Ann's Volcanic Motel Rotorua

... ago a Maori princess committed suicide in one of the pools. Afterwards, we headed to zorbing! Zorbing takes after the same idea as putting a hamster in a ball and letting it run around. Except the ball is inflated, people are in the ball with some water to make it slippery, and those people are pushed down a steep hill. Even though it only lasted a minute, it was awesome! When we ...

... natural predators and so had no need for flight, but the introduction of humans who hunted them for feathers along with the introduction of possums from Australia for the early fur trade and accidental introductions of other predators who eat the eggs, this has led to a rapid decline in their numbers.<br><br>Got back had a cup of tea, waited for the whole thing to blow over. <br><br>Steph had her tea in the pool!

... and these wonderful fluorescent animals, both the safety questionnaire and talk while we were handed our wetsuits offered hints about what was to come.... A rickety white mini-bus took us and our fellow adventurers up through the countryside and after a walk through a cow field we started a precarious descent on some very slippery ground towards the cave entrance. Once inside it got very dark and eerie straight away as we carried on downwards over, round and through the rocks ...

... to contact us and were just waiting for us to arrive to let us know they had booked us into a different hostel. Unfortunately we had only booked that hostel because the tour bus that we are travelling on pick up and drop off at certain hostels. We were due to be collected the following morning from the main road. After explaining this to the manager and given it was dark and we hadn't a clue where we were or where the other hostel was, we weren't about to ...

... and the various colours pf rock formations made from cooling sulphur on the ground. And of course the eggy pong. This was a very strange experience but well worth the visit for its uniqueness. At the end of the walk around the park, we dived. Into a mud bath for 20 mins, had a freezing cold shower and relaxed in a hot saltwater spring pool! Once again another strange but fun experience. The reason for so much geothermal activity is the right through the ...

... de phénomènes témoignant de l'activité volcanique de la région. Puis petite promenade en ville. Rotorua est dénuée de tout charme. Les rues empestent à cause des effluves de souffre qui s'échappent de la Terre (ça a l'odeur de l'oeuf pourri...). Le lac est sympathique, mais sans attrait particulier... (Celui d'Aix-les-Bains est bien plus majestueux...)

As we headed down the north island, our next stop was Rotorua, which contains per capita, the largest population of Maori people. Maori are the indigenous New Zealanders who are very prominent on both NZ islands and have integrated well into the general population, unlike Aboriginals or Native Americans. The town is also known for its thermal springs activity much like Yellowstone. We spent our first day exploring ...

... short as well. We finished up drenched and looking forward to a short rest before we had to get ourselves together and head out to Te Pui for our Maouri evening. Rotorua is essentially the Maouri capital of NZ. There are dozens of traditional Maouri meeting houses (known as Marae) which hold cultural events / concerts showing off their traditional songs and dances. We opted for one with a traditional Maouri meal (hangi) included. The setting for ours was also ...

... Rally Championship vient en Nouvelle Zelande chaque année à la fin Aout et on voulait être certain de ne pas rater cet évèment donc on avait déjà pris nos tickets lorsque nous étions sur Wellington. Julien était excité comme une puce sur le dos d'un chien à l'idée d'aller voir le Rallye. On ne pouvait pas en dire autant de Johanna mais vu le nombre de pilote finlandais, elle a décidé de faire un effort et de suivre Julien (tant bien que mal) pour la journée. Les ...

... white boys that make up the national basketball team, and downright comical when attempted by half a dozen international tourists. Our group made it look like an aerobics routine. <br><br>The night was finished off by retiring to the comfort of our hotel's thermal pool. It was great being outside in the dark and in the rain relaxing in a swimming pool sized bath, and with nearly 20 people running around in the pool we managed to get an awesome whirlpool going.