Rotorua

Yesterday was a bit too much apparently.  Last night I freedom camped in a parking lot where I was across the street from a Maori village with a whole river of steam from the geothermal activity. This whole town is like that.  Literally, dig a hole a few feet deep and you have found some heat.  There are a few little power plants in the town, and a bunch of parks.  I wanted to take it easy today so I ate some weebix for breakfast and drove to town center where I knew there was free unlimited parking. All the parking meters have a puck underneath the car that reports nonpayers.  This is a really cute little town and well laid out at the bottom of a big freshwater warm lake. Every direction you look you can see steam rising from somewhere and it all smells pretty bad.
I basically felt pretty run down today, been having too much fun and I can't handle too much more running about. As I made a cup of coffee before my walk I met a magister who told me that if I love mountain biking I simply have to go to the Redwoods and hire a bike.  Well I reall y love to bushbike( he pronounced it pushbike and I didn't understand for about 5 minutes) but I am just wasted and my legs and feet wouldn't agree to a try.  Instead, I forced them to walk around town shopping but nothing was interesting. I then meandered to a geothermal park with a multitude of pools and mud pits all steaming away.  I exited the park and walked along the lake and came upon another park.  I followed the lake until it became sulfur bay and there were thousands of birds enjoying the warm waters. I turned out of there and went into a lovely government gardens with bath houses and a museum, but an hour of sulfurous air and I was ready to get away.  I had nice Jom Phong  and talked a while to a nice Korean lady, then I drove to the redwood forest.
This is my first regret of this trip, and I hate regrets.  I walked into this amazing 120 year old forest planted for timber but then turned to a huge park. There is an 8 hour day walk as well as miles of hiking, horse riding and mountain bike trails. The forest was just too pretty, but I hadn't even walked a km when my knees were angry with me, my feet are threatening to blister, and my mood is poor and fatigued.  I considered staying the night just so I could go bushbike riding tomorrow, but that would jeapordize my plans to see coromandel.  Alas I left and felt bad the three hour drive it took me to get up to a little speck called Opotoure which has a lovely oceanside campground.  I arrived and immediately ran to the beach.  I took some pics then ran to my van to change into swim shorts, but I could have gone naked because nobody was there.  Actually should have!  Anyway I ran into the very cold Pacific and bounced and giggled in the surf and I remember why children get in the water when it is cold, something I should do more often lest I grow old!
However Mom didn't need to tell me to get out because my lips were blue, I was already shivering so I ran back to grab my stuff and hop in a hot shower.
Life is good, and I think tomorrow will be a lovely day to explore.