Waihi to Rotorua

After a wonderful breakfast with John and Marg we reorganized the bike packing and rode to Waihi and then to nearby Waihi Beach.

We planned to park the bike at the beach and to hike 45 minute up the coast to secluded Orokawa Bay but signs posted in the beach parking lot warned about leaving items unattended. While we were discussing our options a woman stopped and chatted about the bike and asked how we liked travelling by motorcycle. She and her husband had just bought one. After chatting for a few minutes the subject of the hike came up and she offered to lock our helmets, jackets and tank bag in their car while we went for the walk. We took her up on the offer and got some needed exercise walking to the bay and back. Here is a photo of the beach.


It was then a short ride (150K) to Clover Downs Estate located just outside of Rotorua, which is the centre of the Maori culture. We are staying here 2 nights. Clover Downs Estate is small hobby farm now. The owners, Lloyd and Lynn are semiretired from farming but they still have an interesting operation. They breed hybrid livestock. The male is 100% Elk and the females are 50% Elk and 50% English Red Deer. The resulting offspring, who are 75% elk and 25% Red Deer, are sold to larger operations that raise these hybrids for meat. These are the 50-50 doe with the 75-25 fawns.

Lloyd and Lynn were also in the Ostrich breeding business for a while. The bottom apparently dropped out of the Ostrich business but they kept couple of them, just to entertain the guests. They also have sheep, and cattle and white Fallow Deer. We went out with Lloyd this morning on a farm tour. It was interesting and great fun. We forgot to take our camera so I think we might go out with him again tomorrow.

We just returned from a sightseeing trip to Lake Tarawera and Rotorua. This area is situated on a volcanic fault line and there is an abundance of thermal activity. There are geysers, bubbling mud pools, hot springs and many beautiful lakes in the rolling farm and forested terrain. We stayed away from the tourist attractions and instead walked around one of the smaller lakes (Blue Lake). Much of the vegetation here exists nowhere else in the world. There is an incredible variety. The growing season is 12 months long so things grow quickly. The pine forests here are harvested every 25 years instead of every 100 years or so in Canada.

That’s it for now... back to the wine and cheese.