Saturday July 6
We didn't really have much of an idea what we were doing today, we decided once in the front seats we would head down to rotorua. The drive was a little under 2 hours and we headed straight for the information centre this time round. There were so many activities to chose from that we had to take leaflets away and sit in a cafe for a while trying to decide. Everything was expensive so it was more choosing what we would rather spend a lot of money on and what seemed worth the costs. In the end we decided to go for white water rafting down the kaituna river, which has the "worlds highest commercially rafted water fall" whatever that means. We also booked ourselves onto a canopy walk which looks like a bigger and better go ape. There were no spaces left for that day so we decided to go the day after.
The place is quite big compared to other areas we have been over the last week, there are bigger roads and more shops. It's based in an area with masses of geothermal activity and the whole place smells like sulphur. Liam thought that made it ok to fart and not be blamed for the smells. We wanted to go and see some geisas and hot pools, but decided rather than pay a tonne of money we would just take our chances and find less expensive ones or free ones to see as we travel down. There were also opportunities for Maori cultural experiences but we again opted out to do the more adventurous stuff for now with our cash.
We had time to have a bit of dinner and walk round looking at the steaming hot pools for 5 minutes or so before making our way down to where the rafting was based. Once there we were greeted by a very direct and rushed man who got us to sign a form saying we were aware of the chance of getting hurt and all that stuff, before we got into our swimming stuff and into our wetsuits, fleeces, helmets and life jackets. We had 10 minutes in our boat learning the basics of where and how to sit, what to do and how to follow certain instructions. We had an older couple (as in their 50s) who were very friendly and a korean girl who hardly spoke a word of english. After that we drove a short distance to the river where we got in and started to row down. The scenery was beautiful, lots of trees and greenery all around and in general quite a sunny day. It didnt take long to get wet and cold though as we started rushing down rapids and waterfalls. We all got very wet and it was so much fun rushing down and banging into things as we went. Before we got to the 7 meter waterfall we stopped at the side holding onto a rope so our instructor could give us some last minute instructions. The boat that went before us tipped right over and they were all underneath it, so we had to be prepared to be tipped out on the way down. It was finally our time to go down, row, row, row, down! And into the brace positions and down the waterfall we went. I honestly thought we were tipped at one point due to the amount of water piling over my head, but we emerged the right way up and still in the boat, or most of us. 2 people had fallen out somewhere down the line and were floating about in the water. After getting them back in it was time to go down the last few and play a bit in the bottoms of the waterfalls, in total we spent about an hour on the river and all of us were soaked by the end.
We then got out and carried the raft between us on the top of us heads up the slope back onto the trailer. Once all dressed again we had chance as a big group, our boat and the other boat to look through the photos. I hadn't really had a clue where the camera was at any given moment and forgot it was there 90% of the time. Liam on the other hand seemed fully aware 100% of the time and had many poses and faces set up as usual and got some very big laughs from the group.
We then made our way back into the city and found an Internet cafe to upload some photos- mainly due to Liam being concerned over damaging or losing the discs. By around 6pm we were back in our van and deciding where to go for the night. Really it was a no brainier for us, we could either pay 20 dollars for a parking spot or 40 dollars for an electric hook up, a dump ground to empty the loo and add top up our water, plus access to natural hot pool spa in the grounds. So we drove to the spa in the dark, down the windy roads and booked ourselves a spot with electric hook up. Within 15 minutes of parking up we were stood in the freezing cold....maybe not freezing but perhaps around 10* so cold enough in your swimmers! There were around 6 different pools in total, all different depths and sizes, all round 37-40 degrees and coming from the thermal pools of boiling water up the hill. The steam was rising up from everywhere and it was so great sitting in the hot water with the cold air surrounding you. We spent maybe around 45 minutes to an hour swapping and changing pools before Liam got out and went to get our tea started and the campervan warm. By the time I got out tea was ready and we watched "buried" on DVD on the bed. It was probably a bad idea because we had an early start in the morning but it was nice to relax with a DVD in the warm for the evening. Although the ending did kind of scar me and I found it rather upsetting!
Sunday 7 July
This morning we were up and out of the site by 7.45 to get to our canopy tour for 8.15am. Driving down the rural roads at that time in the area was great because you could see the layers of steam from the hot spots all over the fields. Once we got there we had our safety talks, harnessed up then drove for 10 minutes to our area of forest. We spent that time having to do the typical introductions of each other in our group of us two, a family of 5 and a smaller group of 3. The forest we went in is completely untouched save for the areas in the trees where the zip lines have been attached. There is a very small narrow pathway to lead you to the first one then that's about it really. They set the tours up to help rebuild the forests native wildlife and use the money for their projects. We went through a series of zip lines and big bridges through the trees, the views were lovely although it was quite cold! They pointed put different trees, some were a thousand years old or more, also told us how to Maori would use certain plants. There was a type of fern which had a silver underside on the big leaves that they would use for signals, navigation and shelter, there were also certain plants that were edible, that kind of thing. Big kauri trees were pointed out with the bark that peels off to prevent climbers and other things to grow on them. Other trees had big islands of what can only be explained almost as though big clumps of earth had been taken from the ground and attached to the high branches. They grow there from the vines that climb up the tree but they aren't a parasite, they live in harmony with the tree. The Maori would call them "widowmakers" because when they fall they're so heavy they kill you if they fall on you.
On the way round we learned about native birds and their behaviours which was pretty interesting, i cant be bothered to write it all down though! One in particular was called a long tailed cuckoo which flies in from thousands of miles and lays its egg in the local tiny birds nests. When the baby hatches it can mimic the bird sound of where it's been laid and the parents think they've hatched a giant and treat it likes it's their own. I think they said the baby eats the other eggs as well and the parents just don't really have much of a clue and feed it even when it's flying around 5 times the size. Then it flies back to where it's parents came from without ever having met them!
Lots of birds are really low in numbers now due to introduced species such as cats, stoats, possum and rats. I can't remember exact numbers but the numbers eaten every night are in their thousands. We were shown lots of different types of "humane" killing traps for the pests, an example of one is a machine that has loaded compressed air
and told about their 3 year plan to get rid of pests and introduce more native bird species. There is a forest nearby that had all the birds but not the forest, they have a 500 year plan to grow more trees and make the forest more liveable for native species. There were lots of stories about nearby areas managing to get their numbers up through various projects so it was an interesting walk round.
We had photos and videos taken on the wires, being a bit silly on a couple and trying to get upside down whilst going across. The experience was good but it wasn't worth the number one rating on trip advisor and it wasn't worth the money we paid for it. The only reason we are ok with it is because we know some of the money goes towards conservation.
After that we drove about 1 hour to Taupo. I was a bit sad we didnt get to see more geothermal activity, and maybe the "buried city", but with only so much time we had made our decisions on activities and had to forfeit other things in turn. We had no idea what we were going to be doing at all so we nipped into the visitor centre just to get an idea and within a few minutes we were booking on to do a sky dive and on our way to the flight centre. When we got there we were told we would have to wait due to it being cloudy, but were given forms to sign and all that stuff plus some safety DVDs to watch. During that time the weather got worse, and although we could tell it was obviously bad they still had us waiting along with a few others for over an hour and a half. After that time we decided we didn't want to wait anymore, we had wasted most of the day and wanted to do at least something before it got dark. So after agreeing to come back in the morning we set off to huka falls to find a free camp ground and try for a walk.
We set up camp by the river, it was a lovely little reserve with picnic benches and things, although we wouldn't be using them due to it being so cold! We tried to go for a walk but for whatever reason we couldn't find the track we wanted to get onto. We walked for about 45 minutes but it wasn't the track we initially wanted to go on. We could have tried more but we were both tired and decided to settle for the night. We had some snacks and watched a DVD ( gullivers travels with jack black) I tried to write the blogs a bit but failed really, I'm writing about 5 days ahead.
After a while I started to need a poo and I hadn't had one in days so really couldn't hold it in. Liam told me to do it in the toilet but he empties it in exchange for me doing the domestics inside so I didn't want to. I ended up going outside in the pitch black and pooling into a plastic bag. Liam told me just to do it on the floor because it would be good for the soil but I didn't fancy that. Anyway I pooped in the bag, tied it up and dumped it a way off from the van so I could find a bin in the light!
We were in bed by 9 and looking at a few photos on the camera from the last week, it started to rain so we were going to sleep to the sound of pitter patter which was very nice.
