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Published: December 12th 2007
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A real KIWI
We were so excited when this fella came out of the dark corner of his home to see us. realy rare to see them! Hello all. It has been a bit rainy this week but we have still managed to see and do lots. The weather has been very english indeed, with the type of rain that gets everything soaked! Heavy drizzle, so we've spent a lot of time chilling in the van, reading, sleeping and chatting, or watching tv in the communial tv room on the campsite, or just strolling around town. Also we've enjoyed using the hot mineral baths on the campsite. Rotorua is sat on a plate vault, and is reknowned for is thermal activity. The town has a smell of egg to it, caused by the smell of sulphur, which pores out of the ground as steam, and in all the park areas, there are steaming holes, and bubbling mud pools, where the boiling steam rises to the earths surfaces from 1000's of feet below. So every campsite and motel in the area has hot mineral pools, using the natural hot spring water from the ground. So we've just chilled in the pools, which have temps of 40 degrees, and it takes about ten minutes to get in as its so hot. You have goose bumps from the heat, but its
Bubbling mud
real eggie smell. so relaxing, even with the rain falling onto your head, ha ha. But we have also had one dry day, where we squeezed alot in.
We firstly went to a place called "te Puia". It was a huge site with lots of mud pools, spurting geysurs, the famous Kiwi bird shelter, and traditional Mauri performances, giving you an insight to their history as NZ's original inhabitants. It was a lovely morning there. The rain still fell at times, but we just put on the pac-a-macs (we look like right tourists in these, matching colours and all), and got on with it. We went and viewed the mauri men and women carring out the tradition arts of wieving and carving. They made some beautiful carvings, using just hand tools, that looked older than my grandads tools!!!!!! We then went to try and see a kiwi bird. Apparently its a rare sight, as they are very timid, and nocturnal, but to our luck, the bird came out of hiding when we went into the purpose built home on site. They are an indangered species, so they had a home there, which was dark etc, to make them comfortable. So that was
Massive Geyser
this shot up about 20 metres in the air. Not so good with the grey sky behind a stroke of luck, and was nice too see. Next were the geysers. They go off about every 30 minutes. The water blokes an underground cavern, and as pressure builds, as the water boils, it then releases a huge sray of boiling water about 20m into the air. It was really fasinating to see, knowing that its not a fountain, or hose pipe, but a natural geyser in the earth. It was quite scary seeing all the thermal activity, and made you think about what goes on under the earth!!!!!!!!!!!!! The bubbling mud pools were impressive too!!! But the sulphur smell was really strong!!!!
We then watched the tradition mauri performance. It was really interesting, and we learnt a lot about how the mauri tribes 100's of years ago would have acted. They performed many songs, and talked about how they greated other tribes etc, and finished the show with "The Haka". We have all seen the haka performed by the New Zealand All Blacks, before the start of a rugby game. It was performed the same way years ago by mauri tribes, before going to war, as a way of trying to intimidate the opposition!!!!!
After that
Stank of eggs
Actually hot eggs!!!!! Loving the pac-a-macs we went up a mountain in a cable car, and at the top they had a "sky swing" and a couple of luge tracks down the mountain. It was so much fun. The sky swing didn't look that scary, but when you where winched up into position, and had to pull the release cord ourselfs, to send us plummiting towards earth and out over the side of the mountain, it was a different story. Soph screamed all the way, and it was a great ride. Look at the photo's to see her fear!!!!! The luges where the best though. Just like the toboggan in plymouth, but ten times better. The tracks went on for ages, and had loads of twists and turns, and huge, steep drops. We were even scared on these. The nice thing was that there were no rules. In england its all "one at a time, so speeding etc", but here it was a free for all. We could all race down, and go soooo fast. All i could think was that the boys would love this, we'd all be racing down, having a good laugh. Me and soph loved it, and she was even braver than
the red gang
we were getting wet from the spraying geyser. me!
We're off to "The Bay Of Plenty" this avo, before heading back to Auckland sometime on the weekend. Speak soon, hope your well, and enjoying the manic christmas period. We don't have the hastle of that this year, which is strange but nice. love mart and soph xxxxx
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JE Team
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Merry Christmas!
Merry Christmas to you Sophie from all your friends in the JE team back in wintery Plymouth! We hope you enjoy the sunny Christmas season and all the celebrations. Very best wishes for 2008 and an adventurous and happy new year xxx