Weather .... Overcast with showers predicted
Today is a free day with lots of optional tours available. We have decided to have a relaxing morning, catching up with laundry & hopefully visiting the Polynesian Thermal Spa baths.
After a reasonable nights sleep (still having trouble with the right shoulder so very difficult to get comfortable) we had a nice relaxing breakfast whilst our washing was in the machine, then transferred it to the dryer and made plans for the day. Our clothes were all clean and packed so we headed out around 9am.
We wandered around the shops, found a coffee shop with free Internet, so uploaded yesterday's blog and checked emails over coffee. Then we found a health food/natural therapy store so wandered in as I had been told that a NZ green lip mussel supplement was great for reducing arthritis symptoms. When I asked the natural therapy lady she said they would help joints on a long term basis, however they would not help the acute pain. She did question recent changes in food intake and when I disclosed the large amounts of shell fish I had eaten on the cruise and to a lesser extent over the last few days, she thought that may be the problem :( Here I was thinking all the sea food was good for me! Anyway she suggested an Ultimate Omega supplement so in desperation for some relief I will try it. She also suggested sticking to a vegetarian diet for a few days so I will give that a go as well.
Next we walked to the Polynesian Spa, hot thermal baths. We hired towels, swim suits etc and spent 3 hours moving around the different pools. There were around 10, 8 of which were therapeutic & each had a different temperature ranging from 32 to 42 degrees C. It felt wonderful just soaking in that beautiful hot mineral water (we didn't even mind the sulphur smell). Eventually we started to look like prunes, or I looked like a whale sized prune, so we showered, changed and had a drink at their cafe. Then we headed back to our hotel around 2pm. I would love to say that all my aches had vanished as I jogged back, but that would be a lie. In the water I could move painlessly, however once on land the pain returned. Maybe I will feel the benefit tomorrow .... Fingers crossed.
After a wee rest we changed and went downstairs to wait for our Rotorua Duck Tour. What a fun time we had in the 1942 vintage military duck. It took about 2 hours & held 30 passengers. After the tour around town we went to the Green & Blue lakes. It is fantastic to go from driving on land to motoring on the water in seconds. I had seen the lakes before, but only on a coach, so this was a great way to experience them from land & water. We returned around 5.30pm with our little duck whistles the guide gave us. It was funny to watch people walking down the street react when we blew our (quack) whistles.
Will add some photos from today and try and upload this when we head out for dinner shortly. If not will be from Wellington. There were 2 Ducks in operation, so the photos were of the other one, which was the same as ours.
We walked just a short distance to Eat Street, an areas of about 25 restaurants of every different cuisine you can imagine. We eventually decided on Indian as it had won the North Island restaurant of the year 2012. We both had vegetarian would you believe? Very good but too much so had to leave a fair amount. Then walked back to hotel around 9pm but unable to find any free Internet .... Oh well, there is always tomorrow.
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