Aywon Motel Rotorua

... that this part of the contry was very, veryyyyyy rural, also its landscape is quite hilly. On our way we stopped at Agroventures, every daredevils dream. Agroventures is filled with bungy jumpers, high jumping swoopers, fast pedeling bikers, fast jet boaters, and rolling waterfilled zorbs! I can't stand anything to do with the high jumpy things so I sticked with the shweep and jet boat. The shweeb is a man powered pod ...

... lamb, chicken, potato, sweet potato, cauliflour...all quite famaliar but with the smokey flavour. And the dance was great to learn more aboot the culture, how they lived, survived, entertained themselves...they seemed like very happy and peaceful folk. The tribe that held this show seemed geniunely happy and thankful that we were there which was nice.

The next day, i did something i never do, i hired a car for ...

NZ is located on a huge fracture in the earth's crust called the Ring of Fire.
Rotorua is very close from where the continental Indo-Australian and the thin
Pacific plates meet and the city has been built in the crater of a volcano. So that the area is packed with thermal springs, geisers, mud baths, etc.

Rotorua is as well an important center to the Maori culture.
Prior to 800AD, NZ was discovered by Polinesian people (themselves descendant of ...

... at the very top which is perched over the drop. The word "****" is coming in very useful and is repeated liberally - much in the style of the start of Four Weddings and a Funeral when they're late for the wedding. Then we let go of the bar and rely on the friction racks as Iain stays above us so we can set our own pace. The minute we set off, you feel as safe as you possibly could dangling from a rope 100m in the air and begin our descent. Now ...

... your eyes adjusted to the darkness, but you could see a faint scattering of little lights on the riverbank. After this they took us to a kiwi enclosure. Being nocturnal creatures, this was the best time and location to see them as they are also an endangered species. They are one of the most unusual and coolest animals I have ever seen. They are about the size of a large cat sitting down, most of its volume is just fur (not feathers) and it has a long ...

... enjoyed washing his feet in a hot pool direct from the earths core, first hot wash they had had for months. Only one point of note, Mac was not impressed that Mable had them staying in an active volcanic area, funny how she forgot to mention this. Oh and yes, it does smell like rotten eggs most of the time. Mac x Big thanx to Barry from www.adventurephotography@xtra.co.nz for the pics he sent us..... cheers mate AND all at riverrats www.riverrats.co.nz

... later and we arrive. we are greeted by a traditional warrior challenge lead around the recreated villange and talk to the actors about the way of life. next is the concert and storytelling which is good and then to the hangi feast. basically light a fire with rocks on let it burn for a few ours chuck in a chicken some potatoes and a steamed pudding cover in earth and wait 2 hours. you then have a really ...

... t cover you for accidents like this etc etc. There was a pair of weighing scales on the floor, as weight is about the only restriction, but fortunately I didn't have to go through the humilation of being weighed and told I was over the limit! To be honest, it was all a bit easier than doing the Sydney Harbour Bridge Climb four years ago, because you really just can 't go back, you're totally out of control and you just trust (is this the ultimate 'trust ...

... been turned in. Checking my messages later that day, I had two messages from the information site asking me to call them back. When I did, I explained that Connie and Jeremy were no longer in the area but, in fact, were headed to meet up with us in Rotorua. To my complete and utter amazement, the woman insisted on overnighting the phone to us at our hotel at their cost, and even went to the trouble of looking up the address, since I didn't know ...

... and about the protocol surrounding it all back in the day. I learnt a lot. Once we arrived at the village one person from each coach was chosen to be chief and they had to perform the opening thingy where they couldn't laugh and had to stare down a massive Maori guy. We learnt all about how the Maori people lived 300 years ago before the White people came... we also saw people doing Poi and the Haka, and listened to some ...