Macy'S Motor Inn Tauranga

... br>
So now its the day after and I have hangover to add to my cold, we managed to move but not before the hostel staff rocked up to ensure we did. I now have even less money than before and this combined with everything is making me put on weight but it was fun.

I do now think enough maybe more than to much and am going back to life of sobriety after all from Wednesday I have to be the sort of women you want to buy perfume from.

\16 Mar 09 We booked the white water rafting trip in the morning and a Tamaki Maori culture tour in the evening. We were picked up from our hostels at 9am to their offices to change into rafting attires which have a fleece pulled over, a waterproof shoes, helmet and a waterproof jacket. We get on the bus again this time with four raft tow behind. On the way to Kaituna river which is a spill from Lake Rotorua to the smaller Lake ...

... ever invented. It was called the 'Air Pillow' and it was a cross between a trampoline and a bouncy castle without the walls, or the noisy motor. I may have played so long that my legs were seized up for the rest of the evening. The next day we parted company with Ann and Pat, unceremoniously leaving them at the ferry terminal a whole 4 hours before their boat. Unfortunately we needed to rush back to Aukland to sell our little van and catch a flight to Chile...

... 300 sheep a day! After the show we got to pet all the animals, including all the babies!! Number three is probably one of the biggest attractions here in Rotorua (minus the geysers, hot springs, and bubbling mud) which is the Maori Cultural Performances accompanied with a traditional Hangi dinner. There are several places that offer this and we chose one of the newer ones, Te Po, since it came with a walk down to Te Puia Geyser. I went to this show not really expecting much ...

... today and I should try in Tauranga. "OK, thats the way I'm going, we can look on the way." I sat back down. So off we went, I explained what had happened and she told me about the problems of driving a bus with boy racers and cyclists (she was quite moaning about cyclists I think she had forgotten I was one.) We passed to bike shops which were shut, my heart was sinking. I was trying to come up with a plan C. Then we spotted one, I thanked the lady ...

... enough to say sober let alone with a few beers! Anyway dinner - mine was great Jacks was "disgusting" to quote her response to the waitress; although with sweet potato chips I would tend to agree with her! It was weird walking back through the park with random steaming thermal areas in between the bushes! Back to the Hostel for a couple of very nice pints of Mac Gold and a very long game of pool that had strictly speaking finished ...

... the landing site of one of the great canoes of the Maori immigration in the 1300s AD. I missed visiting Tauranga from the sea, but the map makes it look very interesting, as it is sited on a number of peninsulas and isthmuses with sea and lakes all round. My camp spot looks directly onto the water of an estuary, about 20m away.

... time.) Was chatting away for ages and as I've done many times already on this trip, swapped emails addresses. They offered me aplace to stay in Canada should Igo over next year. I'm hoping I will butit's an open offer for the future. Lovely people, I was very sad to e leaving in a way as I would have loved to hang out with them more but then I have to ramble on to take in all the things I want to see.. I'm sure I'll ...

... is better than eating rats and small birds like the Maori did. I got back into Tauranga late Sunday night. I had taken the Naked Bus in to town because it was uber-cheap ($5 from Roto-Vegas). The problem was that I had to stop in Cambridge for 2 hours. There is not much to do in Cambridge on a Sunday night when it's raining. Especially when weighed down by a half-tonne of luggage. So I sat in the bus shelter for pretty much the whole time, taking an opportunity ...

... option, as it was cheaper and meant I didn't have to wear a wetsuit. The glowworms were cool I guess, and the caves were massive, I was over 40 metres underground at one point which is pretty scary if you think about it - I would have been so dead if there was a cave in... At the end of the tour you go out on this boat and see the millions of glowworms twinkling down at you like stars - and they really do look like stars - its so dark that ...