Te Rotorua-nui-a-Kahumatamomoe (aka Rotorua)

Flying Kiwi: Friday 18.01.08

Next stop was Rotorua. You can smell it before you see it, because of the sulfur from the thermal springs that come up from beneath the ground. Yup - rotten egg smell. Sam and I have been to the Polynesian Spas before (when we traveled south with Alex and Stuart), as well as seen the geothermal volcanic hot pools where the steam rises right off the water. The water actually ripples, but I don't know if that was because it was actually boiling or if it had anything to do with any gases in the water or whatnot. Anywho, Sam and I ended up not really doing much here, so yeah.

There are plenty of fun things to do in Rotorua that Sam and I have already done. Like luging. Basically it's like go-karts, but on this little piece of plastic with no pedals. The position at which you hold your handlebar controls your speed. All the way forward is "park" (which you never want to use while going downward), middle is "go," and pulling back on the handlebars engages the brakes. If you go pretty fast, it's very possible to flip over at one of the turns. I have no pictures from luging in Rotorua, but you'll see pictures from the luge in Queenstown.

There's also this place called the Agrodome, where they have different activites to try. The biggest one would be zorbing. I would have liked to go, but I felt like it was a waste of money. Basically you're put in this huge bubble with some water, and you slosh around inside while it rolls downhill. The hill isn't very big, and the ride lasts about 20 seconds. Maybe not even that much. I heard it's fun though. You know, it's the kind of ride where you giggle all the way down. The picture below shows my friends Hayley and Sarah (UK) going down together. No other pictures though, sorry.