Sorry it’s been a while!
I’ve been very busy and having an amazing time so now I’m back to play
some catch up with all of you!
I spent a few more days in Hahei beach, taking the beautiful
walk to Cathedral Cove, saw a hedgehog and even convinced 3 people to play
scrabble with me!
When the hostel was all booked up the kind staff even put me
in one of their motel units. That means
I got to stay in a private little cottage with 2 bedrooms, a bathroom, kitchen
and living room with a tv! I shared one
of the rooms with another girl while a couple stayed in the other. It was fantastic to live in luxury for a
couple nights! My roommate in the cozy
cottage told me about a beach suburb of Tauranga called Mount Maunganui, which
she loved, so I decided that after catching the next Kiwi Experience bus for a
few stops I would head there!
The amazing owner of the hostel once again gave me a lift
back to Hot Water Beach where I would stay one night, meet my new Kiwi
Experience group, and then head to Waitomo the following day. Once I checked in to my room I said hello to my old animal friends...
and headed to the
beach where I soon realized the sand flies were waiting for me. So instead of getting eaten alive I started
to walk along the cost and found a cool little trail to a beautiful rock beach.
I managed to find a nice little hidden
grassy area next to the beach where I laid happily for a while and had a nice chat on the phone with my parents who had just returned home from China!
Once the Kiwi Experience crew arrived I went with them to do
the Cathedral Cove walk again, this time walking through the arch that Peter,
Susan, Edmund, and Lucy walked through when they arrived in Narnia! But
seriously, true story, part of the Narnia films were filmed right here!
Later that night I got delicious fish and chips and we all
hung around playing card games. The next
day we stopped to go on a cool walk through scary abandoned railway tunnels and in Paeroa
the home of my beloved L&P beverage!
We then got to our destination, Waitomo, where a group of us
immediately went Black Water Rafting.
What is black water rafting you ask?
Well the official description is tubing through caves to see the ever
impressive glow worms that live on the ceilings and look like beautiful stars
in the sky. The actual experience is
freezing your butt off in ice cold water, jumping off mini waterfalls into the bone
chilling water, having your hands go numb and then finally seeing the beautiful
little bugs before exiting the blood freezing darkness. Don’t get me wrong, had it been warm it would
have been completely amazing…but if you know me at all you know there are 2 things
I am not terribly fond of, the cold and water.
But all in all, a great experience and going with the trend of do
something that scares you/makes you extremely uncomfortable everyday!
(notice the big smile on my face)
The next day it was on to Rotorua! When we arrived I went for a walk around town
with some of my new girl friends and I ate at the very cool Fat Dog Café. Later that night a group of us were picked up
to go to our Maori Cultural evening!
Immediately upon getting on the bus we were told it was our canoe and
this was our tribe, on our way to a Maori village. We arrived at an amazing mock Maori village
that was designed to give you a truly authentic experience. After our appointed “chief” had been “sworn
in” we were welcomed into the village to walk around and explore.
We were then brought into a Marae where we were entertained
by Maori song and dance.
Next we walked towards our Hāngi, a Maori barbeque
where they bury the food and cover in hot stones to cook the meat and
vegetables.
The feast that followed was incredible. It felt like a Thanksgiving meal with
chicken, sausages, potatoes, kumara (a delicious kind of sweet potatoe),
vegetables, mussels, etc and a dessert section with Pavlova my new favorite and
completely delicious sugary dish!
We then headed back to the bar where we had an awesome night
of pool, drinks and dancing!
The next
day the whole bus left again while I stayed another day to explore Rotorua a
bit more and then catch a bus to this lovely sounding beach town of Mount
Maunganui the following morning!
I couldn’t have asked for better weather to
walk around Rotorua. So as the sun shone
I walked around the huge lake which eventually turns white on one end because
of all the sulfur!
I walked through Kuirau Park too which I think is the original location of the Lion King's elephant graveyard.
Kuirau Park is a public park with walking
tracks that lead to numerous areas of "vigorous geothermal activity." I then went into the
Rotorua Museum which was very beautiful as well as interesting. The museum itself is inside the historic bath
house which was once a famous geothermal spa which offered therapeutic
treatments to visitors from all over the world.
The bath house originally Opened in 1908 and was the New Zealand
Government’s first major investment in the tourism industry.
Before heading to Mount Maunganui I found a
piano in the wild! No really, they seem
to do this in many cities, just putting pianos around randomly for people to
enjoy! So I had a sit down and played
and sang in the middle of Rotorua, it felt fantastic!
Next installment I will tell you all about my new home where
I am now! Highlights to look for include
my week adventure living on a Maori island helping clean their oil covered
beaches after a container ship (Rena) crashed into a reef nearby! Get excited :)
