Adventure Week One!

I'll try to give a summary to the past week, although there has been so much going on it's hard to make it quick. Hello Sulfur! We travelled from Waitomo to Rotorua on Tuesday, which is the geothermal hotspot of New Zealand. All of the underground activity gives the area the very distinct smell of rotten eggs, mmmm.

On the way to the hostel we had the opportunity to try out one of NZ's many unique activities, ZORBING! Which is basically rolling down a hill in a giant plastic ball. Two people are able to fit into it with a bucket of water thrown into the mix. By the time you make it to the bottom you are completely soaked and laughing your head off.  We also stopped at the Kiwi Encounter, which is a hatchery and nursery for the endangered birds. We got there in time to see a baby Kiwi attempting to break through its egg. The mother lays four a year and while she is pregnant the egg takes up the majority of her body. To give you an idea it's like a human birthing a 35 pound baby. Ouch!

Wednesday was Whitewater rafting. The trip was an hour long and included a 7 meter waterfall, which is the highest commercially rafted fall in the world. I only ended up in the water twice! To keep the adrenaline rush going we headed to Agroadventures in the afternoon.  Two of the other girls and I deicided we wanted to try this contraption called the Swoop. They strapped us into sleeping bags, hauled us 40m into the air and then dropped us.

Thursday we had a day at the spa. Hells Gate has mud baths and thermal hot pools that are apparently amazing for your skin. The smell again isn't very pleasant, but I did feel refreshed afterwards. In the evening we got to go to a Maori Hangi feast and performance. We got picked up by a driver who was able to explain Kia Ora to us and reiterated the greeting in over 50 other languages. From then on the entertainment was unreal. We saw demonstrations of war practices, as well as traditional song and dances, and walked around a recreated village. The food was amazing it felt like a thanksgiving feast. A Hangi meal is traditionally cooked underground ontop of embers with the food wrapped in cloth.

Friday was our longest travel day so far with 8 hours straight to Wellington. We visited the Te Papa museum on Saturday morning and then walked down to the beach in the afternoon. We laid out all day and I of course got sunburnt again. We had a delicious meal at a mexican/creole restaraunt called 'Sweet Mothers Kitchen" and checked out a Calypso-Funk band in the gorgeous botanical gardens.

Sunday we made it onto the ferry to the South Island, but not after  many setbacks first thing in the morning. A late bus caused the biggest issue. The ride was fairly bumpy which was unfortunate for all the ACDC fans that had been partying at the concert in Wellington the evening before. The barf bags where being dolled out generously. We ended the journey in Nelson, which has the most sunshine year round in all New Zealand.