survived the white-water rafting! Including a plunge over a 7m waterfall (the largest you can do in the world!), I have come out of the experience unscathed! It was absolutely freezing, and even the physical exercise didn't warm me up all that much. It was good fun though, we drove to a river about 30 minutes out of Rotorua for the rafting and we were on the river for about an hour. It was good to get back in the bus to the wamth at the end of it though!
I had lunch at an Italian cafe which was good and much appreciated after my early morning rafting trip!
Anyway, this afternoon was a great contrast to the adrenaline of this morning. We went down to the Polynesian Spa which is a spa with lots of pools from the geothermal springs. It smells of the sulphur (everything here does!) but the water is lovely and warm and it was a wonderful relaxing contrast to the beginning of the day. The pools are all outside and it is very cold here (but sunny!) so it is so nice to sit in the hot water and feel the breeze from the lake. You get an amazing view from the pools too. I'm sure they have lots of supposed health benefits too, although from what I can tell all they do is make your swimsuit smell very bad. We spent about an hour here before heading off for a walk around town.
I’m feeling a little bit lost at the moment as they girl I have spent most of my time with over the last 3 days has headed off back to Auckland for her flight down to Queenstown. Amy's from Dublin (there has been a noted improvement in my Irish accent) and has been making her way around the world for the last 4 months. She should be in Queenstown for the next week so I hopefully will see her when I make it down there and I’ve offered her a ski lesson!
There are quite a few amusing things that I’ve seen/done over the last few days, which I’ll try to relay but I suspect there will be a large element of 'you had to be there.' I've managed to leave the dorm key in the door on two occasions in the last two days and on both time I’ve got into a paddy over thinking I’ve lost it (and with it my $10 deposit.) They also have these really funky pedestrian crossings here where not only does the green man actually walk, but they also count down the seconds you have till the cars come charging towards you! One of the funniest things I have seen though was the video they show you on the plane about all the bio security controls you have to go through. Firstly they make you sign all these forms saying you haven't touched a cow for years and haven't inadvertently hidden a grape inside your hiking boots as these would both be a great threat to the national security of the fauna over here. Anyway, on the video they have a girl who goes through all the stages saying she has nothing until she gets to the X-ray machine and it flashed wildly and they decide to search her bag, and, what do they pull out? A huge great pineapple! As if someone could accidentally bring in a pineapple that took up her whole backpack and must have weighed a few kilos... Maybe it would have been more believable if someone had inadvertently brought in an apple from their bag! (i think maybe you need to watch the video to fully appreciate the hilarity of it!)
Tomorrow I leave at 8.15 for Taupo that is only about an hour away. Not sure what I’m going to do here, no doubt it will involve spending lots of money though! I've gotta go now as Starbucks in closing!
Thursday, July 12, 2007
Louise Meets the Maoris
Yesterday was a rather eventful day. I'll start with the main reason Rotorua is famous, which is the geothermal activity. The town does smell of sulphur pretty strongly, although it's okay where our hostel is because we're a bit away from the lake which is the main place where it absolutely stinks (and it really does). We had a walk around the lake which is white and looks like its full of chalk.
We spent most of the morning walking around the lake and trying not to choke on the smell and then at half six we headed off for our trip to a Maori village just outside of Rotorua. It is set up entirely for the tourists, but I get the impression it's the closest I could get to a real village. They take you there on coaches and then you get to watch a few shows and listen to them talk about various aspects of Maori life. It is quite tourist-y, but I've heard from people who have seen similar things about the Aborigines in Australia and they say this was a much better performance. After the show and the walk around the village you get an meal cooked in the ground. It's basically like our roast, but you get to eat as much as you like and the food it very good (and warm, which is appreciated after 2 hours outside in the cold) and then after the meal we got a coach back at around 10.30.
The coach journey down from Auckland goes through the Waikato region, which is basically farmland. We drove through a couple of towns, but most of the journey is just green fields with lots of cows and sheep. It's looks remarkably like England though, which is a little bit odd. We did drive through one town which had a big sign welcoming people to "hobbiton" with Matamata written underneath. I just assumed that Matamata was the original Maori name and that Hobbiton was just the settlers' name for it. Seeing as the journey was fairly dull, I was looking up each of the towns in the guide book to see what their claim to fame was, although i couldn't find Hobbiton, despite it clearly being of a reasonable size. So, I looked up Matamata to see if that was there, and of course it was and I discovered that it is the town where Lord of the Rings was filmed and the set was for the village of Hobbiton in the film. (which explains why Hobbiton was not in the guide book) My Lord of the Rings ignorance is very clear! The town still keeps quite a lot of the Lord of the Rings influence because it is the only place where the film set still stands and there are lots of tours around the sets for the fans.
I leave for White water rafting in a minute and it's still pretty cold outside so I'm glad they give you wet suits!
(photos won't upload, I'm tired of waiting, hopefully will load them up later!)
We spent most of the morning walking around the lake and trying not to choke on the smell and then at half six we headed off for our trip to a Maori village just outside of Rotorua. It is set up entirely for the tourists, but I get the impression it's the closest I could get to a real village. They take you there on coaches and then you get to watch a few shows and listen to them talk about various aspects of Maori life. It is quite tourist-y, but I've heard from people who have seen similar things about the Aborigines in Australia and they say this was a much better performance. After the show and the walk around the village you get an meal cooked in the ground. It's basically like our roast, but you get to eat as much as you like and the food it very good (and warm, which is appreciated after 2 hours outside in the cold) and then after the meal we got a coach back at around 10.30.
The coach journey down from Auckland goes through the Waikato region, which is basically farmland. We drove through a couple of towns, but most of the journey is just green fields with lots of cows and sheep. It's looks remarkably like England though, which is a little bit odd. We did drive through one town which had a big sign welcoming people to "hobbiton" with Matamata written underneath. I just assumed that Matamata was the original Maori name and that Hobbiton was just the settlers' name for it. Seeing as the journey was fairly dull, I was looking up each of the towns in the guide book to see what their claim to fame was, although i couldn't find Hobbiton, despite it clearly being of a reasonable size. So, I looked up Matamata to see if that was there, and of course it was and I discovered that it is the town where Lord of the Rings was filmed and the set was for the village of Hobbiton in the film. (which explains why Hobbiton was not in the guide book) My Lord of the Rings ignorance is very clear! The town still keeps quite a lot of the Lord of the Rings influence because it is the only place where the film set still stands and there are lots of tours around the sets for the fans.
I leave for White water rafting in a minute and it's still pretty cold outside so I'm glad they give you wet suits!
(photos won't upload, I'm tired of waiting, hopefully will load them up later!)
Wednesday, July 11, 2007
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!
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!
Tuesday, July 10, 2007
Greetings from Auckland
So, I'm in Auckland. It's raining, and a bit cold but all is well. I went on a free bus tour this morning and saw a few of the sights of the city so here are some photos for you.
First we stopped off to see the bridge. I had though about climbing it but given that it was raining and rather grey I thought it best to view it from the warmth of the coach, just popping outside for the obligatory photo!
We saw one of the three volcanos in the city this morning, which is 20 metres higher than the sky tower (which is the highest structure in the southern hemisphere!) which is where the picture of me was taken. It was the most windy place I have ever been to, I was almost too scared to take my camera out (even more windy than the place we used to get the Mr. Whippys in Cornwall, mum!) but it gives you an amazing view of all around the city.
We also went to the harbour where the America's Cup was held. The photo ahead is of two of the boats from the race a few years back, I think it is the french boat and the japanese one (not sure). That bit of Auckland is one of the nicer parts because the Americas Cup brings with it a slightly higher class of tourist than the ones staying in the hostels!
The hostel is very nice and everyone i've met has been very friendly. I'm rather jetlagged but i shall keep going until tonight.
I'll probably write a longer post soon, but at the moment i'm a bit too tired to write, hopefully I will write about everything else that has happened later.
First we stopped off to see the bridge. I had though about climbing it but given that it was raining and rather grey I thought it best to view it from the warmth of the coach, just popping outside for the obligatory photo!
We saw one of the three volcanos in the city this morning, which is 20 metres higher than the sky tower (which is the highest structure in the southern hemisphere!) which is where the picture of me was taken. It was the most windy place I have ever been to, I was almost too scared to take my camera out (even more windy than the place we used to get the Mr. Whippys in Cornwall, mum!) but it gives you an amazing view of all around the city.
We also went to the harbour where the America's Cup was held. The photo ahead is of two of the boats from the race a few years back, I think it is the french boat and the japanese one (not sure). That bit of Auckland is one of the nicer parts because the Americas Cup brings with it a slightly higher class of tourist than the ones staying in the hostels!
The hostel is very nice and everyone i've met has been very friendly. I'm rather jetlagged but i shall keep going until tonight.
I'll probably write a longer post soon, but at the moment i'm a bit too tired to write, hopefully I will write about everything else that has happened later.
Sunday, July 8, 2007
Cindarella must go to the ball
It's T minus 14, the eagle is flying at dawn and it's code blue in Gosmore. I depart for fine Heathrow tomorrow, and the packing is fully underway!
It was the leavers' ball last night, a fairly momentus event for us Rugbians and all went well. I don't have any particularly good photos of us; out of nine it is inevitable that one would be looking the wrong way! I do however have one reasonable one from before we all got in the pumpkin.
It was the leavers' ball last night, a fairly momentus event for us Rugbians and all went well. I don't have any particularly good photos of us; out of nine it is inevitable that one would be looking the wrong way! I do however have one reasonable one from before we all got in the pumpkin.
Thursday, June 28, 2007
Departure Day minus 11
So, the day of my departure from the fine land looms ominously just over a week away, and in between I shall pass a week in Zante braving temperatures in excess of 35 celcius. Bring on the snow!
The packing is still far from being complete, and infact has barely started. At least I shall have the morning before I leave to sort all that stuff out. Anyway, it's 11 weeks, packing will be easy; i'll just take everything...
For those who are pondering over the slightly unusual name of the blog, there is, of course, an explanation behind it. As a quick bit of research led me to find out, the European first man to sight New Zealand went by the name of Abel Tasman, which leads nicely onto the name the abel taswoman.
The packing is still far from being complete, and infact has barely started. At least I shall have the morning before I leave to sort all that stuff out. Anyway, it's 11 weeks, packing will be easy; i'll just take everything...
For those who are pondering over the slightly unusual name of the blog, there is, of course, an explanation behind it. As a quick bit of research led me to find out, the European first man to sight New Zealand went by the name of Abel Tasman, which leads nicely onto the name the abel taswoman.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)