Kawaha Point Lodge A Select Ho Rotorua

... the Kaituna! We managed to convince the girls this was a good idea and proceeded to the river!

We got wet suited up and Carly got her left handed paddle and carried our raft across a field down to the river. Here we were given a 5 minute 'forwards, backwards, hold on' lesson and set off down the river!

The bloke gave us a bit of practise paddling in time, which caused a minor argument, and then put us sideways in the ...

... of the hill and headed back to the hostel. Nick, Ewan, Alex and me headed for the hot pool, which was nice and toasty. After relaxing (and bombing) in the pool we got prepared for the Maori cultural encounter at Tamaki Village. Wow, the Moari experience was fantastic. Ewan got picked as our tribe leader, who had to show no emotion when confronted by the maori tribe at the entrance to their village. Once we entered the village I was really amazed by how authentic it ...

... made me sad to see him so decrepit but it was comforting to know that he was being well taken care of. We went into town for lunch and afterwards into a very nice gallery. We made a few special purchases and then got on the road to Rotorua. It was a nicer drive because not as many curves and mountains and a change of scenery now with lots of large dark forests. As we approached Rotorua we saw some steam ...

... to the surface again and discover we are all still in the raft and the raft is still the right was up and were at the bottom of a 7 meter waterfall. Well minus my oar! So we recover, float away from the waterfall and yet again I have to jump in to retrieve my oar from the guy in the safety kayak who had some how rescued it! And that was that. We'd survived and even stayed in the boat! Looking back up you appreciate the fact that you don't get the chance to see the waterfall ...

... up with here. The Wai-O-Tapu park is a sight to behold. Once you get past all the steaming craters, most of which are called "Devil's Crater" or "Devil's ink pots" or "Hell's hole", (OK so those are slightly made up, but you get the idea!), things start to get more colourful. Yellow sulphur patches line the rooves of caves. Its all good as long as you don't think about the fact you are walking over huge underground craters that could collapse at anytime. They have to check ...

we settled in a campsite for two days, first off there is the museum to visit, the receptionist told us it was better than the buried village, how right she was ,the building alone was amazing & could have easily spent a day there, but lots more to do,take the sky lift cable car which was a very gentle ride up the mountain,alongside was a lugo which is a sledge so if you feel energectic thats for you, we did not feel energectic!there was also a sky swing which we also just ...

... we were lucky with the weather and took in some very good views. After an hour or so it was back into the town centre for a mooch around and then a walking trail from the edge of the lake in the town round to a local thermal spa called Polynesian Spa - no guessing who's idea it was to plan a walk that ended up in a spa!! The walk was enlightening with good views of the thermal activity in ...

... place where you can go to nearby Whakarewarewa Thermal Valley and see the geysers shoot their sulphur up in a beautiful fountain, observe Maori traditions and eat and drink and get merry. Great fun. We were greeted by a Maori who sat us down and explained what the evening would entail. Then a 'chief' was chosen from our large congregation. Everyone looked shifty. But one brave man put his hand up: a German guy called Hans. We all breathed a sigh of relief and stopped staring at ...

We could smell rotorua from miles away - the eggy sulphur stench caused by thermal springs that steam above ground. The weather on the first day was very rainy (although not at all like the worst storm in 150 yrs they were predicting). So we decided to go to the museum which was housed in the old bath house. In the victorian times people would come to the bath house to "cure" all sorts of ailments. Strangely they would ...

... an interesting place with beautiful views, New Zealands biggest war canoe, the old treaty house and an intricately carved Maori meeting house. Next stop was Cape Reinga at the Maelstrom (confluence) of the Tasman Sea and the South Pacific where you can get waves of up to 10 m crashing together ...