Rotorua, Hot Pool & Taupo

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The next morning we were back on the bus bound for Rotorua. We stopped off on the way for a quick walk to check out an old gold mining site and then stopped off again at an adventure playground. At this awesome location we had the chance to do some really cool cheap activities. A monorail peddle powered race track, skydive simulator, ride in a jet boat, bungee jump and a massive swing which hoists you up 40m and releases you swinging you past the ground at 130kmph. I had a ride in the jet boat which has 450hp and weighs 500kg. Absolutely nuts.After arriving in Rotorua I immidiately got lost trying to find the supermarket. Everywhere is in blocks so navigating around should theoretically be easy. But it wasn't and I wasn't the only one to nearly miss the bus upto the gondola where we went luging. Luging is an activity where you sit in a little cart and fly down some down hill some tracks racing each other. Brilliant fun.

That night we went to the local backpackers bar where we played some games and I met up with Mark again and his friend Alistair. Now I was planning on staying in the hostel that night but Mark and Alistair ended up dragging me out to an amazing little spot in the middle of nowhere where there was an outdoor swimming pool naturally heated by the geothermal activity under the ground. They were shown this spot by some locals they met and therefore there was no-one there. No tourists really know about it. We lay in this pool stinking of sulphur drinking beer until something like 5am and then fell asleep in their campervan.

We woke the next morning, went for few walks and then booked ourselves onto a short boat cruise to check out this amazing waterfall where the water was crystal clear.

After that I got dropped of in Taupo to meet up again with the rest of the Kiwi Ex crew who were getting ready to go out for more drinks. A phone call later from Mark and Alistair and they were back with me using the hostel for a shower and the power sockets in my room to charge literally all of their electrical items. No probs, grab some plates and cutlery out of the kitchen too while you're at it for the camper haha. They were intending on sleeping at a campsite where they set their tent up but after a few drinks at the bar downstairs they ended up sleeping outside the hostel in the camper. "It was only supposed to be a quiet night" I've heard this alot now. It never works out that way.

So I've spent today mainly dossing around. Luckily we've not had much to do in Taupo so I've been catching up on lost sleep and writing these blog posts. Looks like we're off to the bar again in a bit for a few drinks then we're heading to River Valley tomorrow for some white water rafting, weather dependant.

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