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Published: April 28th 2007
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Auckland
Sky Tower I finished my last blog stating that i did not want to get "sucked back into bar of the Fat Camel Hostel so i'd booked my bus to Rotorua". However, unfortunately and quite predictably for those that know me well, I did get sucked into this bar and stayed for another 2 nights! I met a lad from Salisbury who was also called Gareth and well we just got drinking and things spiraled out of control from there!
Finally packing my bags and moving on, I began my trip south to Rotorua. This i heard was the perfect place to experience real Maori culture with a trip to a Village Feast and Maori concert!! In all honesty it was not really the culture or the concert that inspired my visit, it had been a long time since I'd had a good feed and the concert promised an 'All you can eat buffet'!!
Before reaching Rotorua, the Magic bus took us to a place called Waitomo for an adventurous trip under ground. I booked myself on the Black Water Rafting trip through the Waitomo Caves where we floated along on the underground river, jumped into darkness over various waterfalls
Auckland
Sitting on top of Mt Eden, an extinct volcano overlooking Auckland and were shat on by the caves population of glow worms! (apparently the glow is a result of the excrement that drip out of them!) Despite the cold water and worm shit, this was an awesome trip and after drying off and enjoying a much needed cup of hot soup, we jumped back on the bus and headed for Rotorua.
We arrived at our hostel with just enough time to grab a shower and couple of beers in the bar before heading to the main event. The tour began with an informative lesson on the first Maori people to arrive in New Zealand and ended with a concert that climaxed with the Haka. Anyway onto more important things...the food was amazing. It was cooked in the traditional Maori style, over hot stones buried in the earth and after an hour or two, I'd eaten so much that i couldn't even finish my beer. It was well worth it. We finished the night in the geothermal pool at the hostel which was the perfect way to relax after a night of solid eating!
Following the heavy night of drinking and eating, the bus took us on a trip around
the Rotorua area which as you can see from the pictures, consists of swamps full of steaming mud. What the pictures do not tell you is that this steaming mud actually smells like rotten/burnt eggs due to the excessive sulphur release. Now if the Magic bus had advertised their service as a trip to see some steaming pile of shit i may well have had to rethink my plans. And charging me 600 dollars for the privelidge would certainly seem a bit much. However this little gut wrenching trip turned out to be a lot of fun. Although the mud smells worse than my backpack, which by the way is about to sprout mushrooms, it was interesting and quite exciting to see the hot, bubbling pools and the urge to jump in was surprisingly strong. It felt like something out of Lord Of The Rings and created a good atmosphere on the bus as we headed towards the Lady Knox Geyser, which we had been assured would explode at 10:15 on the dot, expelling hot, steaming water 20 feet into the air!
We arrived at about 10am amid a swarm of wild children who were on a school trip.
In fact they provided the entertainment whilst we were waiting for the Geyser to do its thing. One large kid who must have been about 10 years old was talking to another kid of about the same age but much smaller. We watched as he pointed to the Geyser tricking the smaller kid to look away so that he could punch him in the ear without the risk of missing. Obviously this sent the whole party of kids into riot and the teachers were shouting away...it was a good show.
As the kids settled down, 10:15 arrived and expectations were high. Any minute now, the Geyser would spontaneously burst open and throw hot water high into the air while the crowd ooo'd and ahh'd. In actual fact, a geeky looking man wondered out in front of the crowd and called for silence. Once the kids had quietened down enough for everyone to hear, he proceeded to explain how the Geyser worked. Hot water pools and cold water pools mix under ground creating a violent reaction...bla bla bla then he reached into his pocket and pulled out a bar of soap. He placed the soap into the Geyser and quickly
dodged back into the crowd. Within minutes the Geyser began to bubble, hot steaming water poured and spat out and i found myself oohing and ahhing with the rest of the crowd. Despite the erupting not really being spontaneous it was an exciting spectacle to witness. The water spurted at least 20 feet into the air and stayed for some good photo moments.
As the excitement died down and the kids grew restless, we decided to head back onto the bus and continue the south bound journey to Taupo.
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wayne rooney
non-member comment
i am a god.
what happned to the soap?