Whitianga to Rotorua
Trip Start
Oct 04, 2004
1
36
102
Trip End
Ongoing
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Rotorua,
New Zealand
Thursday, November 18, 2004
We left at stupid o'clock in the morning as we had a drive of 272 kms to face. Along the way, Dallas our driver stopped at a couple of "cultural significance" spots. First being the small town of Pearoa to sample some of their 'World Famous' L&P Soft drink, unique to NZ and a great cure for hangovers apparently, the local shop nearly selling out after our visit! Then further down the road we stopped at the Hauraki plains, or as its better known now, Hobbiton. The area surrounding the town was featured a lot in the Lord of the Rings movies, so the town adopted the name, hoping for more tourists to visit!
About lunchtime we pulled into our final destination, Rotorua, and boy didn't we know it, it smelt so bad! People describe the smell as a rotten eggs and because of this the town has picked up a couple of nicknames, namely Sulphar City and Rottenrua! I think the Maori's name is the best though, they named the town Whangapipiro, which translates as 'An evil-smelling place'! Although it was unbearable at first, we did eventually get used to it!
The reason we got to the town so early was because Dallas had a lot of activities lined up for us and he wanted us to do as many as possible.
01. fun and games at the back of the bus
First up he drove us to a new luge track that had recently been built on the side of a stupidly steep mountain. So steep we had to catch a chairlift (or gondala as they call them over here?) up to it. A Luge is quite simply a plastic sledge with wheels, which you sit on and ride down a concrete track. We were warned not to go to fast into the corners which was evident after seing a cocky chinese man fall off at the first corner - and he was riding the beginners course?!Not content with just hurtling down a hill millimetres from the ground, we also paid for a go on the sky swing. Its hard to explain what it it, but your starpped into a cage which is pulled up high before releasing and swinging you off the edge of a clift?! To give you a better idea copy the link here into your browser: http://www.skylineskyrides.co.nz/tour/tour3.html
After a couple of hours in the park, we jumped back onto the bus and headed out of the car park, not before Dallas hit a Japanese tourist with his wing mirror though. Dallas didn't seem to care, so we didn't! A short bus ride around the hill brought us to another, less steep hill to Zorb down. Zorbing, to all you uneducated folk, is a new Extreme sport thought up over here. It quite simply really, all you do is walk to the top of the hill, slide into the centre of an oversized beach ball, and then throw yourself down the hill. To add extra enjoyemnt, water is added to give an effect your in a continuos waterslide! Great fun and highly recommended; apparently theres a centre in Wales now so if your in the area..!
We spent the eveing at a Traditional Maori Cultural Show described as something you shouldn't miss by the guide book.
03. Dan on the chairlift upto the luge start
I wish I'd never read that now as it was the biggest money spinning tourist trap i've ever seen. We were told the Tribe take part in these nightly shows to educate people on Maori traditionals so that their culture will survive. At the end of it i thought differently.The opening welcome ceremony was interesting, but after that we were led like sheep into a forest to watch Maori men and women act out tradional sports and activities like Poi dancing, weaponry and the famous Haka, before being led to what looked like a church hall to watch the same people sing and dance. Finally we were led into the Tribes new million dollar buffet hall to eat food cooked earlier in the ground.
It was interesting to see how the Maori's once lived but it was just to fake and acted out for my liking. It was annoying being surrounded by hundreds of old American and Japanese tourists that were treated like royalty by the Maori's just because they have the money, where as we, the backpackers were last to see everything and eat.
When leaving i worked out that this tribe was making close to $10 million a year (about 3 million pounds) just from entrance fees alone. There was 200 other tourists watching our show, 3 shows a night at $65 per person. The show runs for 8 months. I'm sure the Tribes bank manager is very happy they are keeping the culture alive!
