Rotorua (a.k.a Rotovegas) a bubbling geothermal theme park
Salamander
Tue 23 Nov 2010 00:07
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Yes we are on the tacky tourism trail. We have been
to Hobbiton - Matamata when it's not a film set - (bypassed the tour -
Hills with holes in and a sheep shearing competition). Murray was to big to fit
in the Hobbit cloak - see below especially for Julie.
 We have been to the Kiwi experience. Eggs are taken
from the wild as the survival rate is really low mainly because the babies eat
in daylight and their only defence is to run. It takes them 4-7 days to pop out
of the eggs as their beaks can only pierce the shell when they use the legs to
push off (like swimming pool turns). Their eggs are enormous, so big they can't
eat in the last week; equivalent to a human giving birth to a 35 pounder - makes
you want to cross your legs. As NZ is all sea life, birds and reptiles, the
birds all seem to fill lots of niches with the Kiwi a sort of mole. Baby kiwis
are so wobbly and cute, but as they are nocturnal you can only photo stuffed
ones.
 This place is known to some as Rotovegas as it is
very efficient at reducing your bank balance. We have been at play on a
trampoline and kayaking at our motel in Ngongotaha as well as continuing
our journey down the thermal highway to Wai O Tapu a thermal park!!! Yes
boiling mud, the most fantatastic thermal lake of stunning steam, colours
and bubbles - an old geyser (no, not Murray - haha) and now everything
smells of sulphur.
  Plus Caroline has a new (second hand) camera,
her old camera has bitten the dust due to the extremes of heat in the tropics
and moisture on the boat. Unfortunately, Caroline to her dismay now no longer
has an entry level camera and has to learn about f stops and aperture size
(they're the same thing Caz! - M) - deep joy - Murray is teaching her how to use
her new camera- more deep joy. The camera shop were most disparaging about the
quality of photographs from Caroline's camera (to her disgust), it was made
really obvious that she couldn't possibly have taken decent pictures with
the old camera (!). Anyway the above two pictures were taken with the new camera
so you can judge for your selves.
We finished off our trip with the skyswing and some
luging. The picture below is of the skyswing which is a bit hard to descibe but
it is a sort of swing where you are winched up to the top of a crane and given a
cord to release yourselves and you swing out over the hill top at a speed of up
to about 150km/h. The ladies after us refused to pull the cord and were begging
to be let down, but faced with the operator who kept telling then there was no
other way down eventually pulled the cord but they were definately not
happy. Caroline really liked it but thought it was a bit scary to start with.
It's really a bungy jump in a seat - the freefall bit is
great.
We are going to zorb but can't make our minds up as
to which way - strapped in and dry or free with the ball full of water. We
are going to have quite a few of these difficult choices as we
have waterfalls and caves to abseil, skyscrapers to walk round on the
outside and so on. NZ is great for sporting activities with that something
extra.
  Caroline is still missing her Frosties which are
banned here - she is completely unable to understand how anyone (regardless
of sugar levels) could possibly sell Skippy cornflakes instead, especially as we
have not this many cake and pie shops outside of Wigan. On the plus side
Caroline has been eating cake, cake and cake, Muffin break (now a firm
favourite) offers 4 (yes 4 ) choices of gluten free muffin.
Playtime over, we've spent the last week fixing and
painting. Rudder leak under way, small amount of welding being arranged -
working exceptionally hard (cos we want to finish quickly and go play
again!)
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