We have just passed through Rotorua for the first time, and boy have we been busy! Rotorua was the place where we planned to do most of our activities, and we have kept to that!!

One of the things we really wanted to do was Zorbing, which was invented in Rotorua itself! For those who do not know you basically get inside a big rubber ball and roll down a hill! (Crazy I hear you cry!) We did a hydro Zorb...with warm water in our zorb as well as ourselves and we went down the zig zag track. I speak for both of us when i say we had loads of fun! You literally get absolutely drenched as you are just rolling around in the water and get bounced from side to side as you het the edge to go in a new direction. We went in seperete zorbs, but both said we screamed and laughed to ourselves all the way down! We both really enjoyed it, but for the money wished we could have gone again...until we remembered that the $70 we spend on zorbing, buying a zed pack (shorts, t shirt and towel) and photos is about 30 pound!

Another one of those things that you supposedly must try is luging. This is basically a high tech go kart that goes down a hill. You have to take a gondola up to the top of the hill, which Andrew found pretty scary! At the top you are supposed to take the scenic route for your first ride, but we went straight to intermediate! i would like to point out at this point that Emma's helmet was too big for her and kept slipping back off her head!

So off we head down the luge track. To stop you push the handlebar all the way forward. To brake you pull it back towards you and to accelerate you push it away. Andrew set off first and reached the bottom a good few minutes before Emma, who in the meantime has sustained a couple of injuries. On the first corner Emma managed to fall off. we are blaming it on a rather dodgy luge that did not want to brake at all,. just accelerate. Emma hit the first corner at full speed and came off the luge, bruising her leg and cutting her elbow. She came off again later on, but did not injure herself, but continued forcing the brake all the way!

The second time she got a better luge, so enjoyed it more - but Andrew did not enjoy the ride back up to the track, on what looks like a wooden park bench! It was like a ski lift, but in the sun! Luging is real fun, as long as your luge works! but we had fun for an hour, and was pretty cheap too, so thats always good, but it is safe to say you will not see Emma luging for England in the winter olympics any time soon!

Our final activity in Rotorua was white water rafting. We rafted down the Kaituna river with 3 others and 2 instructor's - they must have heard about Emma's history with rafts! (When Emma was a child she fell off a raft and almost drowned.) The big waterfall was 7metres high, which is apparantly the largesrt commercially rafted waterfall in NZ! it was really enjoyable and we had so much fun, even when Emma inevitably fell out of the raft into the rapids at the bottom of the aforementioned 7m high fall! As she was the only female on board, and the only one of 23 people to fall out, she was subjected to much mockery for the rest of the experience, btu despite this we both really enjoyed it and rate it as one of our top experiences in Rotorua.

We did also manage to take in some of the natural wonders of the City whilst we were there! Rotorua is the centre of geo-thermal activity, and is full of thermally heated pools and steams. We walked round one area and across a little lake and literally could not see ahead because of the steam! We wlkaed around the Wai - O - Tapu geo thermal wonderland which was an incredible sight, bubbling mus in craters, acid green water, blue water, black water, mineral stained rocks in Orange, black, green. it was amazing to see so much activity and such differing landscape right next to each other. we watched the lady knox geyser go off, shooting a huge stream of water into the air as it went! if anyone is into gelogy (Emma's dad!) or rocks then this is the city to be, and waiotapu an amazing place to see it all in one site! Although there are places all over the city, some gardens steam continually, and there is a smell of sulphur that never quite disappears, but is not too noticable most of the time!

We also went to a Maori Cultural show just outside the city. After our experience in Auckland, we were hoping for better things, and this one delivered. OK there were about 150 other people seeing it with you, and it was obviously a bit tourist attraction, but the people really seemed to know what they were talking about, and most importantly, they enjoyed being there to talk about it! we witnessed a welcoming ceremony, wandered round a village atmosphere, watched them perform songs and old games that acted as warrior training and then enjoys a traditional Hangi meal, which is a meal cooked underground by hot rocks. It was yummy too! It was a 4 hour experience, and we both really enjoyed it, despite it being so hugely tourist-y, but then, we are tourists if nothing else, and sometimes it does you good to join them!

Our time in Rotorua has been marked by good weather, lots of activities and a none too pleasing hostel, but we have loved it!!! Its too big to be a place where everyone talks to you in the street - although when passing a business trying to get a Christmas photo, which we obligingly took for them we did get invited into their picture so they could forever after look upon it and ask who we were! But we had so much to do that it was not really as important to us. we head back up for a day in the New year, and are hoping to take a dip at one of the spa's for some new years relaxation, which will be nice, but Rotorua definately is one place you should go to, for whatever reason!