Rotorua and Auckland

Rotorua. Definitely one of my favorite places in New Zealand. Eoin and I were fortunate enough to get to visit this place three times. Our third visit was with Mike, and was very enjoyable. No visit to Rotorua is complete without Zorbing, and we all went rolling down the 200 meter hill. For those of you who don't know what Zorbing is, imagine being inside a hamster ball with warm water that is rolling down a hill. Super fun! Mike and Eoin each went seperately and then Eoin went again with me. I am a bit of a wuss (if you didn't know) and did not want to go Zorbing by myself. We also went luging in Rotorua. Just like in Queenstown, there is a skyline gondola with a luge run at the top. Unlike Queenstown, the tracks are much longer (2 km I believe) and there are more to choose from.

We definitely took advantage of all that we could while in Rotorua. My favorite part of our time in Rotorua this time was Mitai Village. Mitai Village is a reconstructed Maori Village that gives tours during the day and at night gives guided walks, hangi (a traditional meal cooked in the ground), and a cultural show.The hangi was chicken, lamb, potatoes, kumara and stuffing that is placed in the ground over hot rocks and covered with blankets and left to cook for three hours. It was delicious! While we waiting for the hangi to finish cooking, though, we watched a show about the Maori culture. We saw several examples of how Maori warriors trained for battle and used weapons. They also sang us several songs, and did a very impressive haka. A haka is a chant usually done before battle to intimidate the opposing side. The All Blacks do a haka during their rugby games. If you have time, look it up on YouTube...very cool stuff!After dinner (which was amazing!) and dessert (which was also amazing!) we went for a brief night walk through the village and saw some glow worms and eels. Ooooooo!

The next day I had a migraine, which was no good. So, unfortunately we didn't do too much exciting until later in the afternoon. We went to Waikite Hot Pools which is a place we had gone before. It is a bunch of hot tubs and pools that are filled with natural hot spring water. For $12, you can relax in hot pools with amazing views all around you. I enjoyed relaxing and Eoin enjoyed pretending he was stranded in the ocean and hung onto the decorative rocks for dear life.

If you ever find yourself in Rotorua and don't know what to do...Zorb, Luge, visit some mud pools and go to Mitai Village. You will not regret it.

After our time in Rotorua, we headed to Auckland. While there we didn't do too much as our funds were running low and Mike was headed home. We did get to go to the Auckland Museum which was pretty interesting but not as impressive as Te Papa. We also saw Wolverwine! Amazing! The cool thing about seeing Wolverine was that large portions of it were filmed in and around Queenstown. Eoin and I recognized a few places and that was really neat. This entry is really rushed, but that's mostly because we leave for Fiji in two days and I wanted to make sure I didn't leave you all hanging!

Right now we are in Whangarei (pronounced: fawn-guh-ray). It's not very impressive and there isn't anything to do. The job situation is looking pretty grim, and while I have applied to about 6 places I haven't heard back from anyone (except Glassons and they turned me down! Jerks!). So I don't know what the situation will be when we get back from our holiday in Fiji, but I will keep you posted!

Next update...Fiji!!!