Rotorua

Trip Start Jan 18, 2009
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Trip End Ongoing


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Flag of New Zealand  , North Island,
Sunday, May 10, 2009

Our next stop was Rotorua, the geothermal capital of New Zealand. It is a lovely place but smells so bad! It is a volcanic area and this causes hot water pools to bubble out of the ground releasing a stinky sulphur smell. Our hostel had it's own hot pools, one of which stank so bad - it was rotten and made m,e feel ill :( There was a beautiful park nearby which looked quite eerie with autumnal trees and steam rising from the ground. We walked around the park and saw the water and mud bubbling, it was lovely and warm!

Our first evening in Rotorua we went to a traditional Maori (pronounced 'Mauldy') evening of entertainment and food. We were greeted byt he Maori tribe who were dressed in traditionally made clothes and had various parts of their body tattooed with patterns. They performed a Haka (like the All Blacks do before evry rugby match) which was quite intense and fascinating to watch. We then walked aorund the village they had built to demonstrate how they used to live. We had a huge traditionally cooked feast afterwards of meats and fish cooked in the ground. It was so delicious!!

We went Luging, where you zoom down a winding track in a small (and very simple) go kart type thing (see photo's!) it was great fun although you had to get a gondala back up the mountain to the top and we froze as it took about 10 mintues to get there!!
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