Rotorua

So I should back up a bit. Kevin served in the Auckland, New Zealand mission 10 years ago which is why we decided to go back and visit. We have wanted to do this ever since we got married and Kevin has managed to stay in touch with a few people. Since we live conveniently near both sets of grandparents and Lucy is now 2, we decided it was now or never. We started saving a few years ago and just decided to do it. It seems things like this you either make happen or they pass you by so we decided to jump. It still doesn't seem like we really went there. Anyway, after Paihia we made our drive to Rotorua, it was about 5 hours and the longest car ride we had. Since the scenery was all new to me, I didn't care and we took our time meandering through the countryside.

We passed by this awesome tourist attraction in construction, a pre-european Maori village that will open this summer. It was near a museum that we stopped and talked to some of the workers. We found a lady there who was LDS and discussed with us the growth of church in NZ in the past 10 years. I honestly couldn't understand a lot of what she was saying do to her thick accent and use of Maori words thrown in here and there, but Kevin later translated for me.

There were some pretty awesome road signs in New Zealand. Above, this was on the very windy 2 land road coming out of Paihia. It reads, "High Crash Rate". I thought, "shouldn't that read Road Closed??". The roads there are kind of scary, a lot of blind curves. Below, their yield signs read "Give Way". There are way more of these then stop signs, which is nice and much faster. I also saw a sign that was a yellow diamond that read "Aged Persons". I was so mad I never got a picture of one, they were hilarious.

Kevin and I went to the Hells Gate Spa in Rotorua when we got there. There is tons of geothermic activity in the area and there is even a steaming park in the middle of town with all this bubbling sulfur. Anyway, first up on our little spa trip we got to go for a walk through all this geothermal area.

It reminded me quite a bit of Yellowstone, except, there was a hot water waterfall there. The largest in the southern hemisphere, apparently.

This was a mud volcano that apparently erupts up to a 5 foot diameter. This little fence is definitely within 5 feet, which could make a person a bit nervous.

Anyway, we got to go rub stinky mud on ourselves, sit in a very hot sulfur pool, then got awesome massages. They shuttled us home in a mini-van, that also contained 4 workers that they dropped off on our way home. It was pretty funny...and very much New Zealand culture.

We went to the agrodome in Rotorua as well which contains several hundred sheep. You can tour the farm sites, watch them get sheared, etc. We got to see them call out the sheep dog and watch it herd the sheep into a pen. Very exciting. Above kevin is standing with a very tall fiberglass sheep. Across the way, we tried our hand at Zorbing, a lovely little activity invented who knows when, that involves you getting instead an essential hamster ball and rolling down a hill. We opted to do wet zorbing, which you do in your swim suit and they weight down the ball with water, so you don't actually flip over, although you feel like you do. This was the track we went down. It was fun, but it was a pretty short ride. I'm not sure I would do it again, but I'm glad I did it once.

Kevin and I also went to Skyline, this lovely place that we took a Gondola ride to the top of a very large hill and then scootered down on these lovely things. It was so much fun! We went down 3 times, once down each course. Above is the gorgeous view we had from the top, that's Lake Rotorua in the distance.

Alright, I will save the best for last here. We bought our tickets for Skyline in a package, that included a ride on the "sky swing". I didn't really know what it was, it sounded harmless enough. We saved it for last, which turned out to be a good thing. A little alarm went off in my head when the 5 point harness then the 2nd seat belt clicked into place. The lady clicking me into place, muttered somthing about "make sure you are clicked in on the way, that would be a big mess" . That's when the panic set in. She pointed out the release pull that we were to pull to "release" ourselves at the top. Then we were elevated very, very high in the air, facing the ground. On this little journey, I had some words with my dear husband about exactly what I thought of this little adventure. Little did I know, there was a camera recording the whole thing. I HATE rides like this and I wanted nothing more than to get down, but at that point, there is only one way down. So I shut my eyes and Kevin pulled the cord. I felt my heart drop through my toes as I slingshotted (is that a word?) out over the hill. Apparently we went 150km/hr in 2 seconds. NOT FUN. But oh don't worry, my cute little husband bought that DVD that was conveniently for sale when we were done, so I can relive it again and again. Oh and so he can show my rantings to everyone we know. Would've been so great if he would have mentioned to me that there was a camera above my head...I may have chosen some different words :).This is already too long. Rotorua was packed full of stuff we did. I'll talk about the Tamaki village and buried village and whaka in another post. Betcha you can't wait.