Day 142 Wednesday 27th January 2010

Johno says

Today we were transferring South from Auckland to Rotorua on the magic bus. First of all, we went for a drive up Mount Eden for some pretty awesome views of the city passing one tree hill that U2 used on the front of one of their albums in memory of a fan from New Zealand that died at one of their concerts, the tree doesn't hang their any longer but the driver was keen to point out the spot where it once stood. Then through Thames and onto the spa town of Te Aroha - there are hot soda springs here, the town is made famous for a lemon type drink (L&P) which I have personally never heard of but we will trust the driver on that one. Then for quite an entertaining stop at Hobbiton, yes that's right, the site of the Lord of the Rings movie set haha. Lunch time was spent at this crazy little site called Agroventures where you can do all sorts of extreme sports such as; Agro jet (a jet boat spinning around in a lake) Freefall (above a giant turbine that makes you feel like you are sky diving) Schwab (upside down cycle race) or the Swoop (bungy swing). As we had some extreme sports planned already and it was early in the trip, we and majority of the coach passed on the extreme stuff on offer. We arrived in Rotorua for the early afternoon after a tour of the local Jade making factory, the sacred stone of NZ and taking a walk through a Redwood Forest - this was a nice little walk especially after a busy day of hopping on and off the coach. A few re-enactments of the blair witch project on Lizzie's camcorder later, we arrived at the hostel. On the way to the supermarket we walked across to the nearby park (Kauri Park) to see the geothermal hot pools, they were something you certainly don't see everyday - pools of mud bubbling away in the middle of a random park, also smell like rotten eggs due to the sulphur! Obviously no swimming was allowed in the pools as it would take you 42 seconds to cook (apparently!) so we didn't take any dips!! Rotorua seems like a nice town with the added bonus of some crazy extreme sports on offer, the weather was absolutely roasting today but the evening thunderstorms meant that we just cooked at the hostel and retired early for bed.

Day 143 Thursday 28th January 2010

Stacey says

White water rafting is on the agenda this morning! The 4 of us are sharing a dorm at the moment, so we all woke up with a mixture of feelings about it. 8.45am we were collected by two guys with dreadlocks, and taken to the place, had our little safety briefing, and got our life jackets, helmets and booties on. We then got taken over to River Kaituna for our grade 5 water rafting adventure! It has a 7m waterfall drop, which is the biggest commercial waterfall rafting in the world. We are hardcore! Our guide said a prayer in Maouri before we stepped in. We had a few small rapid river drops to warm up, then almost straight away we came to the 3m drop, shortly followed by a 2m drop, we paused just before going down, and it looked horrendous this is when my nerves first kicked in, loads of water gushing from everywhere! We got into our positions and held on for dear life, and we were down in like 10 seconds, I looked up and thought 'wow was that it??' it wasn't so bad at all! Steve was the most nervous on this trip, not being fond of water sports. We then cruised around a few more small rapids, stopping to look at the scenery, the guide pulled off a silver leaf, the emblem of NZ, and told Steve to call the odds of whether we land the correct way up in the raft after the waterfall, or upside down, he tossed the leaf and it landed sliver side up! We then carried on up to the 7m waterfall. We couldn't see anything but the edge and we were told to paddle backwards so we pause before going down, but half the boat paddled forward and we went straight into the waterfall! I was still holding onto the boat but we were underwater for what seemed ages, totally disorientated, but we soon popped up with the raft the correct way around, and we hadn't lost anybody! Success! We continued around for about 10 more minutes and finished up. The afternoon we sunbathed before getting ready for out Tamaki night out. Which was the forest of the Ngati Tama Tribe, a Mauri way of life. Steve was picked on the coach to be the chief for the coach. So he had to do his duties throughout the evening! We had a Mauro welcome ceremony, where the chiefs take a peace offering. This was pretty intimidating, we had to remain serious when they did this, poking out their tongues with their eyes wide open. They showed us some games and warrior training techniques. After we watched a culture performance for about an hour, and coach chiefs met the head chief, where they had Maouri greeting, Steve had to press his nose and forehead twice with the chief. All before heading for the Hangi - the massive feed. It was a huge buffet roast chicken and lamb, with lots of veg and salad, followed by meringue and chocolate cake and pudding. They cook it on a huge Earth Oven, where they use the thermal heat. After the meal, the Chiefs had to get up and do the Rugby Hakka. Lizzie got this on her camera, it was pretty funny. It didn't end here, on the way home on the coach, to do a closing ceremony, one person from each country had to represent their place by singing a national anthem or famous song from that country. Steve again had to lead this, and sang first, he opted for 3 lions on a shore, not many people joined in so he sang World in Motion together with the John Barnes rap (a child hood dream of his!) and he looked like he was enjoying himself very much on the mic. He then had to get the other nations singing their songs. After an eventful day we all fell into our beds shattered.

Day 144 Friday 29th January 2010

Johno says

After a pretty manic day yesterday we were preparing ourselves for doing absolutely nothing today, plus being chief of a tribe is hard work so a day of rest and relaxation was definitely in order. We had already been to Kauri Park and seen the natural hot springs so we thought we would journey down to Lake Rotorua for the desired sunbathing. It was a scorcher so it was quite nice to just lay there and take in the scenery of the lake …and a kids train that kept lapping the side of the lake, the driver kept shouting wakey wakey on every lap which didn't get boring until the 12th time around! I personally couldn't believe that only one kid had a go in the elephant trailer attached to the train - how disappointing!! The evening came around quite quickly so Kate, Lizzie, Stace and I and yet another of my wives (Karen) all went down to the Polynesian Spa for 8pm - it was a nice spa place with several hot pools all good for the skin and muscles
(apparently) all overlooking the lake for sunset. It also had the same rotten egg smell of Rotorua which almost put me off my farewell to Kate and Lizzie beer afterwards, yes the bars also smells of the rotten eggs.

Day 145 Saturday 30th January 2010

Stacey says

This morning we began our three day East Cape trip. Our first stop was Whakatane, we stopped to take a photo as it was a very nice spot, we did plan to stop for a swim in the lake, however it was pouring with rain this morning! We were heading to a very remote spot, which was called 'secret overnight stop' on the itinerary. We were told to stock up on cash as there will be no cash machines in the areas we will be visiting, it's a very traditional part of new Zealand, keeping up with old Maori traditions, people in the community all help each other out. We arrived to our location, and it was still pouring with rain, so we all sat in our room and chatted away for a few hours. There was 5 of us, one Swiss girl, A Spanish man, and English guy and us two. We had a BBQ this evening, we had green mussels, prawns, steaks, salad and potatoes, it was very yummy dinner. We had a few beers and a chat, it was pouring with rain so we had to sit in the room, but we had a few giggles before heading to bed.

Day 146 Sunday 31st January 2010

Johno says

Today we were traveling from our secret location to Gisbourne via a small town called Te Araroa and home to our guide Shaun, it was an emotional farewell to a Labrador that had been outside our room for the entire length of our stay acting as a guide dog to the separate toilet on site during the night. It was absolutely chucking it down for the whole night and majority of the morning but somehow it managed to stop and clear away with the sun coming out for our climb up the 707 steps to the most easterly lighthouse in the world, there were some pretty good views of the Whale Island and surrounding coastline and it did feel strange that each day starts from here. On the way down, we picked up a pig's skull and knocked out the remains of its long tooth to make a necklace which was pretty cool. The weather did impact on the scenery but you can just imagine how very scenic it would be with some sun, as a result of all the rain the water run off was immense with the river crashing into the sea waves. Then we made our way to Tolaga Bay which is known for having the longest wharf in NZ. Then finally on to Gisbourne, where they offered some stingray feeding, rock sliding and shark diving - we didn't take up any of these as we have already fed the stingrays in Malaysia and unfortunately the freak weather conditions ruled out the other two activities. We had wine tasting this evening provided by a local winery in Gisbourne, Longbush - I couldn't really smell the 'banana' in the pinot gris (more like onion and chicken tonight that we cooked earlier in the kitchen) but cracked on anyway finishing the 7 bottles between our group of 6. The wine of the night went to the Viognier!!

Day 147 Monday 1st February 2010
Stacey says
We were up and out for 10am, we were visiting a Maouri this morning, Aunty Anne the call her, she was inviting us to come in to her community and learn about the culture and traditions. We had to learn a song, and sing it to her in the welcoming ceremony. After a few stories and questions answered, Anne taught us some warrior training games. We got given sticks and had to bang them and throw them to each other in synch without dropping them. The girl I was paired with had no coordination and was throwing them all over the place, Steve and his partner picked up very quickly, and so did the other 2 guys. It was a lot of fun, especially towards the end when we tried to throw them amongst the 6 of us. On the way back, we stopped at the set of the Whale Rider, a Maouri flim made in 2003, which we watched last night. Then headed back for Rotorua, via a stop for a fish and chips lunch.