Taupo and Rotorua

  Rotorua, New Zealand
Thursday, October 11, 2007

A few people I'd met recommended Taupo, which is the North Island's equivalent of Queenstown in the south: the centre for extreme sports.  I was put off doing any extreem sports here though because the first three people that I met all had limbs in plaster, and the woman at the tourist information had a hand missing.

My hostel was deathly quiet; the only other guest was an American with a claok-like hooodie and one of those bum fluff beards that all American travellers seem to have.  He looked like he was auditioning for Lord of the Rings.  I asked him if there was much to do in Taupo.

"There's some great runs." he said.  "We could go together tomorrow morning."

I told him that he could go for a run.  I would go for a fry up.

Sure enough, the next day his alarm woke me up to the tune of "Wake up it's a beautiful morning."  It wasn't.  It was 6 am and still dark.  I didn't join him.

I settled on a stroll along the river which was lovely.  I managed to acquire a loyal canine friend with a tennis ball in his mouth.  He followed me pretty much from the start.   After half an hour, I still hadthe dog, but the owner hadn't turned up.  I decided to wait.  The dog stopped too, dropped his ball at my feet and looked at me expectantly.  I picked the ball up and dummied to throw it into the river.  This was an error.  The dog bought the dummy hook, line and sinker, and plunged into the fast-flowing river.  I watched him paddling frantically as he was being swept downstream and wondered what I would say when the owner turned up.  Fortunately he managed to clamber onto the bank 20 yards away and bounded back to me as if he wanted to go again.  I sat rigidly still until the owner turned up.  At this point, the dog trotted over to her and shook the water off over her.  Nice.

After Taupo, I got the bus up to Rotorua.  Rotorua stnks.  It's surrounded by hot mudpools and geysers.  The hot springs here are supposed to cure you for life of any desire for alcohol.  Naturally, I have avoided them like the plague.

I tried out "zorbing", which was highly recommended by a few people.  It was grat fun.  They put you in a big inflatable bubble and roll you down a hill.  I was told that it's best if you try and walk all the way down the hill.  I managed to stay upright for about 2 seconds.  I'll try viagra next time.

Next I go to Auckland - my last stop in New Zealand.

Giant Sheep, Rotorua