, but AHHHHHH my ears. (And Cameron actually IS a Mama’s boy, thus far.)

Over three weeks in, so not bad, and maybe we have just been suffering farm withdrawals.

The day we left Otorohanga, Quinn was our first car sickness victim when we forgot the dramamine routine. With only a two hour drive to Rotorua, we stopped halfway to do the super-touristy tour of Hobbiton because one, maybe two of us wanted to. I’m the one writing this stuff, so I am going to suggest you skip over that stop if you are around these parts. I can sort of appreciate the effort Peter Jackson went to to create the little world, but I also don’t care 😉

We arrived late afternoon into our next house, which is a little “meh” and clearly had good lighting when the online photos were taken, but receives bonus points for the fact that there is a forest literally across the street and a bakery two doors down with: the first New Zealand coffee we’ve had that tastes good, award winning sausage rolls and cinnamon “scrolls”, and an ultra-friendly owner/ baker.

We visited a couple parks, the lakefront and a treetop walk in the Redwood forest over the next couple days and worked on getting our mojo back.

The next day, still a bit grumpy, we headed out to Wai-o-tapu, the tip top geothermal display in the area. Rotorua has a distinctive nasty sulphur smell that varies in it’s intensity; it is entirely due to the huge amount of geothermal activity around here. Wai-o-tapu is a big bucket of bubbling mud craters, rainbows of colors that have been brought out by minerals in the earth, and stank.

The rainy day was well spent taking the boys to buy a souvenir each, watching lots of TV, making a delicious steak dinner, and heading back to do the tree walk in the dark when they light up the trees.

We are feeling better, the storms are clearing and we have a big last day planned here before driving a little ways North to our last New Zealand stop, Tauranga, on Thursday.