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It was an early start to the day from Whitianga, we were up at 6.30am to make sure that we were showered and had eaten breakfast and were on the bus by 7.30am to head to Rotorua! Our first stop was at a bakery just round the corner from the hostel for anyone that hadnt managed to get any breakfast but after that we were on our way towards our first stop of the day which was at Karangahake scenic reserve where we were taken on a walk by the driver that follows a river meaning that we had to cross a couple of swing bridges in the process before venturing through a kilometre long railway tunnel! The views over the bush-clad gorge were stunning and made the one hour stop here totally worthwhile, the scenery in New Zealand is just breathtaking! It was pitch black in the tunnels meaning we needed torches to see where we going, but after taking various photos of the walk and getting a picture whilst standing on the swing bridge, we were back on the bus to our next stop!
My bus driver today was a different guy to the bloke that I had for my first bus journey because I stopped over an extra night it meant that I caught the bus that was following our one! The nickname of this bus driver was buzz and he was proper maori bloke! He was absolutely huge, a beast! But he was really cool, and knew his stuff just as much as the previous driver, the drivers had been really approachable and many of us would just have a chat to the driver, they even sit with at dinner and on nights out! He also had this monster of an ear ring in his ear that just dangled down and look as though it was pulling his ear apart!
From the Karangahake scenic reserve we passed through a town called Paeroa which calls itself world famous in New Zealand because it is where the unique New Zealand Lemon & Paeroa spring water soft drink was originally made, the shortened name for the drink is unsurprisingly L&P! From Paeroa we travelled through the Mount Te Aroha which is known as the mountain of love! After passing through the next stop was in a place Matamata, so good they named it twice haha! To be honest with you though there was nothing at this town, apart from a cheesy Hobbiton sign! So most of the group got a photo of this after we had eaten our lunch! For those reading this that arent Lord of the Rings fanatics, this was the filming location for the Hobbiton in the Lord of the Rings, and if there were any real hardcore fans of the film on board they could hop off the bus here and stay an extra night to take a tour of the hobbit village....noone on our bus did!
So after this we made the one hour journey into our main destination, which was Rotorua! This is a very unusual town as there is steam coming out from under the drains, and the initial greeting you get when you enter the city is the nasty smell of rotten eggs, the smell comes from sulphur dioxide gas and is created by the geothermal activity in the area, but nevertheless gives the town a very distinctive smell, that you do actually get used to after a few days there, you just get a whiff of it every now and again but on the whole you do acclimatise to the smell! Rotorua also has many nicknames that describe the city quite well these are Rotten-rua, Sulphur City and Roto-Vegas! Upon arrival in Rotorua we travelled along the lake before dropping a couple of girls off at the information site, and then made our way to Te Puia, which was $28 admission with the discount that we recieved from Kiwi Experience! Te Puia is New Zealands most well known thermal park complete with geysers, boiling mud, a cooking pool, a Maori arts and crafts centre and a Kiwi bird house! Hot springs occur when water, beginning as rainfull, seeps through the earths crust and is heated by contact with hot rocks. A geyser erupts when an underground pond of water is heated to boiling point and flashes into steam, violently expelling the water and held above the flashing point. We spent a couple of hours walking around the geothermal park, and were even able to see a typical maori performance near the arts and crafts centre, we witnessed all the things noted above which were all fascinating and to think that all of it was natural was baffling, it just made you think, how and why does this happen and leaves you full of questions, the geyser made an impressive performance when we were there as it spurted metres into the air which is a rarity according to the tour guide!
After our tour of Te Puia, we caught the bus to the hostel, this hostel was a BASE hostel, there are many BASE hostels around New Zealand, they are probably the biggest hostel brand name over here, and all there hostels tend to have a lot in common, they all tend to be very big and all have their own bar and the kitchen facilities tend to be well below par! This BASE in Rotorua fitted the specification pretty well as it was the biggest hostel in the city and the kitchen was a mess but the dorm rooms were very spacious and all had ensuites which were to a good standard so no complaints there and we even had a balcony! Once I was checked in and allocated to my dorm, I found all but 2 of the people in the dorm were on the Kiwi bus with me as it was an 8 bed dorm! So we chatted for about an hour in the dorm before most of the people on our bus went and had a cultural hangi (traditional maori meal) and concert! I didnt attend this, and was joined by 4 others from the bus who also did not attend so we all decided that this would be the perfect opportunity to all chip in and cook a meal together so thats exactly what we did!
We left the hostel just gone 6 and headed to the local supermarket, Pak'n'save, we got corn on the cob as a starter each, and then got ingredients for chilli con carne and then finally a lemon cake at a reduced rate of $2.50 which was a steal I think, as it was basically 25p each for a nice chunk of cake! We also got a few bits and bobs each that we needed for lunch and breakfast the next day but the total cost of the meal we got was $3.50 each so about £1.75 for a starter, main course and dessert, so it was a very good price! We got back to the hostel at about 7.45pm and wondered how we had managed to spend such a long time in the supermarket but we had managed to!
We went straight into the kitchen where we got the cooking underway straight away! Firstly we stripped the leaves away from the sweetcorn to gather that there were catepillars inside and one of them was rotten but we cut away the dodgy bits and ate the rest, this meant there was less corn on the cob to go round than we had anticipated as we had to chick a fair amount away! Once this was boiling away, we got the chilli con carne up and running, Charlotte (who I met in Mercury Bay) was mainly in charge of getting the chilli cooking, which I werent to fussed about as it meant I had less repsonsibilities and could just look forward to the food on my plate! I then got some water boiling for the rice and chucked in some rice, but we sort of over anticipated how much rice we would need, so there was too much in the pan which meant that the rice at the bottom of the pan all got burnt so we couldnt use it, so Charlotte separated out the good rice from the bad into separate pans and we let the good rice to cook a little more, before the chilli was ready so we drained the rice and put the chilli on the plate and the meal was done.....mainly down to Charlotte than the other 4 of us! I have to say though it was such a great meal, especially as I love chilli as it is one of my favourite meals and this meal just made a nice change to the usual stuff that I had been having for dinner! That was just the start of the goodness though, as we had all been looking forward to our lemon cake that we brought, so more of less straight after the last mouthful of chilli had been eaten we cut into the cake and ate that, the cake was so nice and we all got a generous portion, its not often when you are a backpacker that you get to have a bit of cake that tastes so good! After dinner that night, it was already about 10pm, we had been eating our dinner on the balcony overlooking the pool that the hostel had which many people werent brave enough to get in! So we washed up and went back to our room where we chatted the night away before heading of to sleep!
The next day many of the people on the bus were back on it again but because of my extended itinerary, I had 2 nights more than most, Charlotte and Tom were also here in Rotorua for a long time, one night more than me in fact! So after a good lie in that day, I woke up to a very smelly shower, the shower was actually really nice and hot and powerful but the water smelt of rotten eggs because we were in Rotorua, which was a little nasty, but after breakfast, I was out of the hostel by about 11.30am that morning and went down to the information centre with Tom to find out what there was to do in Rotorua, whilst there I noticed that there was a leaflet advertising a few different hangi meals and concerts, so I went and enquired about these as there were a few that offered cheaper deals than what Kiwi Experience was offering with a discount, and all were pretty similar in what they offered! So I left with Tom and we went to enquire about bike rentals which were a total rip at $60 for a days rental, whilst I was still pondering on whether to go to the Hangi meal or not! Anyway we made our way back to the hostel to meet Charlotte and I headed on the internet for a short while before concluding that I am in New Zealand so have to experience a bit of maori culture so decided that I would go to the hangi meal, so I went back to the information centre to book my place at the evenings meal, before continuing on to walk around the big lake Rotorua, and had a nice walk through the government gardens, before heading back to the hostel, whilst on my way back, this local bloke started chatting to me about various things for about 45 minutes! After this I had a little while to meet the new guys that had arrived in my dorm and get ready for the evenings meal, before leaving the hostel at just gone 6 to make the 6.30pm start to the evenings entertainment!
The hangi meal and concert that I was going to cost $65 and the hangi meal and concert that the Kiwi bus took you to with a discount was $85, so I was saving myself $20, and I found out that the only difference between the two was that the one Kiwi went to was in a recreated village not even the real thing and the one that I went to was in a hotel but had a stage which was decorated in typical maori fashion, this didnt bother me as I was going to see the same thing and get to understand a lot about the maori culture whilst also getting a good meal! I also got free entry to the Rotorua museum with my ticket for the hangi meal!
I arrived at the hotel it was taking place at about 10 minutes early so waited outside the entrance until we were allowed to enter, there were very few people queuing up outside! The doors opened bang on 6.30pm and there was a woman dressed in typical maori clothing there to greet us, upon entering I told the guy (also in maori clothing as all the people working there were) my name and he allocated me to a table. At my table there were a family of three from England, a mother and daughter also from England and an Australian couple, so once seated the discussion at the table began whilst we waited for the rest of the guests to be seated, everyone at the table was obviously intrigued as to what I was doing there alone and were all really interested in my trip! It was about 6.40pm by the time everyone was seated and there were now about 200 people in the restaurant, who must have come from nowhere, as I couldnt see hardly anyone waiting outside before I entered, there were a couple of big groups of chinese guests which boosted the numbers considerably!
A women then introduced herself to us and told us what to expect from the evenings entertainment! After this introduction, a big maori chief came into the room and a person from the audience, who was from dubai, was selected to go up and act on behalf of the group to see if the maori tribe would except our presence in the maori challenge which determines if you become a friend of a foe, this involves the maori chief trying to intimidate you face to face, and your not allowed to laugh or even change your facial expression, just keep a straight face, which the guy did well, then the maori chief laid a feather on the floor and the guy from the audience had to go and pick it up and walk backwards to the position he started at without showing his back to the maori chief, this then signifies that we have been accepted into their company and are a friend! After this we were shown how maori's traditionally cooked food on hot rocks deep underground, where the heat to the rocks would have been generated by rubbing sticks together! Our food that we ate that night was cooked in this fashion except the rocks were heated by gas, but it was still cooked underground with a lid on top to keep the heat in, after this we were allowed to have a photo with the maori chief, where he was sticking his tounge out and trying to look intimidating!
After this is where the party really started, we were told where all the food was located and then one table at a time were allowed to go up and tuck into a traditional maori feast, known as a hangi meal! Firstly we had a starter which consisted of soup, which was delicious, then for the main course it was all buffet food and we could go back and forth as many times as we liked, the food that was on offer ranged from salads to potatoes to rice to about 6 different meat choices, including beef, pork and lamb! There was a stew also as well as roasted vegetables, and many fish dishes plus lots more, it was food galore! The first time I went up I stacked my plate up so high but being a backpacker, and not having had a good meal except the chilli con carne the night before for a long time, I got through the plateful exceptionally quick and went up for seconds, the plate being stacked up high with food once again! I didnt get through this plateful as quick but the food was amazing, and now I was so full that I had to take a 10 minute breather before I moved onto dessert! There was so much choice, so I decided to grab a bit of everything on offer, which included a bit of chocolate cake, pavalova, ginger cake with custurd and ice cream! It was a big bowlful and I struggled to eat it all but I knew I wouldnt eat this well again for while, so I managed to eat it all, but every spoonful I took actually caused me pain, it was hurting to eat, I then settled down to a cup of tea for the concert, taking a break from drinking the free water which I had been on the whole night!
With everyone in the room stuffed, and not being able to eat a single thing more after the most amazing buffet of maori food you would ever see, we were treated to a maori concert and cultural performance which taught us about the history, culture and customs of the local maori population! During the performance we experienced waiata, which are songs, the poi dance, the stick dance and the haka which was incredible! After this they then taught people from the audience how to dance with poi's which are balls on the end of string, and then selected people to learn how to do the haka, which was pretty cool! This however marked the end of an unbelievable night, a night I will never forget and a trully brilliant experience at the home of the maori's!
From here I made the short walk back to the hostel and arrived back at 9.15pm, I told everyone about my excellent night and then just relaxed in the hostel to let my food go down a bit as I was still full to the brim! The next morning, Tuesday I had a lie in until about 10am before getting ready and heading to the Rotorua museum at about 11am, the museum was located in the government gardens and was only a short walk from the hostel! I had free admission to the museum as this was part of the deal when I purchursed my ticket to the hangi meal! At the museum I got to learn more about the local culture, and found out the use for the museum prior to the museums opening, which was that it was a prestigious spa and massage parlour where people would come from all around the globe to recover from various aches and pains! The people that worked here were the best in their field of work, and we got to see some of the original features from when the spa was in use as many of the aparatus still havent been moved! Also at the museum was a great look out point over the whole of Rotorua, and a short film explaining the history of the area! There was also a section dedicated to the various wars New Zealand have been involved in and a section dedicated to the history of the maori culture! The museum was very informative and I was there for about 3 hours until 2pm, when I walked back through the government gardens and saw many people playing lawn bowls competitively before heading to the supermarket to top up on fruit before making the hour long walk along a main highway to the redwood forests!
I got to the entrance after the long walk and having to cross the busy road with no pedestrian crossing only to realise that there was another 20 minute walk to get down the very long driveway from the main road entrance to the actual visitor information entrance of the redwood forests! I got a booklet on the various walks they offered but only did the short half hour walk as it was already gone 3pm and I wanted to walk back before it got dark! There were walks that lasted upto 8 hours long! The forests were amazing and the trees were over 30 metres tall so it was amazing walking through them with the sun piercing through the gaps between the trees! It was definitely a worthwhile walk as the forests were spectacular, I had some food in the picnic area before making my way back along the main highway towards the hostel! I was back at just gone 5, and met the people in my dorm that would be getting on my bus the next day, and then I went on the internet for a while, before getting shoved back to reality with a bowl of pasta and sauce fro dinner, it was still good though, just not on the same playing field as the hangi meal the night before obviously!
After this I just relaxed around the hostel with the people from the Kiwi Experience before it was time for bed as there was another early start the next morning as we were off to Waitomo! I had a brilliant 3 days in Rotten-rua, it may have been smelly but it was a great place and im glad I stayed a few extra nights here! The highlight obviously being the hangi meal but I also thoroughly enjoyed seeing the geothermal park, and the rest of Rotorua!
Still missing you all!
Love Toby!
xxx
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