More of the North Island

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This is going to have to be quick as I have hardly any time!

After my day at Waitomo that nights stop was a night at a Maori Murai. It was a cultural night where we learnt about the Maori traditions and ate some traditional hangi smoked meats. After dinner the girls and boys split up and the girls learnt a traditional dance called the Poi which is basically swinging around some balls on the end of strings... quite entertaining as we all showed our lack of coordination. The boys learnt the traditional war dance the haka and really got into it - it's quite scary. There were lots of little kids really getting into it too.

After a communal sleep (we all grabbed matresses and found a spot on the hall floor to sleep!) we headed off to Rotoroa. On the way I indulged in a spot of white water rafting. This was quite hard - core, a grade 5 river with the largest commercial waterfall in the world - apparently about 50% of boats flip!! Good fun even though the river was so cold! The bus wasn't stopping in Rotoroa but me and 2 friends called Andrea and Michelle decided to hop off here and spend a night. Rotoroa really really smells like rotton eggs - there is no way I could live there!! We visited some mud pools which were bubbling and spitting up in front of us and visited a spa where we could actually sit in the pools without cooking. It was lovely and relaxing and after a while you almost forget the smell!

The next day we did a famous walk called the Tongariro Crossing - this is an 18km 6-8 hour walk which featured as mt Doom in the Lord of the rings. Unfortunately my camera battery ran out half way over so I missed out on photos of the most imprssive landscape. It is a volcano which spits every now and again - the last one being in 1996! There are really impressive red swirling rock formations and deep blue pools which I assume are that colour because of the sulphur as again they smelt of rotton egg...
That night we stayed in the best hostel yet. It was like a hotel! I fell to sleep really early and had a great nighs rest!

The next day was Wellington - I didn't spend enough time here but from what I sawe I really liked. All the roads are lined with little parks and landscaped gardens with lots of fountains and water features or kids playgrounds. It had a really nice feel to it as it it beach surrounded by mountains and all the houses were more spaced out unlike Auckland.

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Photos

Scary Maori girls
Look at the eyes!!