Kia ora all from Rotorua, New Zealand!
After a busy first term, it’s great to be off adventuring with Rob again. We had a fabulous time in Africa over the summer, but I’m bloody glad we aren’t camping this time and am looking forward to a much more chilled out pace. It was self inflicted, but the start of this school term felt like an absolute blur due to camping exhaustion and jet lag. But I hit the ground running and am really loving 2018 and my new classes.
This morning we got up at 2.50am (yuuuuck!) and drove to Mum and Dad’s. Mum kindly gave us a lift to the airport and we were on our way. We had a good laugh when a man pushed in in the boarding queue, and then proceeded to drop his sunglasses which then got run over by the person in front of him’s wheelie case - haha! Karma does exist!!
I passed the flight by finishing my book, ‘The Girl on the Train’ (great read - I guessed the ending half way through though!) and finishing off some school work. Before we knew it, we were in Auckland! We could see the sky tower from the plane.
I’ve been to New Zealand twice previously, but both times as a kid and before I began my crazy travel addiction and country counting. The first time in 2001 for a month, and then in 2009 in Year 11 over the Easter holidays. Rob’s Dad is from here, and his parents met when his Mum did a Contiki tour of NZ and his Dad was the driver. So when Rob got the same leave as me approved, he asked if we could come here to see some of his family. As well as that, we are touring around a bit ourselves. I’m excited to meet his family, revisit some places that I have childhood memories of, and visit some new ones as well.
Once we landed, we picked up our hire car and started our three hour drive to Rotorua. Well, sort of. Even though the road out of the airport had a speed limit of 100km/h, we were stuck in standstill traffic for ages. This was made all the more frustrating by the fact that petrol is over $2 NZ per litre here - woah!!! Melbs is cheap in comparison!
We each drove a little and slept a little on the drive and arrived in Rotorua about 4.45pm. Our motel is really cosy and cute. Our room is nice, we have our own personal car park right out front and the man on reception is really nice. We dropped our things off and then drove up the road to have a look around.
The brain is strange. I know I've been here before, and I have a few very vivid snapshot memories, but I couldn't for the life of me remember what the town looked like at all. It's lovely here though. Quiet, cool weather and no horrible apartments like there are everywhere at home. We went to the tourist info building (it was so pretty!) and then headed to Kuirau Park. Here we checked out the geothermal springs and waterholes. There was also a lake which was very steamy! The lake is named Kuirau Lake because legend has it a beautiful woman named Kuirau used to swim in the lake, as in the late 19th century the springs were cooler and able to be used for swimming. A taniwha (a serpent/dragon creature) took her, and the gods were so angry they made the lake boiling hot. One thing I remember very clearly from when I was a kid is how much it stinks here due to the boiling/steaminess. Although as an adult I don't think it bothers me nearly as much.
I dipped my feet in the hot pool in the park. Then we had a quick look at the lake, before heading to the supermarket (which weirdly use the Woolies logo but is called 'Countdown') and buying our microwave meals. We are exhausted and on a budget, we've decided we will go out another night for dinner. I'm currently watching Collingwood playing GWS on Rob's phone in the car as the Internet is better out here. So many injuries! But so far I'm glad I changed my tip back to Collingwood. I just can't go against us!
Tomorrow luge and hot springs. Looking forward to a lonnnggggg sleep tonight included a bonus hour due to daylight savings ending :)
Love to all
Claire
Xoxox
