Aria's Farmlet Rotorua

... Everyone has to do the scenic course to start with to get used to the steering and brakes, the brakes worked by pulling the whole steering column back into your lap. Well LJ said she was scared before going on them and wanted to go first and I had to stay behind her which was fine but after the first few corners of the scenic course she was flying and I had to give it some to keep up as she overtook families who were cruising along. When we got to the bottom we both had a big grin and ...

... with dancing and weapon displays. It was pretty touristy but still has a nice atmosphere as the whole thing was run by one family and the host for the evening was pretty amusing, Afterwards we did a night walk through teh wildlife park next door and had a fleeting glance of a kiwi.
Sarah had a particular penchant for the Maori with the big muscles.

... is called, for one side of the leaf is green and the other silver. He instructed the English girl (he said he dare not let an American do this) to throw the leaf behind her back and into the water. If it landed on green, our raft would not flip over when it went down the fall, but if it landed on silver, we were doomed. He said the leaf was right 90% of the time. She threw it, and ...

... the captive breeding program this is increased to around 85%. Of course, we would like to see them in the wild, but this is very unlikely as they are so rare, and also nocturnal. So to see them in captivity was second best, but still an amazing experience. There are two breeds with only about 150 birds each left in the wild, and all Kiwi species could be extinct by 2015. Kiwi's evolved in New Zealand with ...

Heading into the top thermal site in the country, we knew just one thing - the rotten egg smell was only going to get stronger.  The whole are resulted mainly from a volcanic eruption about 700 years ago.  First part of the walk was among deep craters with sulfur gas streaming out.  Beyond that, we found the main Champagne Pool in the middle of the park.  Each pool had a slightly different color due to the minerals mixing together.  

... watch the sky becoming the ground and vice versa, then down the hill with both of us in it along with a load of warm water (not strapped in), and down a zig zag course again with loads of water - this is so funny! it is like being in a washing machine (maybe?). later on we went to a spa called Hells' gate. It has a thermal park like Wai-o-tapu but is a bit lame in comparison - would be better to come here first! there is ...

... town at the same time as two girls I had met both in Bolivia and Argentina so that was good to have a catch up - bit strange as all the times we'd met previously I'd been with Nikki and they'd been with another friend, Alex and we were now in a different continent, the other side of the world and yet we'd both managed to arrive into smelly Rotorua at the same time - weird! We did some walking around Rotorua which was nice when your senses deadened a little and the rain on our ...

Rotorua is famous for its stink... sulphur. It is a very thermal area, and it sure smells like it! There are an overwhelming number of ways to see the Maori's of this area, as well as the thermals. After much debate, we finally chose a Maori village to visit that was on a thermal area. Two for one! The short name of the village is Whakarewarewa... the really short name is Whaka. The long name I won't type out. First we ...

... they filmed the scenes for hobbiton in lord of the rings. the hobbit holes were actually built on a private sheep farm...most of the holes were taken down, but it's still easy to imagine how this little peice of farmland could have been transformed into a bustling town full of hobbits! on my last day, i went to waitomo to check out the glow worm caves. they are supposed to be a big deal...but they're just caves...with worms...that glow....

They warn you that you smell Rotorua before you see it & its true. The sulphur smell is everywhere! The bubbling mud & boiling streams & geysers & amazing geological formations are amazing but the town is a bit of a dump! Its great fun looking at gloopy ...