We hopped on the coach after breakfast and were on our way to Rotorua. We stopped off at Hamilton Gardens and had a 45 minute stroll in the gardens. There were so many different types: Japanese, Chinese, Indian, English Country, herb, contemporary, Italian Renaissance. We had a lovely walk and took pictures. Our next stop was to an organic farm where we had a home-hosted lunch. Our hosts were a lovely couple who have a herd of dairy cows. Their youngest son has taken over most of the day to day operation of the farm now, but they both still help in the busy times. The cows are milked twice a day, twelve at a time. Apparently they line up in some sort of pecking order to be milked and woe to the cow who tries to cut in line! The milking process takes 2 hours each time. Quite a commitment. The lunch was lovely, a variety of sandwiches, homemade mini-quiches, blueberry muffins, watermelon, barley-lemonade, and apricot cake for dessert. The cows are grass fed and we heard about the rotation of the fields which takes a month to repeat. There were many flowers, bushes and fruit trees around the farm house - lemon, persimmon, mandarin orange, sour apple. We had a lovely time, but eventually had to board the coach for the rest of our journey. Rotorua is a volcanic area and we passed many dormant fumerols along the way. Our hotel is just a ten minute walk from town. Lana and I did laundry before dinner - very nice as the machines in the hotel are free to guests. We had dinner as a group in the hotel dining room and then went to bed. The rooms here are very nice and big. We have a patio overlooking a horse racing track and a separate room with a jacuzzi tub. Tomorrow we will go to see the volcano.
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