Base Hot Rock Rotorua

I'm really not joking. It smelt like the whole town had got a batch of rotten eggs, consumed them all and had been sitting on the toilet ever since. As we got closer and closer to the town the smell in the bus got stronger and stronger and by the time we reached the middle I had decided to stay on the bus and return to Auckland. I was however persuaded to get off and put up with the smell for a few days! And even came round to the idea of returning. Of my own free will. Despite the smell of "...

9th April 2009 Up and out at 7.30am leaving Taupo and heading to Waitomo for 10.30am. We visited Waitomo for a day trip so we could go Black Water Rafting, we opted for the Labyrinth which is a three hour trip (one underground) and involves a combination of walking and floating on a tube alone the river canyon, jumping off waterfalls and gliding through caverns lit up by thousands of glowworms. 1st off we had to get kitted up in our sexy wet suits, jackets, shorts and boots and it was rather ...

Day Eight - Hobbiton and Rotorua
We got up early, still alive to James's relief, and drove down the road to Hobbiton! We took the hour-and-a-half tour around the remains of the set from The Lord Of The Rings trilogy. It was really exciting to see the set, even though not a lot was left, but Bag-End was still there, and it was possible to go inside the added-on room. The whole location was a lot smaller than I had imagined it, and the orientation of the village seemed very different to wha...

buried village of Te waiora, Tamaki village hangi and concert mountain biking, Waiotupo, waimangu valley, spot of pampering at the spa!

I awoke and checked out with a flurry in my heart, I was finally back to doing something a little different. I made my way to meet my friend who informed me he couldn't get me a lift anymore, but I managed to blag myself a lift on a bus to the end of the motorway anyway (phew) it's illegal to hitchhike on the motorway's in New Zealand, this only applies around Auckland and nobody will stop for you so you have to be lucky! I had been standing with my thumb out for only 5 mins when a Father, hi...

Greetings from Rotorua, the cultural capital of New Zealand. In an hour we will be taken to a Maori Hangi ceremony and concert. I'm excited because our bus driver Day-mo (I think his real name's Damien) told us there is excellent all you can eat food. And there will be some fun Maori stuff, I'm sure. I just hope that unlike Derek Zoolander I don't run into two Finnish dwarves as well. We've only been here three full days, but it feels like a whirlwind. After my first blog post we walked aroun...

On the way to Rotorua we went zorbing, which is basically a big inflatable beach ball which you climb inside and roll down a big hill. We had a dash of water in ours and we went down the hill together. we couldnt stop laughing all the way down, it was great fun. We saw a big gold mine still active, and went sprint car racing and a 4x4 off road experience which was pretty scary! Ok so we arrived in smelly rotorua and stayed in a place called hot rocks. It didnt have any hot rocks though... onl...

Got up at 9am and took Jay's Random Adventures. Jay is a Maori who use to work for Stray and now does his own thing so he can stay close to home. We got to a geyser go off, with the help of some soap (random I know...explanation in in the caption) then we climbed Rainbow Mountain were we got to look over all of Rotorua and as far as Taupo which was 300 km away. Then our last stop was Mud pools...which were awesome!! I was so mesmorized by them, but the smell (of rotten eggs) definitely cured ...