Smelly geysers

Kia Ora from Rotarua, the land of hot mud, geysers (not geezers) and the smell of sulphur. Sorry it's been a little while since I updated, but today is the first time I've seen a computer for a while.
So what have I been up to? Well, the last time I wrote, I was in Te Aroha. As it turned out, the campsite was full of the strangest bunch of people in New Zealand. They were all local and lived in permanent caravans on the site. Don't get me wrong, they were perfectly friendly, but the way they could talk for 10 minutes without breaking eye contact of blinking was rather unnerving! Anyway, didn;t stay there for long, but headed up the Coromandel peninsula instead.
The Coromandel is basically just a range of hills (or mountains as they would be known in the UK) with sea on both sides. The west coast is more rocky with rougher beaches and that is where I stayed on Thursday night. I camped in Coromandel town, which is just a big village really, and met up with a maori guy who was camped on the same site. We arranged to meet for a few beers at the local pub, but by the time he arrived, I had been there for about 2 hours and was busy nattering with the locals. By kicking out time, there was a group made up of backpackers, locals and myself and this maori geezer. So, of course, we went back to the backpackers and cleared up any beers they had! This means that I now have an open invitation to visit the maori village where this chap lives and experience all of the stuuf most people have to pay for, for free - nicely.
And so to the weekend. I met up with Andy, Sarah and Kate again at the bach they had rented out in Hahei. Hahei is on the east coast of the peninsula and is a gorgeous spot. It was very quiet which meant that lounging on the white sandy beach as the (cold) pacific lapped gently at the shore was quite blissful. I also got to sleep in a proper bed and got fed properly. I may well fall to bits over the next few weeks without Andy and Sarah to look after me!
We had a top weekend with a bit of sight seeing, a bit of walking and plently of lunging about. The others went sea kyacking as well, but I'm saving that for the south island in the new year.
And so to Rotorua (via coromandel town again). It's actually not as smelly here as I expected it to be, but the thermal activity is really quite bizarre. There are bubbling ponds in the park, holes with hot mud burping away and some of the storm drains in the kerbs have got steam coming out of them! All in all, it's not quite like anywhere else I have ever been. During the course of today I have seen geysers spurting boiling water all over the place, bright red and green rocks surrounding steaming holes in the ground, maori dancers and warriors and real live (and awake) kiwis. If I'm not careful I'll have done everything too soon!
So there we are, up to date. Thanks for all the comments. A particular mention to Graham - nice to hear from you and jobs aren't fun anyway.
Take good care one and all . . .