That was Rotorua - and very beautiful it was.

The Novotel in Roturua appears to be the largest hotel in the centre of this town of 70,000 inhabitants and appears to be the best the town has to offer. It's nice enough and our corner suite on the third floor is quite comfortable. A mix-up over our booking - they had the the booking for Tue, Wed and Thu instead of Mon, Tue and Wed - meant that for the first night we were upgraded to a duplex executive suite, no less, on the top floor. We'd have been happy to stay there but for a rather over-firm bed.

There were other up-market looking resort hotels a short drive from the town centre, but it was nice to be right in the middle of things on the lake shore.  It was from a kiosk close to the hotel that I took a short helicopter flight over the amazing landscape on our first day in town. 

This is the most glorious spot and it would be the most beautiful place in which to live. The village community around Lake Okereka is where it seems the smartest homes are to be found and within a mile of that is the Blue Lake, which is absolutely gorgeous. However, there is a smell that is omnipresent and I really don't know how the locals live with it. The geothermal activity throughout the region means that the smell of Hydrogen Sulphide is never too far away.  We switched off our air conditioning when we turned in each night and every morning when we woke the smell in the room was decidedly nasty. The aircon filters soon cleared the stink, but it was very unpleasant. It seems that the permanent residents don't notice it after a while. We certainly noticed it!

We've had a fabulous couple of days exploring around Rotorua and are now awaiting our short flight to Christchurch on South Island. It has to be said that the small town of Rotorua knows how to run an airport. After a 10 minute drive from the hotel on empty roads we turned into the airport car park. About five minutes later, our luggage was checked in and we were sitting in the departure lounge waiting for our plane. If only it were this easy everywhere else.

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