Rotorua

We left Mercury Bay at 7.30am, and after a long drive we arrived in a little town called Matamata for a lunch stop. This place was the filming location for Hobbiton in the Lord Of The Rings movie, hence the sign with the Gollum statue!

We then headed to our destination, Rotorua, which in my opinion was a bit of a dump. Greeted with heavy rain, the town is built over boiling mudpools and geysers, so sulphur dioxide rises up through the streets. Not good - the whole place smells of rotten eggs!

It was 2pm when we arrived, and checking into the youth hostel I soon got to know my 7 other room-mates. We all headed to the nearest supermarket to stock up on beer with them and played a few drinking games til dinnertime.

For dinner some of us went to a Maori village where we received a traditional welcoming and an insight into their culture. We were also given a concert which was great, and best of all, a traditional Maori feast - food cooked underground in an "earth oven" - roast potatoes, lamb, beef and gravy - the whole lot, absolutely delicious! I couldn't have been happier to finally get a decent meal after a week of plane food and manky bread rolls from our lunch stops on the bus.

We then returned to the dorm room for more drinking. I had to be up early the next morning, and getting sleep wasn't easy with the amount of noise going on in the hostel!

Anyway, this has been my least favourite stop so far and I'll be glad to move on to Waitomo!

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Part of trip: Backpacking round New Zealand

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