The weather forecast is rain in Rotorua today…so we have decided to suit up right off the bat. We have been super lucky with the weather to date but I have a feeling that we will be swimming in it today…ha ha ha. Our all in one fluro lime green rain suits worked really well for the amount of rain we were riding through. It was coming down in buckets and did not stop for 2 hours. It was a challenging and super fun experience that I will never forget. By the time we arrived in Rotorua I was really soaked through so much so that when we pulled up to a Mackers for a coffee and directions there was a pool of water around the table that we were sitting at that the staff placed a caution cone there! The inside my helmet was wet, my boots had a puddle around my toes, my polys were soaked through but comfy…I may have well been sitting in a tub! We were approached by a fellow BMW enthusiast/interested Kiwi. Kiwi Kevin, our new friend, helped us with directions to our motel as Navi has seemed to have stopped working? He offered his home to us if we needed a place to stay while traveling north…so cool and so kind! We chatted for a bit, but the longer we sat the colder we got so it was time to find the motel and dry off. I have to tell you that Rotorua totally stinks. I don't mean that in a harsh way…but the smell of sulfur is totally over powering. I guess it smells more when it rains…lucky us! Riding into the town I was beginning to get a headache…maybe I was holding my breath too much???…ha ha ha
I have to laugh…our room looks like a chinese laundry, there is clothing all over the place! We are here for 2 nights so it should all dry out. The motel offered to garage our bikes which was nice, so we plan to stay off them for the time we are here and public trans it! Staying right in town we had access to everything. We caught a bus to Rainbow Springs to visit the "Kiwi Encounter". I had not seen a kiwi yet, well the feathered kind…ha ha ha… and could not think of leaving the country without seeing one! Actually the first "Kiwi Wandering" sign I saw was in Ohope Beach. The conservation operated by the Kiwi National Trust at Rainbow Springs was fascinating. We thoroughly enjoyed the guided process from egg collection in the wild, incubation, hatching, raising and release…and they are so cute!! Yes even though the Kiwi is nocturnal we did get to see them in a dark enclosure doing their grub thing!