For the first time the tai chi class was listed in the Freestyle Daily ship’s newsletter. I managed to secure the Spinnaker Room which is one of the larger venues.The 8:30 am start for the class was a little early, and disembarking was scheduled for 10 am, so there were only about 15 people, but it included what would become the hard core participants on the cruise and it was an enjoyable class.
Today we arrived in Tauranga which is the nearest large port to Rotorua.The overseas terminal of Tauranga is actually located in the small town of Mount Maunganui which is a quaint town, situated next to… Mount Maunganui… a large hill at the end of the peninsula.
We hired a small van for the six of us to drive to Rotorua, however with the time taken to disembark and hire the car, it was 11:30 before we left for the approximately 1 hour drive severely limiting our time in Rotorua. The drive was pleasant although we hit some heavy rain along the way.
On arrival we saw steam emanating from a park, so we drove in the Kuirau Park which had thermal springs and bubbling mud in a normal parkland setting.It was quite weird to experience, and of course was accompanied by the sulphurous smell which wasn’t too bad. There was also a couple of thermal pools where people could dangle their feet.
We decided to spit up; Wayne, Jane and Tina went to the Whakarewarewa Maori village for the thermal pools and Maori culture experience while Frances and Shaun went to the Polynesian Spa for the hot springs experience.
I had a walk around the town for the architectural experience. The city centre is not that big, but has some historically interesting buildings. After spending the rest of my time in the Information Centre posting on Facebook using their WiFi, it was time to pick everyone up and drive back to Tauranga and the port.
The girls did some window shopping (two opportunity shops were still open), I took some photos, mainly of murals, while Wayne returned the car. Pretty tired after a long day, we all straggled on board the ship, freshened up, had some dinner and crashed.
