Rotorua

DAYS 4 & 5: Rotorua

Yesterday I rafted the biggest commercially rafted waterfall in the world (21 ft drop). The trip, although short, was action-packed and really exhilarating.

Spent the rest of the day wandering around Rotorua in the sunshine along the lake front.

(black swans on the lake)

The entire town smells of eggs as it is so volcanically active and steam pours out of orifices covering the entire city. After some time I came across the government gardens that are so large, expansive and treeless and covered with Pukekos (a native New Zealand bird—black with a red beak and red legs). I found a rose garden with the most wide and open petals in every color—crimson and buttercup and sorbet orange. Behind the rose trellises there stood an extremely tall weeping sequoia, which made me think of my dear friend Marie from Warrior.

Venturing out at night I went with some fellow travellers to the contemporary baths, which were so incredibly relaxing. So far I’ve been to three hot pools in NZ (one on Coromandel, one in Tuaranga on the N. Island's east coast and to now Rotorua’s). By far the Polynesian spa is the classiest, with 4 pools of varying temperatures (ranging from 39-41 degrees Celsius). Today we went to a Maori village on the way out of town which I don’t even want tot talk about because it was so over commercialized. There were a couple of thing, though...the village cooks all their food in Hangi style using the heat from the earth as a source. They have steam boxes around the village that they place their meat in to cook, which takes about 3-4 hours. Below you can see a woman pulling corn wrapped in cheese cloth. The corn takes about 10 minutes in this hot pool which ranges from 90-110 degrees celsius.

The decorative top of a church and meeting house that archetectually represents the human body (door-mouth, windows-eyes, beams are arms and legs).

Now in Taupo for the night (NZ's largest lake—46k. It can fit Singapore in the center of it) Went to a yoga class because I was feeling so antsy on the bus all day. It did relax me a lot but it was a beginner's class so it was a little boring.