Day 16 on the move rotorua,taupo,levin, wellington. Earthquake and Volcano centre

Tue Jan 16 (by Karen)
Time to move on again. We could have easily stayed here for another week, there are lots of activities to do in Rotorua but South Island was calling.
We drove past lake Taupo (pronounced toe paw) and stopped at the bottom end where the Volcano centre explained nicely why lots of New Zealand is actually quite a dangerous place to be. They get earthquakes every day here. We sat in an earthquake simulator which mimicked the Christchurch earthquake which devastated the city.

The day was cool and cloudy and as we left to head along the desert road past the Tongariro crossing it began to rain. We'd reached the lowest temperatures of our stay at only 14 degrees. Still the views along the roads were stunning and when we cleared the cloud the temperatures shot up to 18 deg. By the time we got to Bulls it was 32 and the air con was earning it's keep. Bulls had cheaper petrol than anywhere else along route and we were almost out. We filled up happy at the lower price until we passed through Foxton which was a little lower. Closer to Wellington prices rocketed up.

As this was a long day's drive, we took some small videos of the scenery we were driving through at intervals through the day.

                                                                  the desert road

Another travelling couple also enroute from Rotorua to Wellington also stopped to photograph the view and we swapped ideas for South Island

At Levin, meeting Mark's mum for a welcome break, drink and fruit

Mark's mum invited us for a break at her bach (pronounced batch). Unfortunately Mark's baby photos were still packed in banana boxes from her move so we didn't get to coo over them. We did get to admire a gorgeous Aboriginal wall picture though which was possibly cuter than the baby photos. After Levin, it was just over an hour to Wellington. We'd left just after 9 am (the first time, 20 minutes into the journey Jono remembered he'd forgotten his glasses and we had to go back) and got to Welllington at 7pm.
We're at another airbnb for two nights before catching the ferry to South Island.

our airbnb, just for us.