This past weekend, we caught the Nakedbus to Rotorua and stayed there for three nights! It's about two hours south of Hamilton and we arrived at about 5ish in the evening. Our first stop was the Polynesian Spa. It was right in the center of town and it featured hot mineral bathing and different spa therapies. We got our own hot pool right on the edge of Lake Rotorua! It was absolutely beautiful. We got to see over the entire lake and up the mountains on the other side. The sun was just beginning to set, and so we were able to watch the sunset. The water was really nice- it wasn't extremely hot like a jacuzzi, but it was a comfortable temperature. The pool was made of large river rocks, and it reminded me of the pools in Kapoho (with warm water, no fish, and a lot smaller.)
The hostel we stayed at was called Crash Palace and it's ranked the #2 hostel in NZ! It was really good :) When we checked in that night, the owner told us they'd be having dinner for us at 6:30, and every morning they serve breakfast. We had spaghetti that night, and everyone staying at the hostel ate together. There were about 20 rooms all together, and some of them were dorm style and could fit up to 10 people. Everyone was really friendly and they even had two dogs and a cat roaming around the hostel playing with the guests. There was also a hottub, Wii, tv with a ton of movies, boardgames, and a pool table.
The next morning, we woke up and a shuttle picked us up and drove us to Hells Gate, which is Rotorua's most active geothermal park! We started out by going on the hour long geothermal walk around the reserve. We walked alongside boiling mudpools, sulfur ponds, hot waterfalls, and a whole bunch of other neat things. The highlight was definitely smelling the sulfur! It was STRONG! After the walk, we got to make a wood carving of a Maori symbol to take home. I was having a difficult time; I guess I wasn't born to be a carver. Logan and Kamakana did a really good job carving out their symbols.
It started to rain pretty heavy, so luckily our next activity was under cover. We got to sit in a mud pool for 20 minutes. It was so nice and relaxing, definitely one of my favorite things on the trip. The entire bottom of the pool was covered in mud and we rubbed it all over our bodies. It felt really nice! After the mud pool, we went into a sulphur pool. This pool was a lot warmer than the mud pool and I couldn't stay in it for much longer than the half an hour. There were two different pools to choose from, one was slightly hotter than the other. We got to talking with the pool attendants about being Hawaiian and being Maori (typical conversations we have here.) After the sulphur pool, we felt totally relaxed! We were getting pampered this weekend :)
At lunch time, we caught the shuttle back into town and hopped on the city bus which took us to our Adventure spot #1: Zorbing and Agrojet. It was pouring rain by this time, but these places functioned in all types of weather! First, we did Zorb. It's a 12 ft inflatable globe that you jump into and roll down one of their two hills. There's a smaller ball in the middle of the larger one, so that you don't hit the ground while rolling. You can either be strapped into the side of the Zorb and roll with the Zorb as it speeds down the hill. Just the thought of doing that made me sick. The other option was Wet Zorb, and that is where they put a couple buckets of warm water in the Zorb with you, so that instead of tumbling, you just slide all around the Zorb as it goes down the hill. There were two different tracks- a straight course that went down a hill (and it allowed up to two people to ride in the Zorb at a time), and a zigzag track with curves and one straight steep part at the end (which allowed only one person to ride at a time.) We all chose the zigzag one, and we were drove up to the top of the track in a jeep. I was the second one to go- I got out of the truck, jumped in the Zorb, got some water thrown in after me, and then I was pushed. It all happened so fast! The beginning part was fun- sliding around the Zorb and getting pushed at every corner of the track, but the last part of the track nearly made me sick. It was the steep hill and I was rolling down backwards. I couldn't even imagine doing the dry Zorb and tumbling down the entire track! Logan and Kamakana had a blast! Logan thinks everyone should try it at least once, and I agree, but that was the one time I'm going to try it ;) Logan wants to take the business back home and become a billionaire! haha.
The agrojet was just as exhilerating as Zorbing! Personally, I had a lot more fun on this ride :) A verrrry experienced jetboat driver sped us around a track in a small jetboat only designed for two people other than the driver. He got up to speeds so fast that the boat was pushing out 200,000 of liters a minute! There were sharp turns and roundabouts throughout the track. The track itself was pretty narrow and I'll admit that I got pretty nervous- we were going SO fast and the track was so narrow with heaps of curves and turns! But it was really fun! I DEFINITELY reccommend doing this to everyone!
That's a pretty good wrap up on our first two days in Rotorua! I won't bother uploading pictures to the blog because now, you can see ALL our pictures on facebook!
Here's the links for the pictures from Day 1&2:
Polynesian Spa & other parts of Rotorua
Hells Gate
Zorb, Jetboat (& Luge)
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