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 After leaving the Hotel du Vin, we started our driving tour of
the North Island. Did we mention it was raining? No matter, we drove along the eastern coast and down through the middle of the island. The rain really meant that the sightseeing was
limited but we did get to see a few sheep and the countryside. The highlight of the day was a visit to the Polynesian cultural center in Rotorua that also has
a major hot springs located on the site. It has a long multi syllable Maori name that roughly translates into "stinky hot water, steam and mud that extracts money from overseas tourists".
 We toured the center and spent a pleasant interlude with a Maori
woman, Betty Hayward, who showed us how the Maori made clothing, rope and other items from palm fronds. Apparently Captain Cook made all his sailing ropes the same way. She also took a liking to
Arnie and was happy to have her picture taken with him. Her daughter is an Internet user and she is thrilled that her picture will be on the net. She was a very nice women who took our address and
promised to send Arnie a little outfit she would make from the palm fronds.
 We also toured the springs, which are an awesome (and smelly) natural phenomenon. The rain and the
geysers made for a wet experience and Arnie was happy that he brought his slicker along. We were also surprised to see that all of the other tourists were Japanese as we thought
that we had left them all behind in Hawaii. We also saw a Kiwi, which was the only one that we saw in all of New Zealand, as they are nocturnal animals.
We traveled on to Lake Taupo to spend the night. We stayed in a hotel, the Caboose, which was totally decorated in African décor, right down to fake
elephant feet coffee tables. It is the first of what the owners hope to be a chain. Think of it as a Safari Inn concept with an attached McAfrica restaurant with good food. Don't take
this the wrong way - it was a fun place. We looked at it as a practice run for South Africa.
The Lake is the largest one in the North Island and is a major resort for New Zealand. It is on our go back and see again list. We left the next morning after mailing a couple of
packages home, the first of many in order to keep the baggage weight down.
 We traveled on through the mountains on the way to Wanganui
where we were to have lunch with Larry's cousin Tom and his wife Sue. It was an exciting ride as the rains were washing our portions of the road (did we mention that it rained?) and
caused rockslides to close parts of the road. Actually, our bigger fear was that the road was cut so sharply into the hills that the grazing sheep (did we mention that there are sheep in New Zealand?) appeared to be right over the car. A slip or biological event up there would
have been a real strain on the windshield and the wiper systems. Still, we arrived at Tom and Sue's within a few minutes of the appointed time.
 We had a great visit and a delicious lunch with the centerpiece being
a large trout that Tom had caught the previous year during his annual fishing trip to Lake Taupo. It was all too short but we enjoyed the time and their gracious hospitality and took a few photos to share
with the rest of the Day clan back in Canada. Tom and Sue led us out of town with their car and gave us a brief tour of their pretty city. We hope to return
again. (We were reminded of the city again during a boat tour of the Brisbane river in Australia where the guides pointed out an area called Wanganui Point that had been
developed by a Kiwi and named that because it looked like his home in Wanganui). We drove on to Wellington for the evening and the flight the next day to the South Island. A brief
look at the city put it on the return and explore list as well. We dropped off the car the next morning and flew south to Queenstown.
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