So this past weekend Allison
and I had the privilege of chaperoning a geography/travel and tourism class to Rotorua
(a geo-thermal area). It is about 140 miles away from Auckland. Rotorua is a major
destination for both domestic and international tourists; the tourism industry
is by far the largest industry in the district. I plan on going back with Jeff
the day he gets to NZ!
Sunday:
Left Westlake at 9 am and
headed east with our favorite bus driver John, who has been on most of our
field trips with us and loves to make fun of us American teachers J. After a stop
for tea and lunch we finally made it to Rotorua! Our first activity was to drop
off the girls to various locations around the city so they could survey
tourists. They had to interview 5 tourists each and ask them where they are
from, how long they are staying here, etc. They did it all in the rain - woohoo!We then picked them up about 50
minutes later and headed to Rainbow Springs.
finally some sun!
At Rainbow Springs they have
animals like fish, lizards, Kiwi’s, swans, birds and the famous Rainbow Trout.
We took a short tour around and saw all the animals, went and saw the kiwis
(some baby ones were adorable) and the headed to the “big splash.”
Now you all have to remember
in New Zealand they only have one theme park and it is not a very good one. So
all of the girls were really excited to see this ride because it is a fun
adventurous water ride. Even though it was wet, raining and cold the girls
still wanted to go – so off they went! I decided not to go because I wasn’t
feeling quite up to it and I was already cold from the rain. The girls had a
ton of fun though.
Allison & Stacey (the other teacher) in the back
So since the weather was kind
of crappy we decided against zorbing and just headed to the YHA hostel. After
relaxing for a bit we headed to Te Puia for a traditional Maori dinner and
cultural experience. We first arrived and we saw a traditional powhiri
(welcoming ceremony), a warrior’s challenge and a full kappa haka concert. We were ushered into the meeting house to
listen to some traditional songs, learn to dance and some ancient stories of
Maori tribes who lived in Rotorua back in the day. It was a really neat experience listening and
watching the performers – Allison learned how to do a dance (we forget the
name) and Stacey, one of the other teachers learned how to do the Haka.
Next up was dinner! This
dinner is called hangi. This meal incorporates indigenous ingredients which
was good. They cook the meat and vegies (chicken/pork/lamb) on a hot stone
underground (basically steams them) and then they serve it buffet style. The
food was pretty tasty – I had some chicken, pumpkin, kumra (so good), potatoes,
kumra soup, and some salad. They also had some traditional kiwi dessert –
yummm).
After dinner we then all
headed out to view pohutu, which is a famous geyser on Te Puia’s land. It was a
really great experience for the students and myself!
Afterwards we headed back,
some of us watched a movie and headed to bed!
Monday:
After breakfast we went to
the Rotorua Museum. Here the girls learned about the stages of tourism in
Rotorua and how it has changed over time to meet the demands of the tourists.
It was a really interesting talk about how this town has changed throughout the
ages.
Then we were off to Skyline
Rotorua and Luge!!! We took the gondola up and all of us went luging! It was
super fun and the view was incredible.
After lunch on the top of Mt.
Ngongotaha we headed to AgroVentures! They have 5 different activities we could
have chosen to do. Most of the girls (and Allison) did the Swoop! You are
strapped into a sleeping bag and then taken up and you have to release yourself
at the top and swingggggggg all the way down – super scary.
I decided not to do that but
to do the Agrojet! This is one of the fastest jet boats in the world (okay
maybe just NZ – I am not sure). It gets
up to 100 kph!!! It was super fun and I really enjoyed it!
Student decided to some with me :)
Next – the Agrodome Sheep show!! We watched a sheep show – an
insight into the world of farming! We saw 19 different breeds of champion
sheep, a man sheer a sheep, students milked a cow, and even feed lambs!
After the show we went and saw all the baby animals!! OH. MY. GOODNESS. They are adorable – and so small! A lamb even fell asleep in my arms!!! I wanted to take one home but I didn’t think my host parents would like that very much J
After the show and animals we went on a organic farm tour. Went
around and fed some animals and saw some orchards!
These are the olives in olive oil!
Model T
We then went back to YHA and had some pizza and ice cream for
dinner. Allison and I took a nice walk through the geo-thermal park and then
headed to bed!
Tuesday
After a delicious breakfast of Nutella, peanut butter on toast
we packed up, did some bed checks and headed off! We went to Wai-O-Tapu
geo-thermal wonderland park. This area is carved from a volcanic activity and
is the “most
colorful and diverse geothermal sightseeing attraction.” As a social studies
teacher interested in geography this place was stunning! I wish that I could
have seen it all but a student got sick and I had to walk her back to the main
building (see I told you I am a teacher J ). The girls said
it was lots of fun though.
After
that we went to the Lady Knox Geyser. At
10.15am each day there is the opportunity to learn the history and mechanics of
the Lady Knox Geyser during a presentation. It provides a unique opportunity to
see a geyser in eruption to heights of 10 to 20 metres. It was super awesome to
see it because I have never seen a Geyser before!
We
then stopped off at the mud pools – I just wanted to get in and have a bath J
Then
we went to the coolest place in Rotorua!!! This is a hidden secret spot –
Keresene Creek!! This is a geo-thermal river where the water is warm like a hot
tub! The girls did some swimming in the creek where there was a beautiful
waterfall. My teacher said that at night people bring candles and do a night
swim during the winter – so awesome!!
We
then got onto the bus, had some lunch (I had Indian) and headed back to
Auckland with a 5pm arrival!
I have 3 more days of
teaching left at Westlake then a week and a half of relaxing and traveling some then Jeff comes the first week in June!!
Love and miss all of you!!!
xo
