We arrived in Rotarua mid-morning and after checking accomodation options in the i-site, walked to a campsite. We checked in, put the tent up and then booked an evening at a Maori village before heading back into town for some lunch. We eventually found a cafe and had some food, then went back to the i-site and enquired about the cable car and how to get there. We were just in time for a shuttle bus which took us there - about 5 minutes drive. We took the gondola up to the top of the hill and at the top there is a luge (same company as the gondola and luge in Queenstown). However, there were about 4 different tracks down the hill and another cable car back up to the top of the gondola. The tracks here were much better and a lot more fun and with our ticket we got 2 rides. The first ride was really long and the second (the advanced track) had a lot of twists and turns and I lifted off the ground!!!! After doing that we got the gondola down (which seems to be going really fast at one stage!) and got the bus back into town.

Back at the campsite I phoned Greyhound to get a refund on my ticket from Cairns - Melbourne as due to the weather we got a cheaper one from Brisbane - Melbourne which saved us a bit of money. It is finally going through about 2 months later!!!!

About 6pm we were picked up for our Mitai Maori Village visit by the bus and turns out the Mitai Village is very near the cable car so we could have stayed out there!!! At first we were taken in to a massive marquee with a formal layout of tables....there must have been well over 200 people there. We were a bit worried that this wasn't what we were hoping for....but we were soon taken into the forest to watch the Maori warriers come in on their canoe like boat (I can't remember the Maori name for it). Then we were taken to the 'village' and had a performance from the men and women of the tribe. I liked to think the whole thing was real and they had these tatoos on their faces and that they lived in this 'village' but the bubble was burst as I saw one of the men's tatoos (running all up his leg) rubbing off. The performances were excellent though - singing, haka and other activities. The funniest part was that we (tribe of 14 nations) had to have a leader to introduce ourselves to the Maori tribe, so an Australian guy called Tony (Chief Tony) elected himself, at first not knowing what he had let himself in for - he had to say a speech and lead us all into the outside auditorium area. After the performances (and taking part in the haka and repeating Maori words after the chief) we went back and had a traditional Maori meal (cooked underground for 3-4 hours). We were then taken back into the forest to see the glow worms but they weren't as impressive as the ones we saw at Fox Glacier. We were then taken back to our campsite by the bus.

We had our last night in the tent and i was really cosy with 2 blankets I borrowed from the campsite, but was told off this morning as they weren't allowed to be in tents - but I wasn't told that! oops! We got up really early for an 8.30 bus to Auckland!