Rotorua and Taupo

Greetings friends and family,

I can't believe that I have been here only six days!! I am already half way down the North island and Devon and I have realized that we need to plan our time wisely as we have a lot to see and do in the next two weeks before we head for Australia.

We went to Rotorua from the 18th to the 20th. The ride there was intersting since we had a Mr. Bean twin at the wheel and he would put on crazy music sing to it and made us Canadians sit at the front to talk to him. We went to the top of Mount Eden and then later we stopped off in Hobbiton (the place where they filmed the Shire in the Lord of the Rings) however it cost a decent chunk of cash and time to actually tour it so instead we fed baby sheep...

Once we arrived in Rotorua we went to a traditional Maori dinner and celebration. I enjoyed seeing the cutural traditions carried out when the Maori people meet visitors the most as the food and celebration thought good were similar to the Hawaiian celebrations for tourists that I have been to. The next day we bussed ourselves out to OGO which is a activity that they do around here where you lock yourself in a plastic ball with water in it and roll it down a steep hill. Though this might sound absolutely ridiculous I found it absolutely exhilarating and completely amazing. In this ball you have the options of sitting in it and taking in the experience, crawling, or walking/running to make the ball go faster. Devon and I raced to the bottom. I tried to run in the ball and she tried to crawl it was hilarious. I quickly fell down trying to run and then spun around a few times. Somehow we tied and got some great photos too! In Rotorua we didn't go outside at night because many people told us that it was dangerous to do this. There were many gangs and things that occurred after sunset (which isn't until 830pm anyway) so we tucked ourselves away in the hostel. WE have found that we are kind of old here, perhaps because of the jet leg or the busy life style we have but we tend to go to bed by 930 or 10 while we used to be up until 1130 or midnight back home. There are many sulfur springs here which stinks of rotting eggs and causes silver that is left out in the air to tarnish. Rotorua was particularly fragrent and make Devon and I feel ill for a while until we got used to the smell.

We caught the Magic bus to Taupo on the 20th. This ride was great, we got to see a guiser, some people bungie jump (which lead me to have a constant urge to try it later on in this trip), the

(Picture of the guiser)

Huka falls and a mud pool. Our hostels have all been different, our first was like an appartment complex, our second was a cottage, our third was like a motel and this one is like a hawaiian motel where all the hallways are outdoors and there is a ping pong table at the centre of everything. This kitchen is well equiped unlike some that we have happened accross and we have decided to stock up on the basics for food like oil and so on to help with our cooking.

The day after we arrived in Taupo we got up at 5 in the morning to hike Mount Doom (also known by it's real name Mount Ngauruhoe), a 19.6 kilimeter trek.


(Picture of the top of the mountain)

This was supposed to be a 8 hour hike but we managed it in 5 hours and ten minutes. However in the process we climbed about 3 clicks of stairs (about 400-500 stairs) to get to the nearly 2000 meter tall mountain. The views were amazing from the top! We climbed it with our new Italian friend Giovanni who is off to Australia soon.

(Picture of the sign at the bottom)

Today we are taking it easy as our legs are sore and we are a bit tired from being so busy and travelling quickly. We are using the day wisely though and getting out laundry done! Tomorrow we head off to National Park and then off to Wellington where we will fly to Queenstown on the south island. We are having lots of fun and starting to look a little more brown and a little less white and red. So until next time, Kia Ora!!!!