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Day 27.
We almost froze to death during the night. It took us till the early hours of the morning to realise that if we just turned our bodies around (so our heads where not by the window) we would be a lot warmer. Matt is still adamant we should have taken the blankets from the first qantas flight we were on. I am starting to wish we had as we'd probably have gotten away with it, as stealing from airlines supposedly runs in Matt's family.
We stopped in an i-site in Tongariro National park to enquire about shuttle buses for the alpine crossing walk. Unfortunately, due to strong winds all buses had been cancelled and it was advised that we should do the walk another day. Never mind, on to Taupo!
Lake Taupo is New Zealand's largest lake, it is a submerged caldera from an enormous extinct volcano. Glad we weren't close when that thing went off! The lake was so big that the strong wind was causing large rolling waves to crash into the shore.
We made our standard trip to McDonalds, abusing their free wifi to make sure we had enough available funds to book some activities at the i-site. Lucky for us the i-site recommended a free campsite close to town. The term 'free' is something of a rarity in the north island.
Just outside of town is the magnificent Huka falls, a fast flowing, thunderous torrent of water. After the falls we headed just down the road to 'Huka Hive Honey Farm'. The thing that had caught our eye and persuaded us in was the sign saying 'FREE TASTING'. After trying just about everything available, including honey mead, honey ice cream, honey hand cream and, of course, honey, we felt we should possibly learn how it was made so wondered through the interactive display and watched the live honey hives at work.
With an afternoon to spare we continued along the road to 'Craters of the Moon', just one of the geothermal parks in the area. A forty five minute walk took us around the smelly, steaming craters and mud pools before returning to the car for a banana. Yes you read right, Matt is training himself to like them. It is funny to see him concentrating and combatting the will to spit it out!
Although not getting homesick, we are both craving those creature comforts of home and would love to be sat on a sofa, watching rubbish tv with a cold cider. Yeah, we know what you're thinking though... "boo hoo, poor you living a holiday lifestyle over on the other side of the world". Guess you're right!
Day 28.
Today is a bank holiday celebrating the anniversary of Auckland. Which meant trying to do some washing was difficult as everywhere seemed closed. Finally we found a laundromat which was open. Hooray for clean clothes! (no more need to worry nan).
While waiting we tried a McDonalds NYC eggs benedict....not a patch on ours. We were also the biggest kids on the plane (this McDonalds has a real plane for kids to play in!).
Since we have arrived Matt has wanted to go fishing, I eventually caved in and we made our way to a fishing location with a twist. The Huka Prawn Farm is home to 'Shaun the Prawn'. Shaun loves it when tourists come to the farm, catch his buddies, cook them and eat them on site. However, our haul barely made a starter with a measly three prawns caught between the two if us. Clearly everyone else was given better bait as their buckets were full and the small child next to us seemed to be constantly shouting 'mum, I've caught another one!'. Git.
After a few hours of prawn related fun we headed to Rotorua where we had a fun few days planned.
Day 29.
Having been warned against the local DOC sites, we splashed out the few extra dollars to stay in a caravan park. This park has its own geothermal bore and therefore a couple of hot mineral pools which we took full advantage of.
We awoke and had toast and tea, the luxuries of staying in a campsite with facilities. :)
First on the list of the days activities was a trip down the road to Wai-O-Tapu thermal wonderland. This was a large scale version of craters of the moon. Everything was twice as big, twice as smelly and twice as colourful and it even included a geyser show. The highlights being the artists pool and the radioactive green (although it isn't) pool at the end.
The kind lady in the i-site had told us that if we booked a Maori evening using a specific leaflet we could get free entry to a local wildlife park. Result.
The park was a beautiful place to walk around, the streams and pools were packed with trout and there were many other animals to entertain us too. The main draw to his park though, is the chance to pet a baby lion cub. We were first in the queue. The six month old male cub was a lot bigger than we had expected. His paws were huge, but his fur was soft and he was pretty cute. We also watched the adult lions being fed before heading back to prepare for our Maori evening.
Whilst waiting for the bus we met a lovely couple who were also going. We ended up sitting on the same table as them when we arrived.
The host welcomed every nationality present (all 23) with phrases in their own language before taking us outside to see the traditional hangi meal we would be tucking into later on being cooked in the ground.
To build up an appetite for the meal, we took a short bush walk down to a beautiful spring and river and watched as a traditional weka / war canoe was rowed past by some very angry looking Maoris. We were then guided to the performance area where we were stunned and lost for words by the cultural show that the Mitai tribe put on for us. It was phenomenal. The most impressive part being the spine chilling haka performance.
By this time the crowd was ravenous and the feast that was waiting for us did not disappoint. The food was delicious from main to dessert- yes we had dessert :).
Before boarding the minibus back there was one last treat in store, our Maori guide took us back into the trees where we witnessed a magical glow worm exhibition.
What a day!
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