Bye Bye Mundane Life!!: Roturua

We didn't hang around long, having arrived in Rotorua on the evening of the 18th Feb, we got straight onto booking our first high adrenalin / high cost adventure.....the following afternoon we were careering down a 7m waterfall in a blow up dingy....otherwise called white water rafting....and unlike our previous experience in Argentina this time the water actually was white and despite us ending up in the water several times (mostly voluntarily) no-one came anywhere close to dying!!! The journey was short but sweet down the 2km stretch of the Kaituna river, including 3 waterfalls, loads of rapids and some very crazy guides who made the whole experience very exciting!!!

That evening we indulged in a Mauri experience....by far the most touristy thing we've done, but nevertheless enjoyable!! Learnt a bit about the history and culture of the Mauri people, including a ceremonial dance, before the highlight...a traditional feast, The Hangi, a tonne of lamb, chicken & veg cooked in underground pit....served up to us as an 'all you can eat buffet!' - yahoo!! After 3 weeks of cooking off tiny campstove we made absolute pigs of ourselves...which made wandering around night time nature reserve rather uncomfortable...but it was worth it to see Kiwi (the bird this time) hopping around next to us! We're not heartless but I can fully understand why this bird is nearly extinct...its just a big ball of fluff, that can't fly - if ever there was a creature with the word 'victim' attached to it, this is it!

The following day we went to the Wai-O-Tapu Thermal Wonderland....watched Lady Knox geyser being artificially made to erupt with help of a bag of soap flakes - actually even more impressive than normal geyser, its so cool what man can control with the help of science! The rest of the park had some impressive multi-coloured thermal pools....but unfortunatley the smell of rotten egg was just too unbearable!!! We did however put up with it later that day when we found a boiling hot river to bathe in (for free)....its not every day you walk through a forest to discover the river running alongside you is hotter than your bathtub!!!

We camped that night next to a proper Thermal Spa....3 gorgeous naturally heated pools that we got to use for free when staying at campsite, we lounged around after dark drinking wine in the hot water for hours...this is the life!!!!