Saturday - Mother Nature is weird

Just like all the other days, we woke up where we went to bed.  This time, it was Taupo.  I worked a little and blogged a lot while Mazie slept in and then we went to breakfast.  This has been our best meal of the day, everyday.  This time we went to Dixie Brown and we ate a nice meal by the lake.  I got a haircut and Mazie listened to a new album that just dropped.  

We headed north towards Rotorua but made a stop along the way and oh my god.  From oceans to volcanoes to lakes...and now we have Thermal Pools.  I've been to Yellowstone once in my life and I thought to myself, I'm on another planet.  This was very similar.  It's hard to imagine how this kind of thing just exists in nature.  Much like on Turtle Island, the native people used these thermal pools for cooking, cleaning, and healing.  They even used the area as a burial ground and a place to return placenta after the birth of a child.  We went with the "take only pictures, leave only footprints" strategy.

Here are too many pictures.

 

This is actually just soup.

Our Mt Ruapehu Volcano in the background

As we left, I was hoping to have some fun in the bathroom, but I guess that's not allowed in New Zealand. How else am I supposed to talk to the person next to me?

We went from this amazing place to a natural hot spring that you can swim in, but without any towels, Mazie was not game for that adventure.  So, we pivoted and found a Polynesian Spa that I had heard wonderful things about.  They had towels...and smoothies.

Featuring my new Kiwi sunglasses and Taupo haircut

Check out that moon in the sky!

After all our daytime fun and travel we settled into our next airbnb.  This is the third in a row that is just a hotel advertising on Airbnb as an "apartment."  "I swear, we don't have any amenities or a sign or anything...we're just some guy who will meet you to give you the keys...at the front desk of the motel."

I don't really care, but if I were going to stay at a hotel, I would have looked for hotels.  I was trying to stay...I don't know...somewhere more personal and interesting.  Whatever.  We basically just sleep in these places and then take off for breakfast.  But I think they charge all the normal airbnb fees and cleaning fees, which is total bullshit.  If I owned a small hotel I would do the same thing.  :)

We got dinner at a fun Italian place with the intention of having a decent meal before we went to a sports bar to watch the Italy/Sweden game.  The Italian restaurant had a big tv that was showing a rousing netball game.  When the World Cup game started they switched over and put the sound on.  So we stayed there for a long time.  There were lots of Americans cheering loudly for the game it was really a lot of fun.  

I have not had good experiences watching the Women's World Cup outside of the US.  When Katie and I were in France 4 years ago for the World Cup in that country, it was hard to find a sports bar that was playing the games.  We even went out to a bar during the FRENCH game and it was hardly a big deal.  It's been mostly the same here with many Kiwis not knowing that the event is even taking place.  My barber asked me if Colorado was in the tournament.  I told her the whole country, USA, was in it.  "Are they any good?"

So, while the Italian restaurant was full of people from California, Colorado, Oregon and other American cities, at least it had great energy and we had fun cheering for the Swedish domination of Italy.

Tomorrow night will be a good test.  The New Zealand team plays at 7:00pm and we're going to drive 30 minutes to the nearest sports bar and hope like hell there is some local interest.