Day 18 - 20

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well, i'm a little behind in my blogging, and i've kind of lost track of the days. guess i'll just report on what i can recall...

btw, i'm sitting in a gaming/internet shop in what appears to be auckland's chinatown. the keys might be arranged funny and i can't read the chinese characters on the screen...

anyways, after we pulled in to taupo we spent two nights there. i've already complained about how we couldn't find a place to eat the first night. but the next day was kind of pleasant. it was another down day for us and i managed to get a little more souvenir shopping done. for all you fishermen out there (john), taupo's a popular destination for trout fishing. there are several stores with gear for fly fishing, and excursions out on the lake. i almost bought a starter kit for 120nzd, but figured it would be a pain to bring back home.

the next day we headed to rotorua, which is the geothermic area of the north island. we stopped in at a small park called the "hidden valley", which is a miniature version of yellowstone. it's not nearly as spectacular, and at $25nzd, not really worth stopping in if you've been to yellowstone.

i wasn't impressed by rotorua either. the town understandably smells like sulpher, and there's a series of vents in the middle of town. it's a huge tourist destination, though. and our motel left quite a lot to be desired (although the hosts were very friendly).

that evening we went to a hangi -- a traditional maori feast that's like the hawaiian luau. there's a couple of choices to see it, some in maori "villages", and some in hotels. we went to the mitai village for ours, and i fell better about spending the extra money to have it there. it seems to be a largely family run business, with the kids and young adults performing. i think we had a bunch of new performers, since some o them flubbed up throughout the show. but it added to the "family" feel, and the chief and our hostess were very upbeat and humorous. the mitai village is at the end of the rainbow/fairy springs, so the evening started with the chief and his warriors padding upstream. we elected some poor chap from britain as our "chief", and they perfomed a traditional greeting between tribes. after that we settled in for the show. it's hard to describe what they were doing, but they ended with a huka, which is the war chants you see the all blacks rugby team do at the start of every game.

once the show ended we headed to dinner. it was quite feast: chicken, lamb, potatoes, assorted veggies, and of course, taro. we had some pleasant company at our table, too. there were two brit girls, katey and karen, who were backpacking around the world. they just finished the inca trail in peru a couple of weeks ago. the other girl, sarah, was a scot who they met at the hostel.

after dinner, our hostess and the chief took us around the lands to learn about the flora and fauna. did you know the maori brought rats with them when the settled here? apparently it's a delicacy to them.

the next day we headed to cambridge. nothing to report there. it was just a stop along the way to auckland.

and this morning we arrived here in auckland. u2's putting on a show tonight and tomorrow night. of course we were foolish enough not to book ahead, so almost every place is full here. following a harrowing drive into the downtown core, and paying through the nose for parking, we headed in to the info centre to see if they could book us. no luck there, but kev managed to find a little place for $130. seemed a bit much, so we made the choice to drive out of auckland to a little seaside town called orewa. the priced figured about the same, so we ended up just driving back in to the city. the traffic here is outrageous and infuriating.

we checked in about 2 hours ago, and now here i sit. deja and i comtemplated getting tix for u2 tomorrow, since they released 600 extra seats this morning. but we're almost out of money, and i'm not big enough of a fan to shell out cash for it...

i probably won't have internet access again until i get home, so this will be be my last entry.

see you back in canada!

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