DAY 6 - ROTORUA another day, another hangover and another fairly early start as we drive by lake rotorua on our way to a traditional maori village. The whakarewarewa maori village is situated on a thermal reserve. we spend the day walking round their village seeing how they bath in the natural springs, cook their food from the steam emitted from the earths crust and we go look at the geyser, that never erupted while we were there. we also learn about the maori lifestyle, history and customs. we see some hot pools that are hot enough to strip flesh from you, which is nice. No driving into those pools joony. personally i found this all rather dull and the stench of sulphur from the various mud pools combined with my hangover was making life difficult for me to contain my breakfast within my stomach. which would be nice. anyway we enjoy???? some lunch prepared and cooked from the steam from one of those stink holes with the promise that the sulphur does not tarnish the taste of the food. well thats the biggest load of bull i ever heard. i ate it anyway. one part of the maori tour i did enjoy was a small concert we attended where they done their traditional haka and a few traditional dances, however during the middle of the performance they appeared to drag some people of the street to do a guest performance. well what can i say, these people were born to performe in front of a crowd, absolute naturals, NOT. i did try and take a picture of myself doing a haka pose with one of the maori's but my camera broke, must have been one pretty sight. anyway my camera works again. which is nice. Next stop is the white water rafting where i hope to conquer my fear of drowning. now originally we were going to do a category 5 river that had a waterfall over 7 metres high that we would raft / fall over. the paperwork we had to sign, (the you may die form) indicated that a category 5 had a "definate possibility of or injury". unfortunately that river was flooded this morning and we could not do the 7m waterfall, but they did find us anither river that was mearly a category 4. only a "risk of or injury" here. well we get to the rapids and prepare ourselves by getting into our well fitting wetsuits, life jackets and fleeces that all smell even worse than the sulphur deposits. we get in the boat and go through some basic training, at this point i am absolutely petrified, my natural cowardice and inability to swim have combined to such an effect i consider dropping out. this was far worse for me than ever jumping out of a plane. anyway i bravely perservere into the raft and into the water. no backing out now. the white water rafting supposedly lasts for and hour 20 minutes, with the hardest 2 sections being right at the start. we blast down the first 2 sections of the rapids paddling like crazy, getting very wet but loving every minute of it. what was i worrying about this is great fun. we get to calmer section and the raft guide tells us a few people have died on that last section, which was nice of her to tell us post event. the guide asks everyone their occupation to which i naturally respond with professional rafter and part time lifeguard. after the 1st 2 sections the rest of the rapids seem quite tame, i could do with them being a little more dangerous now i have some confidence. we get to a calmer section where we have a chance to go for a swim, i decide to jump out of the boat and go for a float. now you wouldnt have seen me doing that before, y hell it was cold though. after a while i get back into the raft with the grace of an elephant using an urinal, not that i have ever seen an elephant use an urinal, but i am guessing its not poised with grace. the rest of the rafting consists of paddle fights with the other rafts, lots of forced paddle high 5's, Whoa. our raft did get stuck on a rock on one of the rapids, which was nice. at one point we decided or should i say the rapids decided we should take a detour through some overhanging trees. i managed to spot and duck a particularily fearsome looking branch, however dave was oblivious to the tree that smacked him in the face and knocked him out of the boat, i managed to dive over the other side of the raft and grab him and pull him back into the boat. how ironic. now all we had to do was get to a clamer bit and wait for his paddle to emerge. we get back to land and enjoy tea and buscuits. get changed from our wetsuits and discuss amongst ourselves the possible diseases we may have caught from the water and the length of time it may take to remove the absorbed stench from those fleeces. which was nice. all in all a great experience. our next adventure was a trip on the gondola up Mt Ngongotaha where there are some down hill luge tracks. 1st off they only let us use the begginer track, what graet fun these things get some speed up. back up to the top on a dodgy ski lift type thing while makeing owl and cadbury parrot sqwarks for no apparent reason. next ride is the advanced luge track, wahay, y hell thats quick, great fun but we are off now for dinner and drinks. via the requested bottle shop stop of course, whiskey and beers to buy. we have dinner tonight at the hotel, all prepared by mandy and then we spend the rest of the night in one of the rooms watching crap tv, talkinmg nonsense and drinking. jan is concerned at my dilution ratios of whiskey to lemonade, i assure him my way is the right way. joony entertains us with his english and then decides to take 5 minutes to set up his camera tripod, with spirit level to take one photo. photo photo photo. i return to bed to find steve still chasing frenchies and windslow asleep next to his knife. which is nice.