Lake Tarawera Rheinland Lodge Rotorua

... made both Mike and I<br>quadruple scoop cones which were delicious (Carla's favorite was the<br>Honey &amp; Ginger and Mike's favorite was plum) We also got a<br>personal tour of the honey factory which was very interesting. This<br>experience showed us how authentically friendly and hospitable Kiwis<br>are. By the end of our short visit, we feel like we are old friends<br>with Charity's mom and brother. <br ...

... only 4 in the south...each with their different language, rituals, customs, but all similar in a way as well. Nowadays, there are very westernized and everyone gets along very well but they like to keep hold of their culture and ways. Their sources of income are agriculture, forestry, tourism. The Maori originated hundreds of years ago, coming from Polynesian islands somewhere but its not certain where or why. In this ...

... his tongue, leaving a leaf as a symbol of peace in front of us. As we accepted the peace we were welcomed into the house by song. It all seemed incredibly aggressive to us but it is a call of welcome. Once in (shoes off) we watched as the peformers danced and sang, and also performed the haka - the dance of war. It was fantastic and so interesting. Although perhaps you might say that the cultures here have been heavily commercialised - it was still an ...

... with a bathroom &amp; kitchen and bedroom and t.v. so much cheaper than in Aukland. We don't know, however, if it is a touist flat, motel unit, self contained unit, cabin, kitchen cabin or any number of other possibilities. All we know is it is clean and comfortable and affordable!! Off somewhere else in a few days - East of the North somewhere!

... the moon. Of course all of this is covered up by various governing and non governing bodies that don't want you to know.... He told us he's spent about 1/3 of his life in the glow worm cave.... To current and soon to be parents strike all cave literature from your children's book collections. Worse of all, he let people speak during the glow worm boat part of the tour, even though he himself reminded people that glow worms ...

... just to get the real feel before heading home. Day 5 saw us doing some Shweebing (first human powered monorail system) and Micah doing some sky flying over a DC9 jet engine (the rest of us were adventured out).  Stay tune for more adventures from Waitomo Caves where will be going Black Water Rafting and looking at the glow worms. Back soon. William

... but there was no check in limit on the details. He wouldn't let us order breakfast because it has to be ordered by 21:30 the evening before and we could only have the hot tub on until 22:30, a bit too regimented for me after all we were on a weekend break but hey. The unit itself was lovely with 2 bedrooms, bathroom, kitchen, lounge and it's own hot tub. Saturday - Beautiful sunshine so it was up ...

... able to say 'yes, I did it', or to go through life knowing that you had the opportunity but you turned it down and walked away from becoming the complete person you could have been. Well, I have done it, and i do feel I've achieved something. I'm not quite sure how much of an appetite for danger and glory I have; basically, I let go of all my control and put all my trust in Eric. Is that brave? Who knows - but even if I'm not, at least now I can pretend to be. H.xx

... the reasons we had planned on meeting up in Rotorua. Neither Paul nor Jeremy had even the slightest desire to do it, so we wanted to be able to go together. Bright and early Thursday morning, we headed out to the zorbing site. Determined not to waste the experience, Connie and I each signed up for three zorb rides. For the first one, we were strapped in and rolled, ass-over-teakettle (pardon my bad language) straight down the hill. The second ...

... hole. Lady Knox works hard for the tourists and can go on spitting water for an hour. The scenery looks like in the moon (never been there but guess it might look like that), with all colours in the world around you, orange rocks, bright green lakes, pink steam... The biggest lake is called the Champagne Pool - didn't really look very inviting though to go there for a swim, it's all quite poisonous looking! The following ...