Rainbow Mountain

Our next stop was the Rainbow Mountain Reserve where we hiked up the mountain which took about 1,5 hours one way. On Friday we were thinking about taking the gondola up to a mountain near the city centre but luckily we didn’t because I think it’s more awesome if you hike up by yourself and get rewarded with the great views. And there truly were some great views from the mountain!

 

After Rainbow Mountain, we drove to the Redwoods and did about 1,5h walk in the forest. Around Rotorua and especially near the thermal areas there’s quite a bad smell (everyone warns about that before going to Rotorua) so it was so nice to walk around a forest and have some good smells. :D It smelled so nice and fresh in the woods.

  

Last stop of the day was the Blue & Green Lakes. At first we thought about doing some walks around there but because we had been walking the whole day, we just drove there to see them. :D And it was a good decision because soon after we left there, it got dark so we couldn’t have even done any long walks. 

The Blue Lake was obviously blue but the Green Lake wasn’t as green as I thought it would be. But when you compared them, you could see the difference between them.

 

After the Lakes, we drove back to the rental company to give the car back. It was such a great decision to rent it because it was so easy for us to go around places the whole day. And it was so nice to drive such a small car after driving the big car of my hostfamily. :D