Red Rock Thermal Motel Rotorua

... all the snobbery you find in Europe. There's also a wierd tale about a knitting shop, a man called John and a driveway but no time for that here.
Er...I've been going on for ages but there's MORE FOLKS.Caught the ferry over to Wellington where we hooked up with the lovely Kirsty and Stu at which point we abandoned the van and enjoyed a room of our own and took massive advantage of K and S's great hospitality and tour-guiding skills. As well as supplying us with huge ...

We are now in Rotorua, the smelliest town on earth, smells


like the Green Giant farthed all over the place hehe :-D
This is one of the most active volcanic area of NZ, the smell is horrific but somehow you get used to it and can still eat :-) All this because of SO4 gases all around.
We will now sleep until more tomorrow, pouhaaa.... with our fingers in our nose.

Pictures tomorrow...

Pipa & Oli

... as with everywhere else on our travel, everyone is or wants to be Irish, including the Maoris. After seeing the village we were treated to a brilliant Maori song and dance show were Niamh’s hunky bloke did a lot of moving. (There were a lot of photos taken at this point. I still could have beaten him up though. Even with his spear.) After this it was dinner where we sat beside 2 Irish girls who were also ...

... the luge in Queenstown so much we decided to do it again here - they have a similar set-up with a gondola ride then luge tracks at the top of the biggest hill in the area. If you were wondering where is best to do it definitely here in Roturua - they have really long tracks, with three different levels which have completely different tracks - scenic, intermediate and advanced. the chairlift back up to the start takes ten ...

... cautious next time! We had some great instructors (it didn't hurt that they were v easy on the eye too) and the other people in the boat were a good laugh so we really enjoyed it. A quick change later and we were off to a Maori cultural dinner that night. We were driven to a Maori village where we got to experience some traditional maori customs including the welcome ceremony/warrior challenge, see a model Maori village and enjoy some traditional song and dance. We also had a ...

... since the set is not as the film. But with the hobbit holes still there, it was all worth it for me. I cannot wait to get home and to rewatch the films. After our tour, we got the chance to see a sheep being sheared! The shearer gripped the sheep between his knees with the sheep sort of standing up, and twisted and turned the sheep around until it was naked! It was a very patient sheep. And after that, Jackie got to feed a baby lamb with a bottle of milk.

We went straight to Kaitiaki White Water Rafting Center on our arrival in Roturua to hit the rapids. The reason we chose Kaitiaki was because there's a 7m drop as part of it. There were 14 rapids altogether and we were also taught a bit of Maori culture along the way. We were the second last dinghy to go over the fall and we got through it without capsizing. The group behind us however were not as lucky and when they all ended up in the water there was a big rescue effort which ...

... and to feel the flesh made raw from the previous day's kayaking dissolve slowly. Very relaxing. It seems that while this is a nice facility and the hot pools are clean and relaxing they could do with sex-ing the place up a little, a fact finding tour to Blue Lagoon would do them wonders. We rushed to a new campsite (having been pretty disappointed by the 1st we stayed at in Rotorua) before we were picked up and taken to a ...

... then stopped at a bank. I took out some more money (sigh) and then hopped into some clothing stores. There are many sales going on at the moment, winter sales, but the prices were still a little steep. We found an internet caffe that gives out 30mins for 1,50. The first shirt I bought cost me 17$ on sale which I though was a good deal because it was a sports shirt. Usually they are made out of a special material that breaths ...