The day started off with a very pleasant ferry ride from Waiheke Island back over to Auckland. Once we arrived in Auckland we rented vans and headed off for the town of Rotorua. In Rotorua we ran in to the same holiday issues that we had run in to previous days but we were able to set up an appointment at the city’s aquatic center.
The aquatic center was not constructed as a full sustainable building but they did utilize the incredible amount of underground heat, provided by the areas large geo-thermal base, to heat the facilities water. The facilities employees had also taken steps to make the actions of the center more sustainable. The steps included the use of an on-site recycling program, the planting of an on-site vegetable garden and the tracking of water usage and turnover for the facility. The center representative that we met with told us that these things were all done at the urging of the employees themselves and that she felt the whole town of Rotorua was really getting on board with the “sustainable lifestyle”. This visit showed our group that with a little thought and effort that sustainability can be practiced even if your building wasn’t built as a sustainable structure. There are many actions that can be taken by building occupants to reduce waste and be more environmentally friendly.
Following our site visit we grabbed a quick lunch and then a group of us guys hopped on a sea plane for a scenic flight over the area. It was an incredible flight that gave us a look at the area’s largest volcano, exotic geo-thermal pools, multitude of incredible lakes and vast amount of beautiful farm and forest land. It was my favorite part of my trip thus far and probably one of my favorite vacation moments of all time.
It was another great day spent in New Zealand and I couldn’t be happier with my decision to come on this trip!
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