Day 36 & 37 – An Ab-Zorbing experience!!

The usual booking of buses happened again today as we prepared to say goodbye to Auckland. We are really impressed by Auckland, especially Mike who said that it is the most liveable city we have been in so far, along with Buenos Aires…I tend to agree with him. After two big bowls of cereal and numerous slices of toast we were on another bus to Rotorua after learning that the bus for Waitomo Caves left at 8.30am. We will go back to the caves but we prepared for life in Rotorua! Sheep were the main scenery on the route to Rotorua…I was feeling a little sleepy so I counted as many sheep as I could but still can’t manage to sleep on any bus but at least I know every song on the lad’s Ipods now. Rotorua is one of the world’s most concentrated and accessible geothermal areas…it has geysers and cauldrons of boiling mud. You can smell Rotorua long before you see it. There is almost a smell of rotten eggs in the air (Hydrogen sulphide, drifting up from natural vents in the region’s thin crust…that’s my history lesson over!). All the books on Rotorua say that you get use to the smell after a few hours….I can still smell it and it smells bad, I’d rather smell the Maloney’s silage in the morning than this. We checked into the “Crash Palace” and it seems really nice with very helpful staff and they explained all the activities that we can do. After a few games of pool we hit the hay because we have to get up early to do a bit of Zorbing (explained later) and some other activity.

The boys woke up in the morning complaining that it was a very cold night…Mike wants to wear a hoodie tonight because he said it was freezing. I didn’t think it was that cold but I guess I am a bit tougher than these young pups!! A big fry up set us up for the day (although we are eating every two minutes these days, even a fry doesn’t fill me and Tom’s bellies!!). We got a bus up to the Agro adventures activity centre. I have seen Zorbs on TV a few times but for those of you who don’t know what one is it is “an 11 foot high inflatable transparent sphere which you can ride inside. Two feet of air protect you from the ground enabling you to Zorb down hills at high speed (I love robbing stuff from Manuals!!). We decided to do it in pairs so I was paired with big Mike Ryan. Inside the Zorb there is water so we had to strip down to our shorts for this ride. The journey up to the hill where the Zorb is stationed was bumpy to say the least and your man driving the jeep up had the tunes pumping…this was an activity in itself. We had to do a Superman like jump to get inside the Zorb as it has a really small entrance. After I jumped in Mike wasn’t far behind. Away we went at a really fast pace down the hill, Tom and Conor pushed our Zorb so we were slipping, sliding and spinning away inside the Zorb. My feet were in Mike’s face!! It was weird because you have no idea where you are and it’s like a cross between a water slide and a rollercoaster!! Conor and Tom came rolling down the hill after us and we all agreed that it was great craic!!

After drying off from our Zorbing session, we decided to hit “Hells Gate” geothermal park and Mud spa!! The Gap tour was our first spa experience so we decided to splash out again. This spa is famous for its legendary, health-giving mud’s and sulphurous waters…..but it had us at mud, Apparently these special mud’s and sulphurous waters have been guarded for centuries by the Kaitiaki “Wai Ora” (guardian warrior) after whom the spa is named…I didn’t see any sign of the good auld Kaitiaki! We all hopped in the mud bath and it was like going into our septic tank out the back garden but obviously a bit healthier than that…well a lot more, I hope!! The slogan says that it is like playing in Silk!! We all started covering ourselves in the mud and looked a bit like Harry Henderson….a handsome Harry Henderson I might add at that! After messing in the mud we had to have the coldest shower known to man…it was freezing. It even made Mike Ryan weep like a little girl…he let out a massive scream!! After this we went into a thermal spa which was basically really hot water but it got us into a relaxed mood, even us travellers need a bit of a break because its usually all go. Conor and myself had another facial, I know some people are laughing at us but it great fun to have attractive New Zealand girls pampering you…even though they weren’t that attractive (no lies in the blog I’ve been told)!!

The Geothermal park walk was next on the list and Mike took the role of the leader and guided us through this park with his map, the man was in his element as we asked him questions about the park, he had all the answers!! Hells Gate Thermal Reserve is set in 50 acres with a large variety of geothermal features. We walked past steaming fumeroles and pools of boiling Mud ( in excess of 100 degrees Celsius) so violent that they are unnerving. We saw remarkable formations and colours as well as cascading hot water. The biggest hot waterfall in the southern hemisphere can also be seen here!! In fairness New Zealand is starting to grow on me because one minute you can be in a forest with waterfalls and feel like you are back in Brazil and then you are right beside sulphur lakes, its weird but amazing at the same time. A strange thing about one of the pools is that it is in the shape of Australia and it wasn’t man made…spooky!

Following our adrenaline rushing (Zorb) yet relaxing (Spa) day we hit a Chinese buffet. I guess we got use to our buffets in Spain that we couldn’t quite help ourselves. They had a great selection with lots of broccoli so Mike and Tom made sure I ate it!! A big bus full of people came into the restaurant so business was booming! All in all a very satisfactory day was had and with white water rafting on the cards tomorrow it’s exciting times ahead!

Not bad not bad at all,

Gary.