Ok, I had written a long detailed entry a couple days ago but it looks like something went wrong with it so I will just quickly qrite up the recent events since I don't wish to spend all that time writing it again.
The trip to Rotorua was uneventful although I did meet a nice older woman who I got an invite to come stay with when I go to England. She lives in the Shropshire area, I'll keep her information in case I am in the area. I was quite impressed with her since she was nearly 80 and travelling solo around New Zealand, enjoying many of the walks and planning white water rafting.
My first day in Rotorua I went zorbing which is basically two plastic balls held together with cords. You climb into the inner ball and then are rolled down a hill. It was fun, although perhaps not something best done right after breakfast. It's pretty funny to watch other people go down and heard these screams as they roll down.
I spent the afternoon walking through some of the geothermal areas around the edge of the city centre. All of Rotorua has a unique smell, caused by the geothermal activity. How to describe it? Well, it smells like a mixture of rotten eggs and passed gas. Sometimes you can't really smell it and then the breeze blows... You can definately smell it when walking through the geothermal areas though.
Yesterday I took a shuttle out to the buried village. If any of you have ever heard of pompeii, it's a similar sort of thing. About a hundred years ago a volcano errupted and the village was covered in mud. You can now walk around the excavated buildings and see many of the artifacts that they found. It was pretty interesting.
On the way home I had the shuttle driver drop me off at the California Redwood Forest. I was told it was a nice 45 minute walk back to town. I'm sure it is if you don't get lost. I swear I spent 3 hours walking. I finally realized that the map I was using was a mirror image of what it should be. Once I pretended that I had the map face down and was seeing through the paper I was able to find my way back.
Last night I booked myself into a Maori concert and dinner. I hadn't done anything to get acquainted with Maori culture yet so I was really looking forward to it. The concert was great, I just wish that it wasn't so dark since I was unable to get too many decent pictures. For dinner I sat with a group of fellow backpackers, all great people. I always find myself inspired to travel more when I talk to other travellers. Dinner was great, spring rolls, samosas, the first leafy greens I've seen in a while and a great dessert.
This afternoon I went white water rafting. It was something I've always wanted to do but just never had the chance before. Apparently the 7m waterfall that we went over is the highest commercially rafted waterfall in the world. Going over the falls was pretty cool. I met some fellow Canadians, one was from milton so he now has the award for person I've met on my travels that lives closest to home.
Tomorrow I've booked to take a shuttle to the Waitomo Caves. I'm booked to do this abseiling, tubing, caving, etc. trip. I'm really looking forward to it. That will be the last adventure activity of New Zealand. That's good since they are so expensive (although worth it).
After splurging on fast food for several days I'm back to self catering so at least I'll save some money there. That said, in Wellington I had one of the best veggie burgers I've ever had. And some I've had some other great meals as well.
