Entries about indigenous people

I guess people think I am crazy when I tell them I spend the night with 32 other people, but that is exactly what happened! Although I must admit that I didn’t slept all that well. I woke up a couple of times during the night because at times it was just so hot inside my sleeping bag, but the minute I opened it, it was freezing cold, so what to do, that is one major question a person thinks about in the middle of the night!

On the other hand, when I asked a bit around, I wasn't the only one with sleeping troubles coz a few people didn't sleep at all because someone was snoring and since I didn't hear that, it must have been somewhere in the front of the building, since I slept all the way in the back. It seemed I was blessed that at least I slept a little.

Breakfast was being served in the main hall and this time there was some french toast and fruit as well as cereals. I went for the french toast with bananas coz it was a nice reminder of our start of the trip and secondly of all, I just love it, can you blame me???

As soon as all the bags were in the bus and everyone was finished eating, we could start on our way towards our activities we chose yesterday. Lots of people went for the rafting activity, or even zip lining between the trees, but me and Tania together with 3 others chose for Hell’s Gate. It is all in the name isn’t it!

Hell’s Gate is simply put some kind of spa. We are in Rotorua and this place is not only well known for lots of health spas, but for the nicest smell in the whole wide world as well and I am not talking about the lovely scent of flowers, but sadly enough the smell of rotten eggs and I guess I think you know what that means … sulphur, right!!!

This spa we were going to visit has it all, me and Tania together with Kate went first on a short walk where you could see different geothermal activity.

Isn’t that nicely put?? Afterwards we could spend some time in the mud pool and after 20 to 30 minutes playing with mud, it was time for the second pool which was a sulphur one. I loved this so much, the temperatures were heavenly but somehow I got trouble with my eyes in the second one and I had to get out at one given moment.

Maybe I'd better had worn sunglasses like all the rest coz the sun probably reflected in the water and hit my eyes so to speak and at one given time I couldn’t even open them. It was really weird. I got a tingling sensation and I couldn’t even see, I only hoped that this sudden blindness wouldn't last and luckily it didn't!

After our rejuvenating „swim", we were picked up by a shuttle bus, which dropped us of at our hotel and after we've got settled in our hotel, we went back to the centre of town to grab something to eat and also to do some souvenir shopping. Tania really wanted a cycling shirt but after searching for it for quite a while, we still hadn’t found one. Bummer, but maybe we can do some more shopping when we are in the capital, we will see.

Since there wasn't so much to see in the centre, the both of us walked all the way back towards our hotel alongside the waterfront and this was just so beautiful at times. The nice sceneries kept on coming and coming and luckily from time to time we even got some sunshine. All in all a perfect day for a nice walk along the lake, sadly enough we had the rotten egg smell following is, but hey, with such a view, who cares! 

Once back at the hotel, we changed into our running gear and while I went for lesson nr. 4, Tania was up to something like number 14 I guess, so I have a lot of catching up to do, but I don’t think that this is going to happen while I am in NZ. Anyways, the „run” was lots of fun and although you could do it on your own pace, the most incredible thing were the sceneries, the smell of course was something completely different, but like I mentioned before, after a while you forget about it and just enjoy what is in front of you.

It was already late when we came back from our run and after having a well deserved shower, we went back in town for some dinner. Strangely enough it wasn’t all that busy once it gets dark and also colder. We tried to find something to eat, but most of the joints were closed. Strange indeed coz it is a friday night. Everything should be bustling with party people but not in Rotorua. To me it looked more like a ghost town and after walking about half on hour in mostly empty streets, we found a little pizza place and went for it. It seems we were right by choosing it, coz not only was it value for money, it was yummie as well.

The strangest thing however is that we closed the joint. As soon as we were finished with our dinner and walked out of the door, they closed it. Really how can you close a restaurant at 9 PM in the evening when all your tables our „reserved”. It just became stranger and stranger.

Since it wasn’t all that much fun walking in an almost ghost town, we decided to go back to the hotel but getting there seemed somewhat of a problem. Normally we don't have a problem with finding our way, but here in Rotorua we kept on turning into the wrong streets and instead of walking back to the hotel in mere minutes, we arrived there more than half an hour later, I don't know what they put into that pizza, but it couldn't be something good!?

Once we organized all of our stuff and updated our blog a little, it was already pretty late, but the thing that puts a smile on my face, was the fact that tomorrow we could sleep in coz we weren’t going to leave until 9.45 AM. Sounds like heaven in my ears!