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Other entries in Rotorua

Anyone for rotton eggs?

This place is a stinker! Monkey Rob met us in Auckland (Yay! Missed you monkey) and we all went for a little road trip down to the land of sulphur. It really wasn't the best smell to wake up to in the morning. No time to waist, we got started the evening we arrived and went for a traditional Mauri Hangi (it's the way they cook the food) and performance. We were part of the tribe of 19 nations and had to select a chief to represent us. The poor guy had to stand on stage while a scary dude with a spear and no clothes, went mental in front of him as a test of peace. Then he had to make a speach on behalf of his tribe (us tourists) to the chief before giving him the Hongi (touching of the old noses). I'm sure our chief had no idea what was going on. He looked so scared. Did a good job though. Then the rest of the tribe did a great job of performing for us. They really did look very scary and astonishingly were able to produce the most amount of white flem, and drool all over themselves each time they stuck out their toungues. Weird. The show was actually pretty good and ended with the tribe of 19 nations scaring the crap out of each other by screaming "PUKATA" to the person next to them in the line. I like to think I was pretty convinsing. Then we ate the lovely food before going on a small night bush walk to find some more glow worms. oooo pretty.

The next day we went on our second Luge ride of the trip. It's just like the one in queenstown but much faster. I um actually crashed and burned on my first run down. It was my fault but mostly i blame Ria. She was in my way and I was going too fast to slow down in time. Why did I not just overtake? Well I would have done if it hadn't have been for those pesky chicanes that decided to come out to play just at that point in the track. Doh! It was a choice between Ria or the wood. And being the great friend that I am I chose the wood. The next thing you know, Ria's looked behind her to see me lying face down on the track with the kart on top of me. Tee Hee. I wish I had seen it myself. Gave myself a couple of nasty bruises but apart from that, no harm done. Our last run down was the best. A very close race. Poor Ri got stuck behind a woman and her kid going at 0 miles per hour and Monkey, well, Monkey could never get that corner quite right and went off the track... again. I'm the winner. Yippeee!

Injuries achieved, it was time to chill out at the Polynesian Spa. The water wasn't as stinky as I thought it was going to be. Very hot though. And then a little piece of heaven. Ri and I had the most amazing massage ever in the history of massages. A full body massage while showered with warm water. It may sound a bit weird but it's the most amazing thing in the world. We were both very floaty-lite afterwards. Mmmmmmm.

The next day we checked out an exploding Geyser and then spent a few hours being bored by yellow rocks, craters and more yellow rocks and craters. Seriously, they make the walk around the thermal grounds last about three hours but once you've seen one crater with some yellow rock, you've pretty much seen them all. Just cos you call one the Devils home and the other the Birds Nest, doesn't make them any different. The walk did manage to redeem itself slightly with a crazy nuclear waste green coloured pool. Imagine the colour of lime green and that was the colour of the water.

I forgot to mention that the hostel we were staying at had run out of rooms, so they gave us "the love shack". A dingy little carvan in the garden. I actually quite liked it. Very cosy.

Ooooo! Oh my god, I can't believe I nearly forgot! Lot's of people don't find this amazing but you guys know me so try and pretend you're me for a minute and you may feel a slight wave of excitement. I had my first driving lesson! Ri took me out into a car park quite late at night and became my yoda for the evening. Believe it or not, I'm actually not bad at driving, infact I was pretty good at it. No bunny hops or anything. Woo Hoo! Watch out roads, here I come!

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