Tuesday 6th Nov

Our alarm clock were setted for 6am but unfortunately we forgotten to have our alarm clock under our pillows, causing us to wake up at 7am!! 30mins to get ready and packing everything!! We rushed around, panicking!! No breakfast or tea for us. *Sobs* Guess it was lucky that we did wake up in time, thanks to the movement or vibrations from our dorm mates and smelling their shower gels! If it wasn't for them, we would have missed the coach!

Moving on to Rotorua. We travelled via Whangamata town so we can get supplies and breakfast. We grabbed takeaways teas and sausage rolls to fill our stomaches up.

In our guidebook about our route to Rotorua, it've mentioned that we would visit the Karangshake Scenic Reserve to explore a stunning native bush clad gorge, to walk over the two swing bridges and have a relaxing picnic lunch there. But for some reasons, we didn't go and we have no idea why.

Our driver isn't as good as the first driver we had to Paihia. By that, we mean that our driver seems to be unsure how to communicate with us. Everytime we ask the question, he struggles to think how to get the information across, just cos we use sign language. He have seen us lipreading other people and talking etc, but he didn't pick up the signs that we are able to lipread him. We were so tempted to tell him that he can talk! He don't always inform us the important details or at least check if we got it. Unfortunately we have been and will be stuck with him for 4 days! We wished that the first driver we had were with us for the 4 days, that would be alot easier for us both!

Anyway after visiting Whangamata, we visited the town called Matamata - home of Hobbiton, famous for Lord of the Rings. A quick shopping around the town (again)

Finally arrived to Rotorua. The name means "second lake", which is just a description fo the story of its founding. Lake Rotoli was found by the Te Aroha people first when they settled the area, then came Lake Rotorua. It was a very unusual town cos it stank of rotten eggs! We saw the steam coming from under the street and through water drains. There were boiling mud pools as well as geysers aplenty. That explains why they called it a Sulphur City.

We received a traditional Maori welcoming at Tamaki Tours. We were guided through the Realm of Tane to learn about the history of the Maori people of the Rotorua region and their culture and customs. Unfortunately for us, the tour was no good for us, we had no idea what they were saying. At the end of the tour, they were giving a quiz and each correct answer win a traditional bone carving necklace. We were unable to answer cos we didn't have a clue what was going on in the tour. We felt that the more we are getting guided tours or information on the coach about the area, we missed out ALOT about New Zealand. Yet, we paid the full price as everyone, we felt that we should at least get bit of discounts for missing out alot of information. It was really frustrating for us.

The driver mentioned that there would be a cultural experience going on tonight. We decided to turn it down cos it was not worth to spend, especially when we would miss out of what's going on.

We arrived to the hostel at about 2pm. Blimey, it really stank badly inside!! Checked ourselves in and thanks god, our room was smelling lovely! We then got ready for our 3pm activity, Zorbing! We were excited because we needed excitment, adventure, something to say about our day, to make it worthwhile to be on Kiwi Experience!

3pm came and we were prepared for the fun and unfortunately the activity never happened. On kiwi experience, we were supposed to pay $35 but unfortunately when we arrived to Zorbing, the price have gone up to $44 and none of us were willing to pay that price. There was another activity to do which was kinda like Go Karting but really not very thrilling adventure for both of us. So it was back to the hostel again, feeling gutted!

The small group of us decided to visit Polynesian Spa, which have thermal bathing pools. We first went to the swimming pool which stank of course! After 30mins, we decided to move on to the thermal bathing pool with the view of the lake with plenty of seagulls sitting on the rocks. It was a fanastic view, relaxing away in the very hot spa!

Returned back to the hostel to get rid of the horrible smell on us!! Unfortunately Lisa wasn't aware about the damages from the thermal pools can do to the jewellery. Her white gold earring hoops have changed to horrible colour, rusty!! She was gutted and was searching for the jewellery shop to buy earrings to avoid her ear holes closing up in the future.

In the evening, it was just a relaxing day, updating our photos and diary. We will be moving onto Waitomo. We have booked ourselves into Black Water Rafting Co where we will be doing 5 hours fun of cave tubing, abseiling etc. More info on www.waitomo.com

Just hoping that it will go smoothly this time as we are concerned whether our deafness would affect us to do the activity!

Oh we haven't exactly saved any money on activities by booking via Kiwi Experience so far as we have noticed that they are the same rates as ordinary customers! Blah!!