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ROTORUA SMELLS.
Rotorua is a fairly smelly place. It's smells like sulphur beacuse it's on the thermal point. But you kind of get used to it. It's not the nicest town I've ever been to. In fact, it makes me a bit depressed. Well, the town centre does. Possibly the most euchy part of New Zealand I've been to. I arrived yesterday, and I didn't really have anything to do before today, so I just stayed at the hotel. I probably should have stayed in a backpackers, but I thought, hey why not have a hotel. Though it's not the greatest. Meh. I'm looking forward to Wellington!
Today was better though.I woke up this morning, just after my alarm was SUPPOSED to go off, but it hadn't because for some reason it was on pm, and my alarm was set to am. But hey! I still got up in time, though there was a Very rushed breakfast! It was absolutely POURING down with rain this morning, so when I got picked up by Ben (driver), and the other two people going to Hobbiton, it wasn't looking great! But it brightened up and so that was lucky! All of the people on our tour (7) were from England, which was rather nice. In fact, it's rather sunny now, and my hotel room overlooks the lake (sort of) so it's a pretty nice view with the sun coming through as well.
I signed a thing at the Hobbiton place, which means I can't upload any of the pictures that I took, which is fair enough really! But it's a really lovely place and was a lovely morning!
When I got back from Hobbiton tour, I went to the I-Sight to see what was happening this evening that I could go to. Ben suggested that I go to Mitai, the Maori village. It's one of the more expensive things, or so I'm told, but I'm looking forward to it I think. It's weird being on my own after having people around to do things with all this time. But Sarah, Marc and Carolyn are arriving tomorrow afternoon, so I think I'll go on one of these Duck Tour things tomorrow morningish around 11 so will be back for when they arrive. There isn't really many places to eat in town that look fairly decent. Maybe it's just me, but it's not that exciting. And I can't find a proper dairy, or a market. But oh well! I'll manage. Especially as I'm going on this thing tonight.
I REALLY REALLY want to watch Lord Of The Rings right now though. But am probably going to have to wait until I get home. Boooooo. I've reverted back to ten years ago when I was obsessed by it. But I'm not obsessed, more like L because I'm not involved! HA! Really looking forward to The Hobbit when it comes out though.Okay, so that's my slightly geeky over. And also my slightly blaaarrgggghhh. Need to figure out what I'm going to do in Wellington for 5 days though! Hopefully lots of things, and at least Sarah will be there for 4 of them!
Okay! So editing more into this blog about Rotorua!
I went to the Maori Village, Mitai on Thursday night and it was amazing. I made friends with an older couple from New York, and also had people from Korea and India on my table who were in Rotorua for a conference on concrete. As you do.
Maori music and performance is AMAZING. Supposedly Mitai is one of the best ones to go to, and I could agree! The warriors also appear on the river in one of their wakas, which was also amazing. I really could learn more about Maori culture! So that was a really awesome evening. After the dinner, I went to Rainbow Springs which is next door, and saw some kiwis! Which were about twice as big as I had pictured them to be! And also saw some other birds and fish and things. It was pretty good.
On Friday, I decided to go on a Duck Tour. Which has in fact got nothing to do with ducks. The reference is to the duck vehicles that were used in WWII as landing craft. They are both boats and cars! Pretty awesome. The guy who was driving was really funny, and he knew lots about the area! We were also given duck quackers to quack at people in the street as we went past which was amusing! We found out all about Lake Rotorua, which means lake two, or second lake. And I learnt about the Maori story of Hinemoa and Tutanekai .
Hinemoa lived on the edge of Lake Rotorua and she was a princess, whereas Tutanekai lived on the island Mokoia which is in the middle of the lake, and he was just a lowly warrior. When there was a gathering of all the Maori tribes in the area, these two met and fell in love. But their parents decided this was a bad idea, so they were sent home. Tutanekai played his flute on the edge of Mokoia, and over on what is now Hinemoa's Point, Hinemoa heard and as all the wakas and canoes were pulled too high into the shore, she attached a lot of drinking vessels to help her float and swam the distance to Mokoia where she stayed with Tutanekai. Her father noticed she was missing in the morning, but couldn't figure out what had happened to her until he remembered the music from Mokoia, and decided that Tutanekai had stolen her away! So he got his warriors and they got in the waka to Mokoia, and after nearly killing Tutanekai, the others realised it was true love, so Hinemoa and Tutanekai were allowed to get married. And they lived happily ever after.
So back to the Duck Tour: we went onto the Blue Lake (Lake Tikitapu) and the Green Lake (Lake Rotokakahi) which were both pretty! Also, we went past the Redwood Forest that was planted by criminals from the labour/prison camp about a hundred years ago.
After we got back from that, I decided to head over to Rotorua Museum as it was poring down with rain! And I felt a bit rubbish, so I had some tomato and rosemary soup, and a cup of tea. Which made me feel a bit better, but also like I was eating spaghetti bolognese. ANYWAY, so then I got a ticket to the museum, which used to be the bath house, and sat down in the little screen room, where I got surprised by the moving benches when Mount Tarawera erupted on the film! It was rather shaky I have to say! And surprising!
So I walked around the museum a bit, went on the roof, went in the basement, and then had another cup of tea, before walking back to the Ibis to get my suitcase and laptop, and then heading over towards Malfroy Motel which was where Sarah, and Marc and Carolyn (Sarah's friends from brass band) had arrived! It was pouring with rain again when I walked there, so I was a bit grumpy when I arrived! But I soon recovered, and that evening we went to the Pig and Whistle for dinner. Where after persuasion from Carolyn I ordered the full fish and chips rather than the half like I Was going to.
Should have gone for the half. My plate was LITERALLY piled as high as it would go, and it was a trial to get through it all! There were three pieces of battered fish, a million curly fries (which were delicious) and a ton of salad as well. I would advise anyone who wasn't starving to death to go for the half size!! So then we went back to the motel and stuffed our faces with chocolate, as you do after you decide you can never eat again.
In the morning, we went up the hill/mountain on the cable car (gondala) and went luging! Which is REALLY REALLY fun!! You put on a helmet, get in a cart and go whizzing down the side of the hill on three different choices of runs! It was brilliant! And I only fell out once! (And it was more like tipped over than fell out out) AND on the last go I actually beat Sarah down the hill! :D Hehehehe. Carolyn and Marc and Sarah were all really good at it, but that's totes cus they've done it before! Once you get to the bottom, you're then ski-lifted back up the hill to the top of the course. It was really really good, and I think they should have them in Britain!
In the afternoon, what was left of it, we went to the zorb place, and went in the stationary zorb which was hilarious! It was called and H2Go as they added a bit of water inside the zorb so it's not a crazy! (but way mroe fun). For dinner on Saturday we walked to a mediterranean restaurant in town, which was really lovely.
Sunday morning, we got up and went to Wai-O-Tapu which is the place where they have tons of sulphur lakes and thermal things. And it really smells.
It was pretty good though, some really interesting things and colours, and the Lady Know Geyser that they set off in the morning, that the prisoners that were working in the area a century ago discovered by washing their clothes in the warm water by it! (Their soap started a reaction)
We then drove home (back to Auckland) through some pretty good countryside (mostly farms with hills in the background) So a fun weekend, with some lovely people! :)
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