Day 20: We got up casually & drove the mile or so into town to drop off the rental car & get tickets for the 10:00am ferry to Wellington. It was 9:50 when we got up to the ferry's ticket counter. Just then a loud whistle goes off. We then notice a sign that said "Absolutely NO tickets will be sold later than 10 minutes before departure." But the nice ticket agent saw our pathetic faces & sold us the tickets anyway. Over in Wellington we got yet another rental car ("Let's see what we can do with this one." "Aim for that pothole!" "Look, a rock!") & drove for 6 hours to Rotorura. Along the way we saw several giant rainbows.

Rotorura was a nice town, but it was on volcanic ground, so it reeked. It really smelled baaaaaaaad! That evening we caught a Maori concert. The Maori are the native people of New Zealand, & they're just like the Hawaiian people.