Written 26th September 2011

Kia Ora!

What a jam packed day! So on the way to Rotorua we stopped at Paeroa, famous for the drink L+P. Short for Lemon and Paeroa, the town became the birth place of the lemonade like drink after two local boys made it to sell at the end of their drive. It is now owned by Coca Cola and you can only buy it in NZ. This is about all the town is famous for. Now they have a big, but could be bigger, L+P bottle that tourists like me take a photo of, so I did. We then arrived at the set of Lord of the Rings. I saw lots of pictures of some kind of Teletubbie style house. I enjoyed a ham, cheese, onion and tomato sandwich. After lunch we made our way to Rotorua along roads surrounded by flats and sudden mountain ranges. I met 4 Irish girls of the bus who are all teachers on a career break and a lad called Ben who has just finished college. We then arrived in Rotorua but stopped at a Zorbing place just before the town. Zorbing for those who don't know is basically when you get inside a small ball, which is inside a bigger ball, and roll down a hill until you get to the bottom. A bit like being in a massive hamster ball, with water in it! I got changed into my swim stuff and got the jeep to the top… I was racing against Ben, who openly admitted he probably had a better build to get some speed up! We set off and I managed to do pretty well and stay stood up for about 5 seconds. Then I was down! I flipped, tumbled and somersaulted all the way to the bottom! It was great fun… but unfortunately I came second …. Out of 2! After drying off we got back on the bus and arrived in Rotorua at about 3pm. The place stinks of gone off eggs! There are loads of Mud/Rock pools that still let heat out from the ground below in Rotorua and the Sulphur that comes out of some of them stinks! You can literally see the steam coming off the ground. At 5pm we were picked up and taken to a village for a Maori Cultural Evening. On the way there the driver taught us some Maori words and created a bit of banter between nationalities over the rugby. There are millions of Irish here! A chief of our tribe was chosen and we all followed him into the village. We were greeted by some Maori tribes men going crazy, doing funny things with their eyes and shouting at us. Apparently a welcome… We then explored their village and I was chose to play some traditional games. Again I lost to Ben… Not happy! After this we watched as our evening meal was pulled up from below the earth! They uncovered a whole covered with soil, mesh and wood which allowed steam to fire from the hole. Then they pulled out potatoes, veg and chickens! It had all been underground of about 2-3 hours and cooked naturally! How cool is that!

Then it was time for the main event, the show. They started with a dance, games and other traditional things. Then they moved onto a singing part. They pulled a guitar out, some percussion and started playing a song I knew! Years ago I had sang in Voices in Action 2 at Victoria Hall. We sang a song called "Carry Carry" and I instantly recognised it. In the show it accompanied a love story all about two lovers being reunited in Rotorua. Now I come to think of it, and I have listened to it on my Ipod, we sang something along the lines of, "Take me back to Rotorua." It's a small world, and now I was in the place I had sung about! I thought that was well cool, I even got goose bumps as I listened to it! Then it was Haka time! Again they all went slightly crazy, slapping thighs, chests and most other body parts while squeezing their eyes out, biting and wiggling their tongues! A scary and surreal sight! It was a fantastic show!

We then enjoyed our meal, with a slightly weird taste of smoke, sulphur and eggs to go with it. I tucked in though as it was a great meal with massive carrots, chicken, lamb and potatoes. They even had desert!

On the way back on the bus the crazy driver entertained us! His entertainment included making us all sing a song related to our different countries. Me and one other English girl sang Swing Low and a coach full of Irish sang a song about fields… When the Aussies sang the driver turned all lights off and pressed his horn continuously until they finished, very funny! Next we had to sing the wheels on the bus with actions, and then drove around a round-a-bout roughly 10 times in a coach making traffic wait while singing, "She'll be coming round the mountain we she comes!" Amazing! The evening ended with a trip to the Irish bar with a load of Irish to watch Wales thrash Namibia.

Tomorrow we are off to Taupo….

See you then x