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Published: November 26th 2006
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Me and Paul
Me and Paul at the top of the mountain... before racing down the hill on our Luges. Helloooo,
I am still here in Rotorua...and am really enjoying myself. It is almost certainly the best place I have visited so far on my trip. I was only going to stay here for a few days, but have decided to extend it to 6 days in total. I leave on Wednesday 😞
So what have I done since I last wrote to you on Friday? Well....loads! That's why I am having to write again so soon...
Literally straight after writing my blog to you on Friday, I was about to leave the internet room at the hostel...when all of a sudden someone I recognised walked through the door... Paul!! From Fiji.... The guy I met in the first few days in Fiji (he is in a few of my pics on my Fiji blog). Really strange seeing him again, I knew he was going to be in New Zealand... but out of all the places we both could have been....it happened to be in the same town in the same hostel (baring in mind there are about 8 hostels in Rotorua alone!)
So we headed straight down to this Irish Pub for a few pints and
a talk about Football. Paul is 28 and is a veteren traveller...having travelled most places in the world.... South America, Aus, Asia, America and Africa (I think?) So it's pretty cool talking to him about his experiences as I am able to learn from him.
Then yesterday (Saturday) I spent most of the day with him.... we went for breakfast to start the day.... and it was huuuuuge! It was at this place called 'Fat Dog'...and all I ordered was scrambled egg on toast.... ended up getting loads of egg (really tasty) huge slices of toast, 4 big hash browns, salad, and a few slices of fruit... on this huge plate! All for about £3.50!!
Then we decided to go 'Luging'. Basically.... Luging is downhill go-karting. Amazing!! We went down 3 different race tracks all the way down this huge hill it was just brilliant. To get up there in the first place you have to take a Gondola... then once you're at the bottom of the track, you take a ski-lift back to the top to go on another track. It was great fun... and I have included pics. If you wanna see more about it go
One of the Luging tracks
You could really get up some speed! Probably around 50mph...maybe more... on this website:
Luging Then we went to get some things from the supermarket and then relaxed in the evening.
We ended up going to the Irish pub again in the evening to have some dinner...then watch the Rugby league tri-nations... Australia vs New Zealand (which of course was a huge game over here!)....Australia won... it didn't go down too well with the locals.
Paul left this morning on his coach (as he is going around with Kiwi Experience coach tour), so today I went to the Buried Village... something I have been really looking forward to. And it was really good! Basically it is an excavated site of a village which was buried with ash and mud during the volcanic eruption of Mt Tarawera in 1886! Was really interesting to read all about what had happened and see loads of objects which they found when excavating the site. they found wine and whiskey bottles (still with the contents in)... remains of the village hotel (it had a hotel because there were lots of visitors from abroad to visit the famous pink and white terraces... even over 100 yrs ago NZ had tourists!! But
the Pink and White terraces were destroyed in the eruption too. They were natural and an 8th wonder of the world. Shame.) It also had remains of a stone oven, houses where villagers lived, the blacksmiths workshop and many other things (see pictures). Then I went on this walk around this short hike around this mountain...where I saw a 30metre waterfall, trout in the stream and some great views (See pics).
So I had a pretty cool 2 days. And tomorrow (Monday) I plan to go to Rotorua Museum and go and see some Kiwi's (the bird) possibly.
Thank you for your comments! It is really good to read them everytime I log on... They really make this blog worth doing... because I know people are actually reading it! So thank you... and I will start replying to comments left as well.
My next plan is to go to the Capital city of NZ... Wellington! Apparently it is alot more cultural and Moari than Auckland is.... which will be cool. As I wasn't really a fan of Auckland. I plan to go to Wellington on Wednesday.
Take care. And enjoy the pictures! (Remember there is more
than one page)
xxx
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suzie
non-member comment
hey michael, sorry its taken me so long to comment, i do read your blogs every time they come through, im so jelous it all looks so amazing. you look like your having such a good time. bet you were a bit shocked when you saw kat! i thought that when i saw your pics of the sky tower and then you did see her! those pictures of that waterfall look so cool, i bet you wanted to jump in!! well hope all is well, enjoy the birds if you get to see them, i am interested to see what they look like! i learn something new everytime i read your blogs!! its like a fact for the day, all about the 8th wonder of the world and all that! well hear from you soon, take care suzie xxx