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After a surprisingly good 'communal sleep', we were up at 7.00am and after toast and jam for breakie, we said goodbye to Uncle Boy and left the marae at 8.00am. It was a short journey into New Zealand's geothermic capital, Rotarua. We were dropped off at Te Puia, a geothermic and maori cultural centre (Dodgy lived up to his name and got us discounted entry by pretending we were with another tour company!). We had a quick look at the steam arising from the ground and water, before embarking on a guided tour of the bubbling mud pools, Kiwi house - where we saw the female bird rumaging for food - before being lucky enough to see the world's second largest geyser firing water 13 metres into the air, in a constant stream for around 15-20 minutes. Next we went to a replica of a traditional (pre-european influenced) maori village, before seeing a more modern, post-european, replica (marae). We even saw a worker digging a hole in the ground to prepare a traditional underground Hangi (where stones are heated on a wood fire then buried in the ground and food place on top before being covered in earth to enable a slow cooking process) Following this we visited New Zealands only Maori wood carving and weaving school, where we saw current students hard at work. After the tour we headed to the Cooking Pool and enjoyed a complimentary corn on the cob cooked in the boiling natural pool.
We left the cultural centre at 12.45pm and headed towards Taupo, making a couple of stops en-route. Firstly, we visited a natural hot spring, in the middle of the forest. We all enjoyed a dip in the murky water, which felt like we were stepping into a bath, a nice change from the arctic wind! After drying out we drove to the Huka Falls, where we were amazed by the ferocity of the falls, and the beautiful blue colouring, they were like a mini Niagara Falls!
We arrived in Taupo just after 3.30pm and after checking in we headed to the tourist office to book our ferry ticket before stocking up at 'Pack N Save' (supermarket) then returning to the hostel to make pancakes (well it is Pancake Day!) with a mixture of jam, lemon, banana and mars bars (yum!) before settling in the tv room, chatting to fellow travellers.
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