Only in Rotorua

Since I've arrived in Rotorua, I've been going all out, trying to make my last few days in New Zealand the best ones yet. I fly out on April 30th, arriving in Philly on May 1st at 10:30pm. I sure am going to miss it here!

I arrived in Rotarua and immediately was presented with a much stronger odor than previously experienced! People told me that I'd get used to it, but my nose never really adjusted! Have you ever been in a hot steamy shower and have someone fart while you were in it? Smells awful, right? That's Rotorua!

I headed on over to the Agrodome for a sheep shearing show and to learn a bit about one of NZ's largest industries - sheep! Did you know there are 19 varieties of sheep raised in NZ? Some raised for wool, some for dairy, and some for meat. Little lambs, I sometimes feel bad for you being so cute and all, but goddammit you are tasty! The 'top' sheep in the group was the Merino, who is responsible for all of my Banana Republic twinsets. So soft and cuddly! I witnessed a sheep get sheared and it looks like such hard work and the sheep didn't seem too pleased about it either. The record for shearing sheep is held by a Kiwi that sheared over 700 in 9 hours - holy crap! Then our host conducted a sheep 'auction' and then brought in trained sheep dogs for a demonstration. These dogs are good! Not only can they follow verbal commands, but also whistles. The duration and tone of the whistle differentiate the commands. The dogs eve jumped onto the backs of the sheep and posed on top of the big ones. After this, the audience was able to go onstage and get pics of the sheep and dogs and pet them for a bit. I wanted to take them all home, but somehow I don't think Nelson would be too happy about it! I now have a dream of living on a farm and raising sheep so I can make my own organic hand dyed yarn to sell to yarn shops all over the world. Maybe I'll save that for retirement :)

Next I was strapped into a giant inflatable hamster ball and rolled down a 100 meter hill. It's called Zorbing and it was one of the most unique things I've done on this trip, that's for sure! There isn't too much to explain with this - you go to teh top of the hill, they put you in the zorb, strap you in and then push you down the hill. So simple, yet so effective!

The next day I took a day trip out to Waitomo for a full day of abseiling, cave tubing, bouldering and climbing, all underground in the dark! This trip was not for anyone scared of heights, darkness or water. First we abseiled 35 meters into the caves which I sucked at. As I was working my way down fine, but as soon as I looked down, I death gripped the rope and that only made it harder to lower myself. After a few reassurances from my guide, I relaxed and got the rest of the way down. Whew! Next we took a flying fox (zip line) about 20 meters across a crevasse in the total dark and that freaked me out. When I say dark, I mean DARK. You can't see your hand in front of your face! Each of use were sent across and each time the guide turned out his light. He said it was so we wouldn't look down and freak out, which I appreciated! The caves were damp and freezing and we were wearing some pretty thick wetsuits, but it was still fuckin' cold in the water. After a break, we grabbed some tubes and jumped into the freezing water to look at the glowworms, which these caves are famous for. The walls had glowing spots all over and it was so amazing. Our guide told us they weren't actually glowworms, but maggots in larva stage and the glowing part was maggot shit. Excellent! He explained how the phrase 'glowworm caves ' was used to encourage tourism because, "nobody would come if we called them maggot shit caves." Very true! We then started to make out way through the icy cold water and climbed a few waterfalls to reach the surface. After 30 minutes my hands and feet were blocks of ice and we had another break of hot orange juice with vodka and chocolate, to prevent hypothermia. I was FREEZING at this point and it reminded me of the time I played a rugby match in the sleet and I got hypothermia and couldn't move my fingers or toes. DeMarr, I'm still mad about that! Just kidding...It was a very fun trip and I was proud of myself for getting through it all without having a major heart attack.



For my last day in Rotorua, I treated myself to a bit of sleeping in and then a trip to the Polynesian Spa to relax in the thermal spas that are naturally heated by the underground thermal activity. It was another crap day with overcast, rainy skies so it was a perfect way to spend the day. Plus the hot water turned me into a wet noodle and soothed my aching muscles due to the previous days caving expedition! The hostel was pretty quiet that night so I was able to relax with some leftover magazines and some TV before retiring. Last stop - Auckland!