Xtreme Fun in Rotorua

---

After what felt like a week on the road (but was actually only two days) we stopped off in Rotorua for a few days. After a 'pyjama day' spent in the room (don't you just love those days?), our Auckland friends Steve and Nancy drove down this weekend to stay with us - a weekend renamed 'Steve's weekend of Xtreme fun' as he wanted to do as many adrenaline-fuelled activities as possible!

After a session of Mini golf (our aim is to play in as many NZ towns as possible), we went to Rotorua's Agrodome where Steve felt the force of freefall, did a bungy and zoomed round on the Agrojet - and I ended up doing the 'Swoop' with him! We were zipped into a big sleeping bag and slowly winched up 40m high (I was regretting my hot dog at this point) ... then Steve pulled on the ripcord and we raced towards the earth at 130 kilometres an hour! Thankfully the rope wasn't too long and we swung backwards and forth, leaving my stomach behind on multiple occasions. First bit of adrenaline felt in NZ (and I think not the last)!

The next day we celebrated Easter Sunday by eating chocolate and crisps (which Laura and I had given up) and drove to an off-roading site where Steve and Nancy got bounced and bumped around in an off-roading vehicle while us girls tried to ride a backwards bike, whose handlebars had been reversed - harder than you think to go left instead of right! Then we raced around the track in sprint car racing... well, I say 'racing' but the track times don't really need to be mentioned do they?! Let's just say I thought I was driving really really fast (lots of screams from me and Kate) - I may have even said 'I must be driving quicker than Steve'! But when we got the track times back I was the Slow Mo - must have been a computer error 😉 Did I mention I hate losing?!

Anyway, I accepted I was the careful, safe driver of our nuclear family and moved onto some clay pigeon shooting! I shot down three out of five clays, thanks to my previous Oz Experience and some coaching - which Laura was not happy about as she maintains she wasn't told how to hold the gun (and opening your eyes may have helped...)! It helped me to shut one eye, a look that Kate captured on camera - you might not want to get on the wrong side of a gun from me! Not as much as Killer Kate though - she obliterated six out of six pigeons into dust on her first shots, earning a free clay from a very impressed shotgun instructor! Steve was less than happy about not being the best.

We were sad to wave Steve and Nancy off after a lovely weekend and got ready to move on once more - armed with lots of washing as there were no washing machines at the hostel! Outrage!

In the morning we stopped at Te Puia on the way out of Rotorua, New Zealand's most well known thermal area with geysers, a Maori Arts Centre and a Kiwi Bird House. We were armed with our swimming costumes as we had it in our heads that you could bathe in the mud pools - and had a good chuckle at each other when we got there and found there were mud pools - which were BOILING HOT! No swimming for us then!

After walking around the natural geysers spurting out of the ground and popping in to see the little Kiwi birds snuffling around in their nocturnal habitat (not the most exciting native birds I have to say), the boys learnt the Haka while the girls got to practice the Poi dance. 'Poi' means 'ball' in Maori and the dance involves holding balls on ropes and swinging them in circular patterns. It was easy to do but difficult to do well and look good at the same time - we were told it was originally performed by the men to improve dexterity and flexibility in using hand weapons. We performed for the boys and they tried to look fierce for their traditional dance - nice try boys.

Back on the bus to wave goodbye to Rotorua!

---