From long experience of Thermal Regions Climate, I consider Rotorua as pleasant a place in midwinter as in midsummer in many respects, in fact sometimes pleasanter. The nights are frosty, and there is sometimes ice on the pools (not the hot ones!) in the mornings, but I have known long spells of beautiful, clear, serene, sunshine days in June and July. The atmosphere is more translucent in winter, the lakes seem a deeper blue than in summer; for days a halcyon calm steeps all the landscape.

True the shorter and cooler days do not encourage lake cruises, but land travel is more invigorating than in the often blistering days when most people visit Geyserland. For another thing, the geysers are usually more active in winter, the volume of steam in such places as Whakarewarewa seems greater. When it rains at Rotorua it rains; and when the marangai, the north-east wind, sets in strongly, it usually brings rain on its wings. And on a freezing night—unless you are one of those incredibly hardy souls—you will be glad of a hot-water bottle. But the bright days compensate for all that.