Clover Downs Estate Rotorua

... hospital and is being restored. One of the early treatments involved sitting in a tub of hot water with an electric current running through it. Sounds horrible, and I don’t know if it ever cured anyone.

We watched a great movie with special effects about the 1886 eruption of Mt Tarawera (our seats were shaking to simulate the violence of the explosions). Then we took a guided tour of the museum with Anie who knows about all of the exhibits and obviously loves being a docent.

... turning down any work right now!

I have met a bunch of really cool people from all over! Me and five other people in the hostel are looking at renting a house for the summer. It's so cheap if you go in with a bunch of people, and there are lots of rentals out there. Hopefully in the next few weeks I'll have a more formal living arrangement!

Alright, that's all I have for now! Miss you all!

xo

... will see from the photgraph of us below.
What a pleasant way to finish the afternoon.






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We went to the Rotorua Museum of Art and Natural History on a very wet afternoon. The museum is housed in the historic Bath House building located in the Government Gardens.



The Bath House ...

... point.
Onwards from here via the Waipoua Forest to look at the giant Kauri tree there called 'Tane Mahuta' (Lord of the Forest). This rare example is the biggest in NZ at 18M's high and 14M's in girth. Thought to be between 1250-2500 years old, it was an impressive sight.

Later that day we parked off-road south of Auckland city and early on the 5th we continued south for Waitomo Caves and our ...

... a wedding reception a few days before I was there. The baths themselves are to the left and right of a swimming pool which is in the centre of the courtyard. The baths contain minerals and aswell as the swimming pool are thermally heated. I spent around an hour in the lovely warm bath just relaxing and admiring the architecture, a bit more relaxing than white water rafting down a ten metre waterfall! Although it is in a geothermal area and the Rachel Spring is ...

... place Cousin Ben took us to was the Buried Village.  Basically, people had set up a tourist town ear the volcano.  It erupted, covering the town with ash.  Instead of leaving it for hundreds or thousands of years like Pompeii was left, people rediscovered it less than 100 years after the eruption and started unburying it.  It still contains so me mostly in-tact artifacts from the past, but many of the houses are at least partially made of materials that biodegrade ...

... and most of the things to do here cost money or are outdoor activities like kayaking or what not. It's not like the shops would have anything that I haven't seen considering I was in Welly for 6 weeks and you can pretty much find every kind of everything in some shop there. Maybe I'll go walk around and then read or something. Hopefully the weather will be nicer tomorrow and I can take some pictures of the lake? They have some gondola ride I can take..but that costs money. Who knows..

... de leurs origines et se refusent à oublier leurs traditions. De nombreuses cérémonies sont donc reconstituées et proposées aux touristes, leur permettant de mieux comprendre cette culture. Après avoir visité The Hell's Gate, nous décidons de participer à l'une de ces représentation qui se terminera par un dîner traditionnel.

... tegevusele. See oli mulle tõeliseks pettumuseks, sest tegemist on suure järveg* j* see on ju kumm*line, kui se*l ujud* ei tohi :) Kumm*line just ohutul põhj*m**l k*sv*nud inimesele. Koh*likud nimet*v*d Rotoru*t Rotoveg*seks, sest se*l *suv Fentoni tän*v meenut*b L*s Veg*se "the Strip" hotelliderohket tän*v*t. S*m*s, mitte-koh*likud kutsuv*d Rotoru*t hoopis Rottenru*, kun* väävelvesinik toob õhus j* vees välj* rõved* mäd*mun*h*isu. See ...

... difficult. For me the most interesting site there is the ancient forked tree that forms the entrance to the underworld in ancient Maori belief.
Nearby are a couple of high sanddunes that you can boogie-board down. We didn't have a board and the wind was too wild to seriously consider stupid stuff. We did it anyway, rolling down the hill. I suspect I've still got sand in body recesses out of my reach.
Last stop in Northland were the ancient Kauri Forests ...