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.

Waitomo

On our way, the bus stops, we all jump out and are led through some old gold mines, criss-crossing it's way over a river on some rather wobbly bridges. We see a few glow worms on the roofs of the tunnels before a big group photo with the bus and on our way, Waitomo is a small village with only a few houses a pub and a restaurant. We had nothing planned but there is quite a lot available such as black water rafting through the caves which a few people did. We walked up a track to a viewpoint, on the return to the village we met Johanson, our German room mate from Wake up Hostel in Sydney. The hostel there is good, all the standard facilities done well and rooms of only a few rooms, however they do have the standard global gossip pay per minute internet that all the hostels seem rather fond of.

In the morning the coach left the village of Waitomo but stopped for us all to go on a walk just outside the village, here we saw a few more caves, streams and it all lies in the woods. Adam, Miles (the two Americans) and I ended up shuffling along a ledge above a stream to find ouselves at the entrance to a large cave however we could go no further as the we had to catch up with the group which involved a lot of running, arriving at the coach just as we head it's engine start up readying to go.

Kiwi Experience + Hot Water Beach

On the bus and loads of new people and one over excitable bus driver, she describes the plans for the next few days and we are on our way to Hot water beach. Everyone on the bus is around our ages and have a lot in common, we walk about 5 minutes from our hostel down to the beach, here hot springs rise up through the sand. If you dig a hole it quickly fills with water than can be as hot as 60 degrees so on a cold say like the one we had it feels almost burning hot. We find a pit pre-dug by others so enlarge that and all hop it, some parts are hotter than others so it's all about finding a good spot, fortunately for me I had a place of equilibrium however many in the group had burning feet and goose pimples on their arms. The beach faced to the east and had quite good surf however with nowhere to hire boards there was just one local out there shredding.

Back at the hostel and everyone decides that the best way to get to know each other is with a big game of ring of fire, before off to bed for an early start.

Scuba Diving - the great Barrier Reef

The standard Aussie early morning and it's a staggered start as different members of our room head to their boat day trips, we leave and head to the boat. It's a big sailing yacht however there is now wind so we use the motor to take us out to the reef, on the way the supply snacks and every so often do briefings for the variety of activities to occur later including ours on how to use the scuba equipment, there are pretty much just two things to remember:
1- Keep breathing
2- Never hold your breath
About 2 ½ hours later we are at the first reef, first group to go so camera ready and strapped to arm, before having the instructor place the tank and goggles on us, always good to get the priorities right. We are led to the back before the small step of faith, we hold a rope around 1m underwater and go through the safety procedures and hand signals before he puts his thumbs down (go down?) I am loving it so can't wait to see the reef so give the OK and away we go. The instructor had us lock arms but within 5 minutes turned and held up a card saying let go and stay close, we agreed and we  started to roam free.
The fish were amazing and didn't seem bothered by us at all, happily drifting around or just going a little further into the reef out of our reach, even the reef itself was enticing some coral being sharp when others such as sponges so soft to touch as they waves in the currents.

The colours of them all were so great, unfortunately the water has created a blue hue on all the screen shots I have taken from the videos.
Back on the top then we sail to another spot and go for a second dive, this time it's a little longer and not quite so deep although the instructor has forgotten his watch telling him how much air is left so has to occasionally swim back to me and check my tank pressure. The second dive is equally amazing and goes by just as quickly as the first. We surface and jump back in the boat although before we head off I go for a quick snorkel while they call everyone back before we aim back to land all shattered from the swimming and many with sunburns to go with their day on a boat.

2 Days of flights

We Flew from Cairns at 9.30, fortunately with domestic flights the security is a little more lax so we zoom swiftly through. It's quite crazy to fly for the 4 hours and still be in the same country but there are some great views of the coastline, so I peer down and see magnetic island, unfortunately the cameras aren't aloud at this point and one of the flight attendants is standing a little close for me to sneak a photo.

We went into Sydney for a few hours to chill, find some food and be away from the airport, although it's not long before we head back. Sleeping overnight in the airport was pretty chilly, however did mean a pleasant sleep for a couple of hours on the 4 hour flight to Auckland.