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On our way into Rotorua our bus driver warned us that there may be a slight 'whiff' when we got off the bus, slight wasn't any where near strong enough.
Due to lots of geothermal activity in Rotorua sulpher is realised into the air, making the majority of the place smell like rotten eggs and in some areas very strong stink bombs. Despite the smell, all the geothermal activity was quite the sight when we were coming into Rotorua. On a grey day with constant drizzle, pools of steam were pouring out of holes in the ground in the near by parks as we made our way through town on the big green Kiwi bus.
As mentioned before the Kiwi bus books the first night of your over night accommodation (if you want them to) so you dont actually have to organise anything if you didn't want to, but after paying a little bit more than we ideally wanted to on a couple of our over night stops, we decided to do a bit of research first, finding and booking our accommodation before we arrived. It was in a hostel called Cactus Jacks, which was a tex - mex themed hostel and although it was only us and two other girls from the bus (everyone else stayed at a different pre - chosen hostel) we managed to save a good couple of dollars.
After our ordeal in Waitomo with wanting to stay extra nights and not being able to we decided this was not going to be the case in Rotorua, we felt like we were just flying through our stops. With this in mind we booked to stay an extra night, two nights in total meaning we would get on a different bus to leave Rotorua.
Once we had checked into our hostel we went about securing our bus out a couple of days later, which predictably, was alot harder than we would have hoped.
When travelling on the bus to the various over night stops not only can the drivers book your accommodation they can also book any activities that you may want to do when in town. One of the activities in Rotorua was luging. Not on ice but down a concrete track on the side of a hill. We both fancied giving this a go and it was also recomended to us, however the strange, tricky bus system the Kiwi Experience has in place took up our afternoon, attempting to book on buses and plan our time in New Zealand. We eventually did this, which was a relief but we did miss the change to do the luging and anything else that afternoon. Luckily though a town on the South Island has a luge course so we can give it a go there instead.
One activitiy we had booked though and were definitely attending was a Maori Cultural Evening at the Tamaki Village.
We got picked up early evening and taken (with about 50 others) to the Tamaki Maori Village, about a 20 minute drive outside of Rotorua. Once there we were ushered into a round court yard, with lots of Maori carvings and statues. The group waited in silence for the Maori tribe to come and perform a traditional greeting. As greetings go it was very impressive, a little bit more complex (and scary) than a handshake but great to watch. Maori 'warriors' appeared from the secluded village in full attire, with tattoo's and weapons, then proceded to hop, jump and dance in the court yard with bulging eyes and tounges sticking out. We were told about the bulging eyes and the tounges before we arrived at the village, so it would not come unexpected and seem funny. Niether of us found it funny and even if we did we definitely would not laugh at them, they were mean. Greeting over and with us still alive in one piece, we were invited into the village.
Once we got inside the village there were several little huts with Maori people standing outside, giving demostrations and talks on ancient Maroi games, hunting techniques and of course, The Haka!
After walking around the village and seeing all there was to see we were them asked to make our way into the 'longhouse' for some more demonstrations and information on the Maori culture. It was just as well really as it was fairly cold walking around the village so the warmth of indoors was welcome.
Once inside we were shown in a bit more detail parts of traditional Maori life. How to hunt, tattooing, preparing for battle, weapons, traditional song and dance and again, The Haka. I don't think we would have ever got board of seeing that.
Just before we went into the 'longhouse' we were invited to see our Hangi feast (our dinner) being taken out of the 'oven'. It sounds strange, (a mental picture of people standing round an oven) but a Hangi feast is when all of the food (or the majority of it in this case) is cooked for hours underground so it was a bit more interesting that watching someone open an oven door, there were shovels involved.
After seeing the feast 'unearthed' and visiting the 'longhouse' it was now time to eat. Food is a huge part of Maori culture and not having enough to feed your guests is a big 'no no', therefore there was heaps of it, in buffet style, which made it even better. There was lamb, chicken, stuffing, veg, potato's, gravy the works. After two mountains of food for me (someone who worked there spotted my plate of food and told me I had a "mountain" of food) and one and a half plates for Belle, they wheeled out the dessert. The same buffet style rules applied and therefore we tucked in. This time we could choose from Pavlova, sponge pudding, creme brulee & fruit salad and if you couldn't choose between them have a bit of everything. Belle took a shine to the pavlova (weighing in with 2 bowls) and I was quite the fan of the sponge pudding / everything (also weighing in with 2 bowls).
Stuffed to the level of not being able to move we unfortunatly had to soon after and board our bus back to our hostel. The Maori evening made up for missing the luging and was a brilliant night, with us learning about New Zealands culture and eating until we couldn't eat anymore...good times.
Our second and extra day in Rotorua was what you can only describe as wet. From the moment we woke up it was raining to the moment we went to sleep. This however was not going to put us off as we had chosen to stay an extra day to see more of what Rotorua was about. Braving the rain we first made our way to the parks which we had drove past on the way into town, with all the geothermal activity. Several pools of boiling water or mud were scattered across the park, all spewing out white steam and all giving off a rather eggy smell, which Belle was a big fan of! After ducking between shelters and seeing the boiling pools we headed back for some lunch before heading back out, this time in the other direction.
We made our way down to the government gardens and as we got closer the smell got stronger, the whiff in the park was nothing compared to this end of town.
The government gardens centre around a mock tudor house which over looks bowling lawns (very English don't you know?!) The house itself is a museum and we probably would have visited it if it wasn't for the extortion they call an entry fee. Instead we settled for a walk down to Lake Rotorua. If we thought the smell of sulpher was strong around the government gardens it had nothing on this, it was roughly 9 times worse. It was still very grey and overcast with rain on and off which didn't help the situation. On a clear sunny day I'm sure it would have looked beautiful with the surrounding moutnains reflecting off the perfectly clear water of the lake, with the smell being a after thought. However we could bareley see the tops of the moutains, were starting to get wet and the smell seemed extra strong therefore we admitted defeat, and headed for home.
With Rotorua we finally achieved to perform a "ledgedary" hop on, hop off the Kiwi Bus, it was harder than we hoped but we did it and managed to book a couple of extra nights at some of the over night stays. We also saw a bit of Rotorua, learnt about Maori culture and ate until we nearly exploded, bar the weather it was a good couple of days.
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