On the road to Rotorua

So, it's very early in the morning (still jetlagged) and i'm just taking a break from getting ready to head to Rotorua, a very geothermal town about a 4 hour drive away. I've booked a package where i've got 2 nights' accommodation, a trip to a geothermal spa, a morning white-water rafting and then an evening in Maori Village when you see a performance and get to eat lots of food. That's this evening, so if I can get to a computer later hopefully I will update you on that. The rafting is tomorrow, when the weather is forcast to get better. I'm quite looking forward to my first white-water rafting experience!

My post yesterday was rather succinct, mainly because I was so tired and having trouble typing! Hope you liked the photos, as you can see the weather wasn't great, although it was okay for a bus tour. Still quite cold, but it's stopped raining which is better. I'll head out for breakfast in a bit, i've found a place next door where for $6 (around $2.50)I can get hash browns and a good bacon buttie!

Auckland is much like any other city, it has a few buildings of note and plenty of shops, but not much else to do. The bus tour was good though as I wouldn't have been able to see my first ever volcano without it, or some of the other interesting places just outside the city. If you see the picture you may agree with me in feeling that the volcano itself was a little anti-climatic, but I guess that's just what a volcano that has been dormant for thousands of years looks like! There's quite an interesting story about the volcano though; you are not allowed to walk inside it because in a Maori battle many years ago a great chief was stabbed in the back, a huge insult, and his body was left on the site of the battle, so to the Maoris it is a very sacred site. I have been told that at the end of this year they are closing access to the site (and the views that go with it!) becuase they are fed up of people walking in the volcano which is such an insult to them. [culture lesson over]

We also saw the sky tower on the tour, which is the highest construction in the southern hemisphere (as I said yesterday!). Quite a lot of things here seem to be described by a superlative followed by 'in the southern hemisphere.' It seems to give the impression that the only country they compete with is Australia, and that everything else is more impressive in the northern hemisphere!

The flight was as enjoyable as a 26 hour flight can be. The stop-over in LA turned out to be okay though as we got unlimited drinks and food for 2 hours!

I can't immediately think of anything else to write right now, but hopefully this evening I will have some more photos to show you. I might also be feeling quite ill-apparently Rotorua absolutely stinks from all the sulphur!