The next morning we woke up and had breakfast pretty early and then headed out on the road again towards Rotorua. On the way we stopped at a place called Agrofarm and saw a sheep show... They showed us about 20 different breeds of sheep up on the stage as well as sheared one! Afterwards we were allowed to go up and take pictures of and with the sheep. Probably some of the best selfies I've ever taken!
Then we headed up the skyline gondola to the top of some mountain (not sure which one) and saw beautiful views back over the city. We did two luge rides down the mountain which was super fun! Basically the luge was you sat in it upright and there was a handle in front of you that you pulled back to go and pushed forward to stop. Those things can go fast! Poor Liz got stuck going down and attempted to get out and pull her luge down which, needless to say, didn't go very well and we got some hilarious pictures from the lift going back up. She then dropped her thong (aka flip flop) going back up the lift! Not a good day for her although the rest of the group was very amused by it. Once we got back up to the top we had lunch overlooking Rotorua which was one of the most beautiful views I've ever admired while eating lunch, that's for sure!
Once we got down to the bottom of the mountain again we drove to a traditional Maori village (Ohinemutu village) and were told about the Maori history as well as brought into their village house where they have elder meetings and discuss issues etc. We had to be properly welcomed into the house in Maori (such a weird language) and had to do a Hongi greeting with our guide - It's a traditional Maori greeting in which two people touch foreheads and noses twice. Kinda awkward to do with someone you don't know but everyone had to do it so we all had to be uncomfortable together!
Then we drove to the Ogo which is basically the same thing as what some places call Zorbing... They put a bit of water in the bottom of this big plastic ball and then you get in and basically slosh around in the water while the ball rolls down a big hill. Probably one of the funniest things I've ever done - so random and yet you can't help but laugh the whole way down!
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| Yep, I'm in there |
After everyone had done their "ogo-ing" we drove to our hotel, checked in, and changed for dinner. I was sharing with Jodi and Liz this time, the best roommates ever! That night we had a traditional Maori meal called a "hangi" which is where they cook the food in the natural hot spring steam in the ground for hours before it's eaten. There was soo much food and it was all delicious! Then we watched a Maori haka performance (where they dance and stomp and stick their tongues out - it used to be used in war to intimidate their opponents). It was very interesting but actually kinda scary...
After that we went out to a local bar/club for a night to party!
Rotorua Day 2 (Jan 12)
The next morning everyone was so tired from so many activities the day before that we all just wanted to sleep in! So, we slept in a bit, had some breakfast, and then had a lazy morning. We all bought some wifi from the hotel (pretty much no where had free wifi which was annoying) so for a while we sat around in a circle in the lobby all on our phones connecting to Facebook, twitter, etc. We were all such wifi junkies the whole time... as soon as there was signal somewhere the talking stopped and the typing started!
We had been told that we had a dress up boat cruise the next night so we headed out into town in the afternoon to find some costumes. The group of us ended up buying some pirate accessories and making a costume out of that. We had lunch in the town and then headed back to the hotel to change for white water rafting. We went rafting on the Kaitiaki river which has the largest commercially rafted waterfall in the world at 7 m high. We were all absolutely terrified to raft down it but made it out the other end with everyone in the boat and the boat still upright so we were happy! The rafting was amazing - definitely would recommend it to anyone who asked!
We went back to the hotel and by coincidence the guy that I had met on the airplane coming to NZ (that I spent the day in Auckland with) was also in Rotorua so we got together and had pizza for dinner which was delicious. Everyone was exhausted again so we all had decently early nights to catch up on some sleep!
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