On to the lake!

I was thinking about getting up early and seeing some more sights around Rotorua, but instead i decided to get up around 9, so i wouldn't have to scrape the ice off my car windows, and just drive and see what i came across on my way out to lake taupo.
And i finally got to see some of the famous New Zealand landscape! Which consisted mostly of large hills, and sheep! lol This was one of the smaller rolling fields. Though i did come across a golf course, and i'm pretty sure that they were letting the sheep out on the course just to save money on the greens keeper fees. I also have to say though that the course seemed more chopped out of the side of the mountain than anything else, i dunno if a lawnmower woulda worked on it! I was also able to stop at a few other places that kinda caught my interest. There was the natural hotspring were you could bathe, well, after the water had been filtered and let cool for a bit, it was somewhere around 250 degree F. I forget what it is celsius, still pretty dang hot i bet. Well, a picture is worht a thousand words, here's some from my drive down. And you will have probably guessed it already, but i survived my driving experience, The roundabouts where the toughest, but i persevered!





Me at the golf course










I realize now i've totally left this windbreaker i'm wearing somewhere at the lake. But that was Rainbow Mountain behind me. It's got a myriad of colors due to the geothermal activity and mineral content.

The car on the left is mine, the car on the right is just like it. Both rental company cars, from the same place. What are the odds? lol, almost had to check the license plate numbers! I was driving a Ford Echo? or somethign Echo anyway. A four door speck. the hills that led to the golf course, i never got it out of third gear, I wouldn't have made it up the hill!

Driving through this valley, this creek comes from a geothermal hot spring, and the steam comes off of it all the way down the valley. This is the view from a top of the hill. Pretty cool stuff, but on the road it's like driving through fog in the sun!