Rotorua: Can You Smell That?

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