Centra Rotorua

... which we got for free with our rafting trip booking. So friday we went rafting at 9am, threw ourselves off the highest raftable waterfall in the world at 7 meters high and grade 5 river being the highest grade to raft. Might aswell start with the best for your first time!<br>Saturday I went lugeing...throwing myself down a mountain in a dry land sledge essentially. was good fun. Then I went on a sky swing which lifted me 50m off the edge of a cliff and then launched me over ...

... of our must-do in NZ! We checked the Ratapu caves, which are a natural cave with a pool of jade green water. The water is said to have magic powers: you need to put your left hand in it and make a wish. It can also clean jewelery. We finished by looking at some of the mud pools. They look very attractive for a spa!! <br><br><br><br>10.06.09: We went to Wai-O-Tapu, the thermal wonderland. The whole place, even the town of Rotorua smells of rotten egg because of the ...

... off at those speeds would have resulted in a quite a scraped knee! Hoping to save a bit more money and get back towards being on budget we spent the night in with a DVD, a Dominos pizza (another one for the list Rach) and a lovely bargain bottle of Villa Maria. :) Our penultimate day in rotorua was spent doing what seemed like an essential tourist attractions - The Polynesian Spa, where we opted for a couple of hours dipping in and out of the natural mineral pools set at ...

... other New Zealand blogs here is a bit of M&#257;ori history of the area. The Te Arawa people are the guardians of this thermal region of New Zealand. This right came from the early explorations of Ngatoroirangi, a famous Tohunga (spiritual leader). Ngatoroirangi had travelled with a group of people and were resting at Lake Taupo. While resting the clouds parted revealing a mountain. Ngatoroirangi was intrigued and obsessed with climbing to the top of it. He knew ...

... They performed a pre-battle ritual called a hakka, which is really moving. The New Zealand All Black rugby team does this before a game - I would love to see it in person! Following the performance, we had a great buffet dinner which included their traditional style of steamed cooking, called hangi. The buffet also included ice cream, pasta salad and wine, which I doubt was around the traditional Maori hut, but it was all good food. The final touch of the evening was a guided ...

Thats right after falling 7metres down the highest commercial waterfall in the world we ended up stinking of sulphur in a mudbath. Need a further explanation? ok here it is.<br><br>With Rotorua being the capital of fun in the north island we just had to get involved. There was so much to do and so little time and after Ashlee making Steve miss out on racing down hills in 'tobogan' style karts it was time for some water fun. There were a few ...

... in the Polynesian Spa in Rotorua was in order. The pools here were rather more impressive (and aromatic) than those at Hanmer Springs and Stuart was especially delighted by the 43° Celsius 'Lobster Pot' (not its official name), in which he managed approximately one minute before leaving for fear of evaporating. Rachel liked the lake view pool but this was unfortunately the wrong side of 40 degrees for her too! Both of us were slightly cautious about dipping ourselves into the 'Radium ...

After an early start on the Naked bus from Auckland, I was pretty tired by the time I arrived in Rotorua around noon. I checked into a very nice and quiet hostel. My room had four beds and hardly any space for the luggage but fortunately I was alone in it:) In the afternoon I went to see the Wai-o-tapu, NZ's biggest field of geysirs, bubbling mud, small volcano craters full of boiling water and colourful pools of other boiling water in all possible colours. I had seen ...

... had won and yet a man from china ran onto the stage when she was called up! We got to watch some sheep shearing, some dog training, some duck quacking, and something they called "backing" where the sheep dogs ran accross the backs of the sheep. We got to see 19 different breeds of sheep that they farm here in New Zealand. After the show they offered photo opertunities and we were admitted to the baby barn ...

... down a set track. You are supposed to do a scenic route (i.e. basic and safe) first and then go on to do the intermediate or advanced if you feel like it. To hell with that we says and lined up for the basic one, then at tthe last second we darted into the advanced track route and off we went!!! Somebody told Kieran before that it was physically impossible to fall out of the carts, so with this 'knowledge' we didnt spare the carts, full speed down ...