July 23 First stop of the day: some natural hot springs leading into a nearby river. We walked down to the pools wearing a variety of interesting clothing. There were definitely some stares as we got ready to get in the water. I’m assuming that most people don’t go to the hot springs in the middle of winter considering everyone walking by was wearing winter coats and pants. Nevertheless, we had a great time enjoying the hot water. There was a little waterfall that fed into the pool, and it was very peaceful and refreshing. We felt more relaxed and calm that day, but it started to rain while we were in the spring, so we had to get out one at a time and try to put on our clothes before running back to the car in the rain. When we got back to the hotel, we spent some more time in the hot pool there to enjoy it. We left for a café nearby and had a wonderful meal. I had caramel pancakes, mom got a bagel with pesto and all kinds of good stuff, Kiley got a frittata, and dad got a yummy plate of nachos. Next, we left to see Huka Falls. It was more of a passage than a waterfall, but it was mesmerizing. There was so much water crashing against rocks and splashing around. It was pretty sweet. We went to see Aratiatia Rapids after that to see flood gates open and release water through a channel. It fills up and gets more aggressive as more water is released. After the rapids. We stopped by the Lava Glass studio on our way to Rotorua. The studio was incredible. They put some of their pieces in a solution to eliminate the glossy finish and reveal a matte finish. Several of them symbolized landmarks or landscapes in New Zealand and looked even more vibrant when filled with light. They also wrap layers around their pieces to add originality. On our drive to Rotorua, we also stopped by some mud pools. They smelled, sounded, and looked disgusting. It was all gross, and yet we kept watching the bubbles explode. We saw another awesome rainbow which was an almost daily occurrence while in NZ. We arrived at the Redwood forest and found some incredibly tall, thick, red trees. We took a walk through the forest. The sun shining through the trees was lovely. We booked tickets to a Maori cultural show at a place called Te Puia for that evening. For more information on the Maori show, see my blog post called "Te Puia: Maori experience." It deserves it's own post because it was pretty awesome. After the show, we drove to Tauranga where our hotel was for the night. We all got pretty sleepy on the drive but arrived safely and fell into bed around 11:30pm.
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