Spent the Weekend in A Volcano

We spent this weekend in Rotorua, a 4-hour bus ride South of Auckland. Rotorua is the most visited place in New Zealand beacuse it is the place that is the richest with the Maori tradition, hence why we wanted to go. Rotorua is actually completely built within a crater of a volcano that was active not long ago, only 600 years. So the whole (large) town is surrounded by the crater edge when you look to all the horizons, a little freaky. We got on the bus at 8:00 am Saturday morning with a couple from Alberta that approached me after seeing the Quebec flag in my hiking pack. :o). So we got to Rotorua at about 12:00 pm. Our round trip bus ticket for this long trip was only about $65. The hostel that we stayed in in Rotorua was more expensive than we expected but we are getting used to that, but I would say that it was worth it. The first day there we visited the Rotorua Museum, which was actually known as the "Curehouse" many years ago. It was known as the world's best bath house is where people came to have baths in hot springs and mud to be cured. The used to give people electric baths here. :op. After the museum we went to a place called Te Puia, an untouched Maori land even today. Here we paid big bucks to particiapte in a traditional Maori cultural performance, view a Maori warrior challenge (with our tribe-the visiotrs). We had our own chief that was challenged in the courtyard and the guy that we nominated as chief was not allowed to grimace at all, even smile. At first we thought that would be impossible because it is your natural instinct to smile out of respect, but here that would have been the most disrespectful act. Anyways, the challenge ceremony was so intimidating (as it is intended), so smiling was not possible. It was incredible. It was very easy to see how well the Maori were/are able to intimidate opposing tribes with only themselves, free of weapons. Then the cultural performance began inside the tribal home. We witnesses many dances, chants and of course the HAKA. (for those of you who know it only from Rugby, its the dance that the All Blacks Rugby team does to intimidate their opponents before each game). Then came the traditional Maori Hangi (feast). FOOODD! We ended up sitting at a table with 9 people, a couple from England. At first no one talked to us, mostly b/c we werent talking to anyone. We were too busy inhaling mass quantities of food. I thinkwe ate more food that our $85 would have paid for. At one point, we both had our forks to our mouths full of food and the lady from England started asking us all kinds of questions about out school and our trip. And as nice as it is to meet and talk to new people we just looked at each other and griamced b/c all that we could see was her mouth moving. I was no doubt drooling onto the food that was waiting inpatiently in my fork infront of me. All I could think about was that food. I stared at the lady, my heart pounding. Need food! Our eating time has become sacred to us, not to be interrupted by anyone. Before the meal was done it was starting to get dark, and we hadn't yet seen the geysers or the mudpools, which were part of this land. We thought that it was included in the package, but it was not. So we decided to be very bad and sneak off into the park and find it ourselves. We did, and as our luck has been getting amazing, it started to go off. So I guess that there were security cameras in the park or something, because when we ran out to make sure we didn't miss our shuttle, the security guard was looking at us and talking on his walkie-talkie about us. We had been running around the park like mad people. We blended in with our tour group and he left us alone. We headed back to our loadge,Treks Backpackers, and then headed out to "The Pig and whistle" bar for a night out. We only went b/c our lodge gave us a free coupon for a glass or beer/wine. "Free" means that we flock to it. Then we went back to the lodge and entertained ourselves with the night table. :op, pictures later...

Sunday morning we shuttled out to the ZORBING. When we got there, they did not have the option to get attached with the harness I wanted to do that one, b/c you woudl actually get flipped around and get to upside down and stuff. The only one that they had operating was the Aqua-Zorb, which did not impress me b/c it was just like a big water slide. We watched people and all they were doing was staying upright in the Zorb because they would obvously just stay at the base of teh zorb as tehy went down the hill. And for those of you that know that I like the big rides, this bored me. And it would have been a 50 dollar bore. melissa still did it though and she did say that it was a lot of fun. So who knows, maybe it was. I was happy decided to save my money for bungy jumping in Queenstown. I have decided to do it. A 440 meter jump (the biggest in the world). Then we walked to the Agrodome and went to the Sheep Sheering Shed, and saw some sheep. Baaaa. I love sheep. Then we wanted to go to this place that we saw on the bus ride there called "Rainbow Springs-A Kiwi Encounter", but didn;t quite realize how far away it was when we decided to walk. Ok, so we had on crappy flipflops, it was blistering hot and we were carrying our bags and our FULL hiking packs (b/c we had checked out of the lodge). yes, we are smart girls. So we started walking, and then started dying, a slow death. It was like walking in a desert. It certainly did not help that neither of us had had not even as much as a glass of water that day, and it was now midafternoon. About half way, we saw a Bed & Breakfast and decided to check it out to see if we could find a vending machine or at least get a glass of H20. The owner greeted us and asked where we were from. we were huffing and puffing and were swaeting beads, We told her Canada, and she told us that we could help ourselves to the hose that was ot by the barn shed. Nice. So insulted as we were, of course we did. Sprayed ourselves silly with that dirty, clogged hose. Headed back to the highway (that is litterally what he hiked on for about 7 km- a highway, no sidewalks, nothing, but of course this is New Zealand, so we had spectacular views. Even the highways are beautiful. You know those places that you love at home, that you wait to drive past b/c they are so beautiful (Eddie- you know the place :o)), well imagine those places being EVERYWHERE, you can't get away from it, everything is breathtaking. Anyways, so we finally made it, on the brink of tears from the pain in our feet and backs. We took our picture with the giant Kiwi and then got picked up by the shuttle, all that walking only saved us 1 measly dollar on the shuttle fare. We got dropped off at Kuirau Park, a park based on a romantic Maori love story. It was a boardwalk that traversed of lakes and streams of steam. If you touched the water, your hand would burn right off. Some 200 degrees celcius.....Even walking along some parts of the boardwalk was hot as the steam rose through the cracks. We had too boogie through. This park actually erupted in January of 2001~kind of interesting to know that the earth is boiling beneath your feet and could burst through at any moment...

Then we bussed it back another 4 hours back to home in Auckland. We had to box out an aggressive lady at the bus terminal to get the front seat (which allows you to experience the ride-rather than just see it). Of course you know I won. And we had an awesome ride back, through the ranges (huge gorges on the roadside with spectacular vegetation), Hobbitton (Lord of the Rings fans..) and Hamilton, etc.

When we got back, we went to Dominos pizza to get a snack. Apparently Melissa has been looking in all of the wrong places for attractive boys, sports fields, bars, etc, they have proven fruitless, Dominos pizza waiting for your order is the place to be! She asked me for one of them for her birthday coming up. I will see what I can do Melissa...

Thats all for now, tonight we are visiting a travel agent to plan our trip to the South Island , now that we have 2 FULL WEEKS THERE!!!! (instead if the 5 days originally). I will fill you in later...


Side Note: there are no stop signs in New Zealand. Picture everytime we would have a stop sign, they have a mini-rotary, known here as the roundabout. Again, another reason to look forward to "hiring" a car. Wrong sides of the road while negotiating a rotary. Ha ha, glad they have good insurance...I'm sorry in advance to whom ever we are inevitably going to crash into.

Another side note: Last Friday night we went to "A Night at the Museum", no not the movie, the real live thing. It was held at the Auckalnd Museum, and it stunk. Melissa thought it would be fun. Ha ha, it was only funny. About 50 kids...and then us. At least it only was 14 dollars...