Life is good in New Zealand

A new adventurous day for Koen and Vicky in New Zealand. Today, the theme is luxurious living :-) Rotorua is the place where that happens.

After our less than perfect stay of yesterday, we headed for the city of Rotorua. This place is known in New Zealand for its geysers, geothermic activity, and its … spas. So the theme for the day was set. Some unseen pampering could come our way. A day of the stress-removing holiday was on its way.

Rotorua

After 250 or so kilometers, we arrived at the Hamurana Lodge near Rotorua. One of the staff greeted us warmly and offered us coffee, tea, and cookies. We felt at home right away on this beautiful estate. Our room, under the roof, had all we could wish for. The room looked out over the property, so a calm night was assured.

After leaving our stuff here, we went off to Rotorua, the Polynesian Spa. We spent most of our afternoon here. As most of the hot springs are closed at 5 pm (a shock for us, after we had spent evenings in Yellowstone, which has a lot in common with Rotorua), we went for one of the Mud Pots.

When we returned to the lodge, we had the chance to meet Alex and Fred, the hosts. These two gentlemen and us entered into a pleasant late-afternoon conversation with some of the wines they have in the restaurant’s cellar. One of the better wines I have had in my glass in New Zealand so far. We not only had a great time with them, but both Vicky and I are sure that we will stay in touch with these two gentle guys that know what hospitality is about. They made a reservation in one of the better places in town, as the restaurant of the Hamurana Lodge was closed that night. They made sure we had a place, even on a jam-packed night.

We had our first lamb in New Zealand for dinner (insert lamb joke here) and fell asleep that night soo smoothly…

Tomorrow we are about to meet some rather small fellows…

PS 1: Alex would point out for the lamb joke that there are far more sheep in Australia than in New Zealand;

PS 2: more pictures have been uploaded on Flickr

PS 3: our blog on New Zealand is in English because most of our friends and family in Belgium understand it, while not all of our friends and family outside Belgium would understand this if it were in Dutch/Flemish.

Koen Blanquart

Koen Blanquart is a strategy consultant, journalist, and author.
Wanderlust is one of his driving factors, and he shares his travels here on Boarding Today. Koen is also the skipper of SV Bagabonda, a sailing vessel making a slow circumvention of the globe..
Koen recently published a book on how to manage a remote team: The Suitcase Office.

More about Koen on his website: koenblanquart.com

koenblanquart.com