more miles on the clock

Its been an interesting couple of days.
We left Rotorura and headed for a relatively short journey to Turangi via Taupo, where the lake was looking magnificent as predicted.
We were well ahead of schedule and took a turning off the route where signs indicated some more geothermal springs and of all things, a 'devonshire cream tea'. We sat in the car park outside deciding whether or not to go in. We did, and didn't regret it. We discovered a middle aged guy stood behind the counter and on introduction told us that he was just passing 21 years ago and bought it and hadn't been able to get out. He humoured us with several class jokes (you had to be there) and then pointed us in the direction of the back door for a 30 minute walk around several spectacular steaming holes named as the porridge pool and the chocolate pot, which were not so active. We got back to the cafe and chatted to a young lad who served us drinks and had time for some insightful experiences of living in NZ.
after over an hour we headed back to the main road with recommendations to visit the Huka Falls and some thermal pools a little further where you could bathe in hot pools by the side of the river that ran out of Lake Taupo.
Caroline dipped in the pools of steamy water and then we headed to Turangi and checked in for our overnight stop before getting up this morning and heading fro Stratford.
This morning was wet and we found good use for the wiper blades for most of the journey. We arrived at around 3.00pm and checked into one of the most amazing room we've had for both this trip and the previous Canada trip. (see pics!)
A room with kitchen/cooking facilities and all the usual mod cons, but I walked out onto the balcony we discovered a hot tub bubbling away at a steady 37.5 deg!!
the balcony looked south towards a cloud of misty grey rain, behind which is Mount Egmont... will we see it.. watch this space.
In the meantime, we've driven into New Plymouth this evening on the recommendation of the owner of the motel here, to visit the 'loving hut' a veggie/vegan cafe, that was just what Caroline needed. The chap helping out there apparently did some of the tiling in our room... Fred was his name and he was a real character and another on the list of New Zealanders that all have a story to tell.