Smelly, but so pretty!
Travel Location: Rotorua,New-Zealand
12th: Arrived about 5.30pm, and a group of us headed straight out again for a Maori Cultural experience…with pretty much no idea what we were letting ourselves in for! Were taken out by bus to the Tamaki Maori Village…a ”chief” was selected for our ”tribe” (bus)…well technically 2 chiefs- Pete from our Stray group and a chinese guy known only as Mr Yu! The chiefs had to be welcomed at the entrance to the village in the traditional way with lots of tongue poking and eye bulging before the tribe could enter the village…
Once in the village, which was outside in a forest, there were people in traditional dress doing demonstrations of Maori crafts etc, then we had a Maori concert with traditional songs etc, including the Haka display done before war. Then we had a meal cooked (supposedly) in the traditional way using hot rocks (a whole buffet for 150 people??!), and that included not-so-traditional food such as lamb and mint sauce, but was very nice all the same! Back at the hostel we all met up in the Lava bar…very bizarre crowd and music, but a good night all in all.
13th: Got up early again so i could check out and move hostels from Hot Rocks (bit of a party hostel) to Base…more central and supposedly quieter! Have officially left Taxi’s bus now…they move on to Taupo today but I’m staying til tuesday…shame to be leaving as a really nice group of people, but have loads of time so don’t want to rush! Rotorua is really geothermally active- lots of geysers and sulphorous water everywhere, hence constantly smells of rotten eggs! All i had heard about the town is that it smells, but is actually really beautiful so am glad i planned to stay!
Had a wander round the city in the afternoon, down to the Government Gardens, which are really beautiful- there is huge bath house built around 1900- used to be destination for wealthy Europeans to come and bathe in the ‘healing’ waters! Though apparently quickly fell into disrepair as the acidic waters corroded all the pipework etc within months! Is now the town museum. Spent the rest of the day getting shopping, doing laundry and exciting things like that!
14th: Headed out to the Rainbow Springs nature park- lots of huge rainbow trout, and native birds and plants etc, and a Kiwi encounter centre that rescues Kiwi eggs and rears the chicks until they’re able to fend for themselves against stoats etc that prey on them. Got to see some real live kiwis and some chicks-yay! Apparently Kiwis have the greatest egg size:female body size ratio- the egg is half the size of the mother- ouch! Then went on the gondola up Mt. Ngongotata- beautiful views of lake Rotorua and the city. Back in the city went to the geothermal park on the edge of the lake- really beautiful park, but with loads of sulphorous, steaming pools everywhere…about 100m from the main road and the city- is quite bizarre!
Have booked myself into a hotel for tomorrow and Monday, and a massage in the Polynesian spa tomorrow- birthday pampering time- can’t wait!
15th: Today istarted on a high by checking out of smelly backpackers and moving to luxury hotel! Was expecting the most basic budget room with the deal i got (about 35 pounds a night) but walked into newly renovated room with huge flatscreen tv and 2 queen sized beds! All for little me…absolute bliss! Went over to the spa at about 3pm for the pampering to start…first had a soak in the heated mineral pools…was very smelly as right on the bank of the lake, but relaxing all the same! Then went in for my massage- first a salt scrub then a massage with coconut oil under hot water jets…all very relaxing except when she went too close to my damned ticklish feet! Have got a cold at the moment, and that combined with the massage made me thoroughly spaced out, so was early to bed…a whole double bed in a whole room by myself!
16th!: HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME! Feeling very spaced out today with fluey coldy thing so had a quiet morning in front of the tv- even got to see an episode of neighbours- yay! At 1ish was picked up for the journey across middle earth to Hobbiton. Was only me and two other girls going from Rotorua, and driver was extremely talkative…not quite what i wanted when it hurt to talk and i just felt like going to sleep! Was all good when we arrived though. The film set was on the only sheep farm in the region (loads of little lambs!), loads of rolling hills and green grass! Was picked mainly for the perfect ‘party tree’ next to a lake. The set was mostly demolished by the film crew, but the demolition was postponed half way through due to bad weather, and in the mean time the farm had so many request from people wanting to see the set that they kept the remaining hobbit holes- including Bag End! Required a little imagination to see how everything was, but still was cool to be there and hear all the anecdotes about the filming etc.
Birthday evening involved a nice meal in the hotel restaurant, phone calls home, and watching a film…not your most riveting birthday night out, but was absolute heaven!
Sorry to be leaving Rotorua tomorrow (and especially the comforts of the hotel), but can’t languish in one place forever…
Flo xx
