Rafting about Rotorua
Trip Start
Jun 14, 2008
1
46
93
Trip End
Jun 20, 2009
Rotorua,
North Island,
New Zealand
Tuesday, November 11, 2008
We began with the highly recommended and slightly nerve racking white water rafting option. The highlight of this trip is a 7 metre waterfall which your boat drops over. That is the highest commercially rafted waterfall in the world, to quote a very convincing brochure, and pretty god damn scary when you think about it; which I did. Nervously. After suiting and booting us up in the usual appallingly dorky safety gear, we were separated into teams. We got paired with another Irish couple to form Team Ireland, and got the usual ribbing, joking and pissing taking that you'd expect from Kiwis when they ran us through the safety talk and rowing demos. Nervous (me) and excited (Emmet), we dragged our boat down to the river shore and launched off.
Now the people that recommended the trip to us had all done it during winter months, when the river is higher. The river was grade 5 then, but at about a grade 3 when we did it. Now Emmet says the guide told him it doesn't make a difference to us in the boat what grade is, it's just more work for the guide when it's at grade 5. But still, I found it a lot tamer than what I was expecting.
Murphy ready to rock
Maybe too many people had built it up for us, I don't know. Or maybe it's because I was pretty scared about doing it, but when we got out on the river, it wasn't really scary at all. Truth be told, I was almost slightly disappointed when we didn't tip over by the end of it! Don't get me wrong though, it was great fun, as you can tell from the looks on our faces in the photos. They really did their best to maximize the thrills as well, forcing the boat to surf in the rapids so the boat partially submerged and sprayed tonnes of water on top of us until you couldn't really breathe! The 7 metre waterfall was pretty nerve racking as well, although because you have to tuck your chin under when your going over, it's kind of hard to see anything until it's all over. All in all it was a good trip, but it was fairly short as well. We finished up drenched and looking forward to a short rest before we had to get ourselves together and head out to Te Pui for our Maouri evening.
Rotorua is essentially the Maouri capital of NZ. There are dozens of traditional Maouri meeting houses (known as Marae) which hold cultural events / concerts showing off their traditional songs and dances. We opted for one with a traditional Maouri meal (hangi) included. The setting for ours was also unique, as it was located in the middle of a geothermal park. Rotorua is a volcanic region on the North Island of NZ, so there are lots of boiling mud pools, geysers and sulphurous fumes floating about, which creates a unique (and rather funky) smell in the region.
And the Bunt .
So we were kind of killing two birds with one stone, as only having one day in Rotorua, Emmet hadn't seen any of the volcanic stuff yet. Once we arrived our hosts determined whether we were friend or foe by sending out their warriors, tongues protruding and all, to see what sort of signal we gave them back. Two very accommodating German tourists had been selected as our chiefs for their evening, so they stumbled up mortified to assure our Maouri kin that we were not there to rape and pillage, merely to partake in a civilized exchange of culture and conversation.
We were permitted entry and then the fun began. The concert was extremely polished and professional. The songs and dances were amazing but the best bit was when they asked the audience to participate. I had to get up on stage and learn how to dance with poi pois which are basically little balls attached to the end of a long piece of string which you spin around and slap in time to music whilst shimmying your hips and singing. Having a dire lack of co-ordination and the voice of angel (ahem) this didn't go too well for me. There is video evidence but thankfully Emmet hasn't been able to upload it as of yet. He, on the other hand, is not so fortunate. Naturally having suffered my embarrassment I forced him up on stage when men had to participate to do the haka. Well the results are up so I'll let you judge for yourself. Once you've watched it once and stopped laughing, watch it again, but this time focus on the old guy dressed in orange on the left side of the screen. Hilarious. And this was right before the Ireland vs All Blacks match. I was sorely tempted to email the video to everyone I knew and tell them that Emmet had swapped sides, but I'm not sure if he would have forgiven me. He's still sore about the Kerry jersey incident.
The ice broken, we all headed into the dining room for a delicious meal, probably one of the best we had in NZ so far. Oysters, mussels, lamb, pork and chicken all steamed underground. After stuffing an obscene amount of food into us, they then boarded us onto little trains, wheeled us five minutes into the park and we watched the geysers go off at night whilst we supped hot chocolates and sat on the rock steps heated up by the geothermal activity beneath. Truly an awe inspiring sight and being a reptile, for me the temperate was just right.
That brought to an end our time in Rotorua and our trip around the islands. Back to Auckland now to spend our last few days with everyone before heading on to another new country.
