Mercury Bay - not that we'd know it!
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Whitianga,
New Zealand
Thursday, May 4, 2006
We left Mercury Bay early the next morning - it seemed like a nice enough town, but since we'd only seen it at night or from the bus, we wouldn't know! The Zephyr bus pass is a great way to see New Zealand, but we all can't help but wish we had more time here, so we could hop on and off the bus at will, rather than see the country at break neck speed from the bus!
We departed early so we could make the most of our day en route to Rotorua (very nice place). We stopped at the Karangahake Scenic Reserve to have a swift walk with swing bridges and a kilometer long mining tunnel - it's a nice walk, but people got lost so we were late setting off.
We made it to the zorbing centre just outside Rotorua, and I was the only one of us foolish enought to go zorbing (that's rolling down a hill in a giant plastic ball filled with water, for the uninitiated). It was great fun and again, there are pictures, and I shared with Lori and Lauren, which was my first major chat with anyone on the bus outside our little five! Fran wanted to go luging, but unfortunately we ran out of time due to the previous tardiness of the lost walkers...
Rotorua is a lovely spot, so we walked around the natural hot springs and geysers - they're smelly! That night, we'd signed up for a trip to a traditional Maori Hangi and Concert in the evening with Tamaki Tours - a night not to be missed! It was absolutely brilliant, with Maori dancing and singing, as well as a great meal and a chance to walk around a recreated traditional village. Definitely recommended, especially after we'd missed out on all the Aborigine villages due to the cyclone in Australia.
