Day 6-Friday, March 14

We enjoyed the great breakfast provided for us in our hotel restaurant this morning.

This is Mary and Rosemary who live in Virginia, and who we will have a lot of laughs with while on this tour!  A couple of really great gals!

Geese are out for their morning stroll....

The grand entrance into the Government Gardens....

and the impressive Rotorua Museum of Art & History, better known as the Bath House, a grand Tudor-style edifice located in the Government Gardens.

 The dynamic museum exhibits share the history of Rotorua's people, culture, and volcanic landscape.   We admired the preservation of all the beautiful woodwork inside the museum!

Our very knowledgeable guide, Geraldine, also took us up on the roof-walk for some commanding views of the surrounding landscape.

My friend, Jeanne, on top of the Bath House.

We toured the basement area under the Bath House where the hot water was piped in from the surrounding hot steaming pools for the mud baths and other medicinal purposes back then.

Depiction of a guy having a mud bath....

...and of course, showering following the mud bath...

There are many marble sculptures in the hallways of the museum...

This is one of the beautifully restored tile baths...

Then when we get through with our guided tour of the Museum we walk out front and there is our Holiday Vacations Tour Director, Jeremy, with what looks like his second tour group!  Such cute kids!  Hey Jeremy,  what's up?

Later we visit Wai-O-Tapu (Sacred Waters), New Zealand's most colorful and diverse volcanic area.  We enjoy a walk through stunning geothermal activity and unforgettable vistas.  This unique volcanic wonder provides innumerable colors of every hint and hue displayed in pools, lakes, steam vents and mineral terraces.

                    Jeremy, cool hat!

Our driver/guide Chris had a little surprise detour planned for us on the way back to our hotel!  He pulled into this Redwood Forest and let us out and we enjoyed a 15-minute walk through the cool shade of these towering trees.  Nice!

After arriving back at our hotel we enjoyed a special cultural evening featuring a Maori concert and Hangi feast, a traditional Maori welcome and witness powerful displays of traditional songs and dance. 

What a hoot when the Maori singers/dancers pulled some of the audience up on stage for a crash course in Maori dancing!

During dinner, we enjoyed chatting with a couple from Wisconsin, Lee and Debra Gatzke, who is also on our tour; she is a nurse and he is a taxidermist.

Tomorrow we fly south to Queenstown, New Zealand!