I cannot believe it is the middle of November already!! Steve and I are currently sitting on a bus (good use of our time to be on the internet!!) heading to Waitomo to go caving. We aren’t quite sure what this whole caving thing has in store, but it’s supposed to be quite neat—glowworms and everything in the caves!! Now, to explore what we’ve been up to….
We’ve just been in Rotorua for the past few days. Rotorua is this neat city that is essentially sitting on miles and miles of thermal activity. This all started when a volcano erupted in 1886, leaving all these mud pits and water springs that are quite thermally active. The entire place smells like sulphur! We took a day tour through two separate thermal parks, which were quite neat. Unbelievable colours from all the minerals, and as you are walking around you just encounter bubbling pools and gas emitting from cracks in the rock formations.
Our second day in Rotorua was spent at the spa. Apparently all this sulphur/minerals has medicinal purposes, so we enjoyed spending the day at one of the top 10 spas in the world.
The stop after Rotorua was in Taupo, this little lake-front town that came into existence due to the above mentioned giant volcanic eruption. The same eruption that made Rotorua thermal, ripped a giant hole through Taupo, which now holds a lake larger than the country of Singapore. It is quite a beautiful place and I understand why the tourists flock here in the summer. We did make it out to a natural hot spring just on the edge of the town—very neat to sit under the waterfalls and relax with nature.
We are heading to National Park Village, the jumping off point of our first overnight tramp (that’s hiking in New Zealand speak!!). We will be hiking for four days and I’m sure there will be some interesting stories when we are done!!
Random Facts--New Zealand Media—obviously this country has different laws when it comes to reporting—these guys will say anything!! We listened to an entire program about babies names that were outdated, and they had people call in with all these “old names”. HILARIOUS!! They had a good time talking about Barry and making up nicknames! There also was a program on times you had run into your teacher or boss out in public, focusing on stories where the person of authority was not necessarily meeting their moral standards. Teachers who couldn’t afford their McDonald’s tab and buying lap dances from their students—I only wish we had such good radio/TV programs!!
More antics after we return from our hike—wish us luck!!
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