The Road to Rotorua

As it happens with vacations, I have managed to loose track of the days. According to my watch, it's the Thursday the 12th, though according to my Mini Computer it's Wednesday the 11th - (though it also says it's 11:40AM, so I know it's wrong); so you can see part of my confusion.
It's been a couple of days since I blogged last and I'm busily trying to remember what we did when and where we were. It's been about 600 km since my last blog posting; we drove from Paihia to Otorohanga (a rough little hick-town in the middle of nowhere - but close to the Glowworm caves, which was our objective for the next day) - which was about 400 km (about 6 hours of driving the sharply undulating roads); of which I drove about 2 hours - and survived! (as did all my passengers). The following day was a shorter drive (only 200 km including the detour to the glowworm caves).

What are these glowworm caves? You ask. They are a series of caves near a little town called Waitomo where the larval form a certain insect have a glowing tail end that attracts prey. L and I took a three hour tubing trip through the caves - which was really a combination of amateur spelunking and tubing - so it was great fun. At a couple of points, we turned off the head lamps on our helmets and floated along in the pitch-dark looking up at the star-like glow-worms.

The afternoon was spent traveling from Waitomo to Rototura where we settled in to our B&B before heading out for a Hangi meal (a traditional Maori meal that is baked over hot rocks for several hours) along with a Maori Cultural show. Great food and quite an interesting experience, complete with Maori warriors and Polynesian dancing.

I have to go now, breakfast is waiting and so is our full day in Rotorua...

We're back from our day out & about in Rotorua, which we spent in and around Rotorua while it tried to rain a bit. We were spoilt for choice for what to do - Rotorua is an area of underground volcanic activity, so there are a lot of sulphur hot springs and places where gasses are bubbling up though the mud and water; also, there is a forest that rivals that of the California Redwoods, along with waterfalls and lakes, plus adventure activities like bungee jumping and Zorbing.

The was a main park in Rotorua called Kuirau Park is filled with areas where the hydrogen sulfide bubbles up through the ground and heats the water and mud, in which we walked around for a while taking pictures before heading into downtown and looking at the lake and the hydrogen sulfide activity there. The lake shore was composed of fine rocks and pumice stones.

Next stop was the forest for a very brief look at Whakarewarewa Forest Park and the California Redwoods (that were planted in the early 1900s) before heading off in search of the Blue and Green lake. By the time we got to the lakes the skies were about ready to open up and spew forth a great downpour, so instead of a walk, it was a quick look until diving back into the car and heading back into town (incidentally, I was disappointed to discover that I was a mere 3 days early for a women's triathlon that was to be held in Blue Lake - the ride and run would have been a hilly torture).

So, after looking at most of the natural wonders - minus the waterfalls, we went Zorbing - it was awesome fun!!!

What the heck is Zorbing? - you may be asking. Zorbing is where the Kiwis put you in a large inflated ball and push you down a hill. And if you're not satisfied with that answer, here's a better one. There are two large durable plastic balls; an inner one and an outer one (the inner and the outer balls are held together) the outer one is filled with air, the inner one partially filled with water and a person. Said person then walks forward until the ball, which has been staged at the top of the Zorb run (a grassy hillside surrounded by grassy embankments and fences), begins to roll down the hill at which point gravity takes over and the person is at the mercy of the Zorb run and gets sloshed about as the ball rolls down the run ricocheting off of the sides. It was a blast!! I wanted to go a second time, but unfortunately there wasn't time.

We wandered about the town in the afternoon and then headed out for dinner at an outdoor restaurant, we were tempting fate and fate won, having survived a series of light drizzly showers (which we were protected from by the table umbrella) during the meal, the skies opened up at the end of our meal making us all run for cover and scamper to the car to avoid being drenched.

I'm now safely back at the B&B we're staying at, it's out in the country at the foot of a mountain with an unpronounceable Maori name (most Maori names seem rather un pronounceable to me - apparently, if you pretend you are a Japanese tourist, you can get the pronounciation right - something about the way they pronounce their vowels).

With only dial-up Internet, Tigger photos, and a Flickr post, will just have to wait until further down the road (literally) 'til when we are in Hastings or Wellington.