Auckland to Rotorua

After two nights in Auckland we headed south, 150 miles, to Rotorua, home to Wiamangu, the volcanic valley. We made many stops along the way, including a visit to the Hamilton Botanical Gardens which were beautiful, even in the rain.

OATS travel likes to give an opportunity to meet real people so we stopped for lunch at an organic dairy farm. Very interesting. Dairy products have replaced sheep as the country's largest export.

Lunch spread at the organic dairy farm.

Learning about organic dairy operations in the milking shed.

The next day we visited the "young" (1878) volcanos in the Wiamangu volcano valley. It was dreary and rainy but very well presented.

Loved the ban on drones. Never seen that at a park before. Now I wish they would ban selfie sticks!

A little rain didn't slow the group down.

The scenery was beautiful. Note the steam rising from one of the warm water filled craters.