Rotarua

We stayed here at another Base hostel, fairly plain nothing too special. The city itself is build on top of a volcanic area with some parts of the earth's crust being incredibly thin here, this causes a large release of sulphurous gases making the entire place have a smell that is a cross between burnt popcorn and egg, quite a good reason to keep the windows closed.

That night the whole coach went to the Tamaki Maori village where they have you greet the tribe as another tribe would, with us having to choose a chief before we arrived to be the focus of the ceremonial meet. The village is for show with huts in a wood each showing a different section of Maori life, they have you join in from running through a lattice on the ground for war training to doing the Haka. After we are shown the food being removed from the underground kiln it which it has been cooking away for the past few hours before we are ushered to the next large hut where we see a show all about Maori Culture. We are then whisked off to the food hall where it is a huge buffet so time to fill up for the next few days, the food was great a big range all from the local area such as lamb and New Zealand sweet potatoes which seem like nearer to a potato than the ones we are used to, the whole meal has a slight earthy taste to is which we are told is from the kiln cooking method used. Main is followed by pavolva which we are continually reminded on this trip is originally a Kiwi dish and not a Ozzy pudding as they claim, with the kiwi's argument being that the Oxford English dictionary states this. Completely stuffed with many people looking quite pregnant now we go back to the hostel and to bed.

Most people leave in the morning to head to Taupo however we have another day and night planned in Rotarua to allow us to spend a day in MataMata where Hobbiton resides.