Rotorua and the North
Argh, again frustrated at the lack of internet access (sometimes it is just Jim not letting me go. Heh.)
So we got to Rotorua, Jim went on his rafting trip, and the rest of the day we took it easy. That night we went to a nice restaurant because Jim wanted some good seafood. He got scallops or something and said it was great. I wasn’t even that hungry and just got some chicken salad thing and it was SO delicious!
The next day we went and did the Zorb! We decided to do the wet version with both of us together. (I was glad I found a 10% off coupon. I love that.) You can go alone and strapped in, or alone with water or with another person or two. We put on our swim suits and they took us to the top of the hill. Jim and I both noticed little jerk bugs biting us on the ankles and actually drawing blood!! They itch like crazy and are all over our feet. Anyway, it was our turn and you jump headfirst into the clear plastic ball and then the guy sprays in a bunch of really hot water. It was crazy being in there!! Then they zip shut the opening and it was SO hot from the hot hot water!
Then he taps on the ball and we both had to push forward. Then you start rolling down the hill and because of the water, we always were on the bottom, sort of like sliding down the hill. It’s hard to explain. Jim laughed silly the whole time and it was fun, but I almost started to feel suffocated from the hot water all over and being closed in. It was good though.
US rolling down the hill!
Afterwards, a couple people went down naked because it was National Naked Day so they let them go free. It was funny. There was one guy standing completely naked except for thick socks and hiking boots and his entire body was hairy and he stood there like it was the most normal thing in the world and completely serious. It was scary. I wonder where he was from.
Heh heh heh.
Later, we went to a thermal spa. I wanted to do a mud bath, but they cost more and it isn’t really mud, it is the water mixed with a little mud. So for $12 a piece for 30 mins, Jim and I got to go in our own little hot spa with the stinky, stinky HOT HOT HOT water. It was neat and we could make it pour in more hot or cold water. It was so hot we got out early and the rest of the night we both felt a little “off” and our heads hurt.
I can’t remember if we did anything else, but one thing we didn’t do was the Hangi meal (Maori food cooked underground). Oh well!
So we liked Rotorua because there were neat things to do there. The city itself wasn’t spectacular.
After that we drove north because the guidebook said doing a little cruise in the Bay of Islands was a must-do. First we stopped for a night in Whangarei, which had traffic because of horrible traffic infrastructure. It was such a pain in the butt to drive around. It was a pretty town and Jim was going to scuba dive the next morning but he was too tired so he cancelled and we kept driving up to Paihua (I think) in the Bay of Islands. We booked a cheap little speed boat cruise and it was ok… our boat went thru a big hole in a rock and the coolest thing for me was seeing hundreds of seagulls on the water and you could see tons of silver fish in the water below (the seagulls were after the fish). That was neat… but we could have done without going north at all. Oh well!!
So today we drove all the way to Auckland and returned the car, named Squeaks, by the way. I saw a billboard for Oporto, the Australian fast foods place with AMAZING chicken burgers!! They have spicy chili sauce and mayo and I tried hard to figure them out so I could make them!
We’ll spend a day or two or three here and then we are off to Rarotonga! Our trip is almost done! I can’t believe it.
Tags: New Zealand
Kelly