In Auckland we rented a car and drove to Tongariro National Park via Rotorua and Lake Taupo. Because the car was in my name, I got the privilege of learning to drive on the other side of the road. It was weird to be on the other side and to be sitting in what felt like the passenger's seat, but driving wasn't all that bad (despite all the round abouts). The one thing that threw me for a loop was that the windshield wipers and turning signal levers were switched, so for the first half hour whenever I turned my windshield wipers were going.

Rotorua has a lot of geothermal activity and as we drove in to town we saw steam in a lot of places. We stopped by the visitor's center and decided to do the short hike up Rainbow Mountain, which was right off the highway on which we were driving to Lake Taupo. From the carpark it took about fifteen minutes to reach an overlook of two crater lakes set against brown, red, and orange cliffs. We read the signs there about the special geothermal vegetation before continuing on to the summit. After about an hour we reached the summit and had 360º views of the surrounding area. It was clear enough that we could see the volcanic peaks of Tongariro National Park to the south, about 150 kms away. In the picture you can just make out Ruapehu on the right hand side. We could also see several other mountain ranges and lakes.

Rainbow Mountain’s Maori name is Maungakakaramea, meaning mountain of colored earth. Maori names were plentiful around NZ and more often than not quite a mouthful. I think it's neat how the Maori names were used along side the common names, i.e. Mt Cook/Aoroaki or Mt. Aspiring/Tititea.