Terume Resort Rotorua

... up on the stage and performed a song and performed similar arm gestures to the Haka. After this the chief again stood in the middle not smiling his face and body covered in Ta Moko (tattoos) and at this point had never spoke a word of English and just stood staring into the crowd. Eventually broke into a big smile and says 'its ok you can clap now' and the tension that had sort of built up during the ceremony and everyone was in awe of the performance, then suddenly after he ...

... hot steam from deep down in the earth; they are what make Rotorua smell like sulfur. After the park we went to our hotel and checked in. The next day we went to Wai- O- Tapu and The Buried Village. Wai- O- Tapu is one of the wonders of the world so it was very interesting to see. There I saw many just mind boggling craters, sacred waters, geysers, and mud pools. I have taken many pictures and videos that I will share with you all when I get back. The Buried ...

... Island; it seemed like every second building was a motel. Due to the area´'s thermal activity most of the hotel rooms have their own in-house thermal spa pools...the one we checked into was no exception.

As you can see from the photos, Louise didn´t quite follow the instructions and was perhaps a little too liberal with the bubble bath. After sending in the St. Bernard and calling 911 she eventualkly emerged smelling wonderful and saying...¨Just call me Bubbles"!

... Me, Ben, Liz, Mark and Jimmy were up early for the Luge. It's a non-motorised go kart which has a handlebar which you pull back to go, and pull back further to break. You start at the top of the hill , then hurtle down at high speed. We did the scenic route first, then intermediate, then 3 runs on the advanced route. Each time, you get a slow chairlift back up to the top of the mountain. One of the rules in no group racing. But did we listen? hell no. On the last race, me ...

... a inner compartment in which you climb and then the ball is unleashed down a hill. Jess and I suited up in our swimming costumes (NZ speak for bathing suits) and chose the "wet" option where you are not harnessed inside the ball but left free with a small amount of water to slip and slide inside the inner ball as it all rolls down the hill. I was a little leery but went for it anyway ...

... about an hour further south than Rotorua and famous for it's huge lake (as big as Singapore apparently). We spent the day hoping against hope that the rain would clear up and badgering the sky-diving people with phone calls every hour. We didn't totally waste our time though and went to see a geothermal park with the requisite bubbling mud and hot steam coming out of the ground. Once we realised the sky-diving was definitely off for the day Flooze changed her ticket so she could ...

... of singing though. After that we walked through the town park and saw all the boiling lakes and pools of mud, we didn't have a car or the money to go and see all the touristy geysers and stuff but saw all we wanted to see. On the way home we picked up two giant t-bone steaks reduced to $5 (less than 2 quidfor both) and BBQ'd them while all the other backpackers ate their pasta with tomato ketchup on.

... Andy, and I played cribbage for awhile before going to bed. 10/30/08 This morning I woke up at 10:30. Nobody was in the house at the time because they were already busy trying corral the sheep because today was sheep shearing day. Andy and I agreed to help. I was quite excited having never assisted in anything dealing with farms or sheep. The local sheep shearer named Paul arrived at around 11am. The we eventually corralled all of the sheep into the lower ...

... we went back to the caving center to get a hot shower, change back into our regular clothes and have some hot tomato soup. We then got back on the bus and made it to our next locatoin which was right up the road. We stopped at a rabbit farm. At this farm, they have 15 or so Angora rabbits and this is the only place in the country that they have these rabbits. These rabbits are special because they have an extremely thick coat that needs to be cut four times a ...

... zeker met te weinig nachtrust. Maar om 9.30 had ik nog geen shuttle gezien. Na navraag bij de receptie bleek dat ik voor het hostel had moeten staan. Dat hadden ze me niet verteld, ik ben onderhand gewend dat ze je op komen halen, maar deze shuttle rijdt dus voorbij als er niemand staat. Voor niets zo vroeg opgestaan dus, maar terug naar bed was geen optie; ze waren nu alles aan het opruimen en schoonmaken. De ochtend verder dus maar wat rondgehangen, maar 's middags stond ik op tijd aan ...