The main highlight in Rotorua was the Maui cultural evening!! Branded the best cultural experience in NZ!It was so so so so awfully CRINGE!We arrived at the venue..some huts in a wood and stood in a circle around a sandy area while our asigned chief (a hairy man from Wales) walked to the centre. We were all very serious and under strct orders not to laugh or talk. We had smirks all over our faces! Suddenly one at a time 5 big well-rounded men came running out screaming and pulling their traditional war faces (tongue out and eyes glaring) shouting out roaring (absolutely terrifying noises). We were all very scared!We laughed...it was too hard not to! Then we walked through a tribal village where we saw 'real' demonstrations of how to cook and make maui clothes etc by 'real' Maui people wearing 'real' fur capes and 'real' reebok trainers!!!There were fires and wooden carvings everywhere and a gentle humming noise from a whistle and beating of a drum acted as the perfect background music! We were then led into a room with a stage annd heavy duty electrical lighting plus sound sytem and watched a Maui concert which included dancing, singing, the Haka and an acoustic guitar! After the show we went and had a huge dinner, rather like christmas lunch which has been cooked under the ground with pavalova for pudding and to finish off the evening our rather creepy bus driver gathered us altogether, told us to stand in a circle and sway to him singing! it was so awful....as expected some people really took it rather too seriously one couple stood swaying with their eyes shut...excuse me he's playing an acoustic guitar!!! He then said thankyou once, twice and a few more times over his microphone! On the way back our bus driver put together some terrible commentary, i wanted to sink into the ground!As we made our way out of the bus we all had to touch noses with the bus driver twice...eeww!We all pulled the funniest faces and ran away in hysterics of laughter!

We are now in Auckland and leaving for Fiji in two days!!! Have a cold! x x x x x x x x x x