These are photos of the Rotorua museum - formerly the Government bath house. We had a big day of sight seeing ahead of us and didn't feel the need to go into the museum.  In hindsight, it probably would have been better to skip the Burried Village in preference to the Rotorua Museum.

It's not as if I know what exactly is in the museum, so this assessment may be off the mark, but it was substantially cheaper than the burried village and would likely have covered the story of the erruption that burried ## village.

They go to a bit of effort with the gardens around Rotorua, and the spring flowers were all starting to bloom.  It's not like this photo does them any justice, but it's the only one I had!

Next stop was the Red Cedar forrest, just outside of Rotorua. The Cedars are similar to those around California.  Here though, they only had around half the girth of their Yosemite bretheren, despite being (to my eye) around the same height.  They did manage to sway in the breeze quite alarmingly!

Here is a dramatic demonstration of social awkwardness with a tree.  This is how I have my photo taken standing next to one of these magnificent giants of the forrest...

...and here is Caroline demonstrating the correct way to have your photo taken with a tree. My excuse was that I had only just met the tree and didn't feel it was appropriate seeing I hadn't even asked its name...

In the forrest were the silver-back ferns as well...

After our half-hour walk in the Red Cedar forrest we drove on past the Blue and Green lakes (which in the oft inclement weather were not living up to their names) en route to the "Burried Village". This is where the 1886 erruption of Mt Taruwera burried the local village that had been used as a tourist stop for people to see the "Pink" and "White" terraces.  These were destroyed in the erruption.  The museum was quite interesting and the grounds were lovely, but the whole thing was overpriced!

Final stop for the day was the Whak... thermal park.  There were bubbling mud pools, geysers and the lovely wafting smell of rotten egg gas.