From Wai-O-Tapu we backtracked northward to Rotorua and checked into our hotel, the Hotel Ibis. The Ibis is located on Rangiuru Street, not far from the lakefront. It is adjacent to the Rotorua Novotel (both are Accor hotels) but is somewhat less expensive. In general, Rotorua hotels are not cheap, Rotorua being the tourist magnet that it is. But the Ibis had a good winter rate for the three of us, and even included a buffet breakfast in the rate. Getting a room on the side of the hotel facing away from the lake probably helped to keep the rate lower.

Not having had a decent amount of rest since Los Angeles, we spent a few hours giving our bodies a chance to recover from the shock to which we’d subjected them. In other words, we didn't do much of anything until it was dark (which happened around 5, as it was winter). At this point we roused ourselves and went out in search of food. As it was quite cold out (somewhat colder than Auckland), we got into the car and drove around, ending up on Fenton Street, a north-south thoroughfare that eventually becomes the main highway south of the town. Before going too far, we found the "Amazing Thai" restaurant and discovered the food to be pretty good, though the prices were high for Thai food.

Then we went looking for a place where we could get drinking water and snack food. In Rotorua, this means going to Pak 'n' Save, not far up Fenton from Amazing Thai.

Pak 'n' Save is a supermarket with a kind of a no-frills look to it. It's hard to say whether this is reflected in their prices, as we didn't get a chance to do a lot of comparison shopping. Its prices were massively cheaper than those at the hotel room minibar, though. We always find it interesting to look around in grocery stores in foreign countries and see how the basics of life resemble and differ from those to which we are accustomed. In New Zealand, grocery stores are very similar to those in the U.S., except you are expected to bag your own groceries (in bags that cost you ten cents apiece, motivating the regular customer to purchase the one-dollar reusable bags that are also for sale). The same basic categories of merchandise are available, with a few differences in the details. Kiwi fruit, for example, is extremely inexpensive ($1.29 per kilogram on our visit, equivalent to about 45 cents a pound in U.S. money; two kiwi fruits weighed one-fifth of a kilogram, or less than half a pound).

Vegemite, a breakfast spread which tastes like yeasty salt and looks like congealed motor oil, and which is a staple in Australia, gets a decent amount of shelf space, implying it's somehow successfully made the migration across the Tasman Sea.

And L&P is for sale. L&P is a soft drink found only in New Zealand. The P stands for Paeroa, which is a North Island town which was well known for its mineral water, and which is now well known for L&P. The L stands for lemon, which is a citrus fruit. When in New Zealand, I drink a lot of L&P, not because it's the greatest-tasting soft drink ever (though it's not bad), but because I know that after leaving the country, I won't see it again until my next visit. Which is difficult to accept.

From Pak 'n' Save we returned to the Ibis, to attempt sleep during the non-daylight hours and to contemplate the visit with the Maoris we'd planned for the next morning, at the Te Puia Cultural Centre.