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Published: November 27th 2007
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So here we are guys, the last section of our long journey before settling down in Auckland...
We left Napier, heading to Rotorua which is meant to be the Maori culture hub of New Zealand. The journey was mainly hills and sheep (sound familiar?) apart from a couple of waterfalls. The first was a quick stop off, just outside of Napier and was beatiful but nothing as spectacular as the one to come! We stopped at Huka Falls just outside of Taupo. This waterfall is immense!! It is semi man-made in that from the Waikato River which is normally 100m wide, it is squeezed through a 20 metre wide gorge and over a 20m drop. Every second up to 250,000 cubic metres of water gushes through the gorge and shoots out over 8 metres beyond (www.hukafalls.com). It powers 8 hydro power stations!
Our final stop off before Rotorua was at a bubbling mud pool. This is one of the most disgusting smelling places we've ever been, due to the sulphur it smells of rotton eggs, or bad bowel movements 😉 You get the drift anyway! But it looked pretty cool so we got some pics and jumped back on
the bus asap!
Finally we arrived in Rotorua and checked into our hostel 'Treks'. It was a nice hostel, brand new but for some reason they seem to have made it out of tin so with the lovely weather we've been having at the mo, it was a bit like a sauna...not nice to sleep in! Jon attempted to turn the thermostat down in the hall to 5 degrees (naughty, naughty) but it somehow got pushed back up to 28 degrees! Now Fi feels the cold easily but this was way too hot even for her!! Anyway....that evening we were to go to Tamaki Heritage Village, for a Maori cultural experience! Right from the beginning we realised this was going to be very staged, but it was a good night all in all! It started with our driver pretending our bus was a waka (canoe) and we had to paddle! Ha ha! A chief was chosen from each 'waka' who had to go up against the village chiefs upon arrival to show that they were there in peace, they were very scary (see pics). We then got to wander through their village listening to the maori people talking about
aspects of their culture. We were then taken to the village house for their performances, dancing, singing, weapons demonstrations & most importantly the 'Haka'. This was the best part of the night, we have most of it on video so if we feel at any time like we'd like to be afraid we can watch it again!! The evening was finished off with a 'Hangi' meal, this is the Maori way of cooking, it involves cooking the food in a 'Hangi' pit on red hot stones buried in the ground. Quite nice if a little 'earthy', not something we'll be trying ourselves.... not when you have a cooker & microwave!!
Next morning we were to be picked up from our hostel at 8:45 to go white water rafting... can't wait!! Our lift turned up at 9:10 only to tell us that the river had been closed for the morning due to a police investigation & that he'd be back to pick us up at 10. We were then picked up & taken to 'Hell's gate' where they were based so that we could be briefed on the safety etc... & to get into our wetsuits & safety gear.... finally
we all jumped into our bus which would take us to the river, we unloaded the rafts from the back of the trailer & took them down to the river side. BUT, the investigation was still going on (police were looking for a weapon in the river linked to a murder) so we wouldn't be able to get on the river...... No rafting for us (Gutted)!!
As a concillation we decided to go to a polynesian spa which turned out to be 4 pools with different temperatures ranging from 38-42 degrees celsius, we spent some time dipping in & out of the pools, once we looked like we'd been in there too long (like lobsters, wrinkled) we left to go have a feast with the rest of our rafting money (we probably should have saved it).
Our final stop before arriving in Auckland was at a b&b in Mount Maunguanui for the night, nothing much to say about this place as we were not there for long, but we did go out for an all you can eat chinese meal with a couple of people we met on the bus - one of whom we met on the
south island.
Finally we arrived in Auckland by lunch time the next day but we will tell you more about this in our next blog by which time we should have moved into our lovely apartment - which happens to be a 5* hotel suite!!!
Bye from down under,
Lots of Love from,
Jonny & Fifi
xxxxxxxxxx
P.S. The next blog could be our last......unless you still want to hear about how we are getting on with life in Auckland (inc Fi's first attempt at making Xmas dinner!!!!)
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Gemma
non-member comment
Dont make it your last Blog!! Love to hear your stories! We started buying our xmas decs now! Yay! Well i have anyway! Jon not amused with the Santa and Snowman figures ive bought- ruins the 'look of the house' apparently he he. Xmas dinner hey Fi! Im sure it will be lovely, were having xmas dinner just us aswell! The Haka pictures look awsome i bet that was great experience! Thanks for the postcard we really appreciate the 'MR and MRS Keevan'! Very funny Evsy! We want to be there with you on your adventures! Starting to have chats on how to save money to go! Have to work something out soon! Looking forward to hear about your jobs and home for the next year, please send me your adress! Both ladies and mens turfs on top- whoop woop! Lots of love guys mwah mwah xxxxxxx