On Day 2, we woke up insanely stiff and sore. Every step was a painful reminder of the 38,500 steps we took up and down the Tongariro Crossing. However, we were SO excited for a new day and a new adventure.

We made the 1 1/2 hour drive from Turangi to Rotorua and made it just in time to catch the Lady Knox eruption at the Wai-O-Tapu Thermal Wonderland park.

The Wai-O-Tapu Thermal Wonderland park is an active geothermal area at the southern end of the Okataina Volcanic Centre. The area is filled with bubbling hot springs and mud pools in a variety of colors due to the  concentration of minerals in the ground.

It got warmer as we got closer to noon but with skies like this, I couldn’t complain.

We drove into downtown Rotorua for lunch and ended up in a random Vietnamese-owned bakery and cafe. We had our first (and possibly best) lamb dish there.

Later that afternoon, we made our way to the Kaituna River for white-water rafting!! This was something we had been wanting to do for a long time and what better place to satisfy our adrenaline needs?

When I was first planning rafting, there were two companies I was considering. One company offered a longer rafting trip with an opportunity to jump off a cliff into the river. The other company offered a shorter rafting trip but part of the trip includes rafting down a 7m (23ft) waterfall. Guess what I chose?

I was a little nervous leading up to the rafting trip but Peter was totally chill and relaxed. Apparently, he had forgotten which company I had gone with until the tour guide starting going over the warnings of what to do so that we didn’t flip the raft on our way down the waterfall (and what we should do if the raft flipped or we got disconnected from the team). The nerves kicked into high gear!

Rafting through rapids was SO. MUCH. FUN. We went down two mini waterfalls and crashed through rapids. Before we knew it, we had reached the top of the big one. We stopped at the top to review what we had to do, going over everything from how to successfully get down the waterfall to what to do if the raft flipped and we were trapped under or floating off by ourselves. With our hearts pumping, we paddled, paddled, paddled, DUCK!

– the two white helmets sitting side-by-side is us! –

What a rush!!