In a spin!

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We are now in Rotorua and doing more extreme things! We went zorbing today. Zorbing involves being in a large plastic ball and rolling down a hill! Think giant hamster ball and you get the idea. Tim and I went in the same ball together along with a bucket of water (don't know why). They tell you to stand and then release the gate so you start rolling. We tried to stay standing but it was impossible. Felt a bit dizzy by the time I got to the bottom of the hill but it was good fun. I am sure this is what being in a washing machine feels like!

In the afternoon we went to the Polynesian Spa which is a series of hot pools. The main pool is a mineral pool which is kept at 38oC. There are also a series of mildly acidic pools which are at 39 - 42oC. It was all very relaxing and good after all this activity.

Today we went to Wai-O-Tapu. It is a geothermal area with lots of smoking pools, bubbling mud and pools of weirdly coloured water. One, the Devil's bath, was a pea green colour! There is also a large geyser. It erupts everyday at 10:15am. They make it erupt by adding 300g of of soap powder. This breaks the surface tension and allows the water to bubble up. If they did not add the soap the geyser would erupt any time in a 24 - 48hr cycle and that does not fit in with tourist plans!

Finally, as if this wasn't enough, we got a cable car up one of the mountains in Rotorua. This gave greats views over the city (it was by far the best way to view it). The best thing was that they had a luge track at the top (as in Queenstown) so we were able to battle it out again. I lost every time!

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