Beattys Overseas

The luge at Rotorua - zoooooom!Rotorua is a popular destination in the center of New Zealand's north island.  Most noted for the natural hot springs that bubble up around Rotorua's lakes, it's also famous for the strong Maori culture (New Zealand's native people).   We drove into town on Sunday afternoon and headed straight for the Information Site (the tourist office), which is totally worth a stop.  They're like a free, super-knowledgeable concierge... We asked the girl who helped us to book us a 3-4star hotel, and book us a white-water rafting trip.  Within 10 minutes, she had booked both of these things for us and given us confirmation #s to boot.  Easy cheesy, I say. 

We checked into our Millennium hotel which was nice but lacked seriously in the internet-access department, and headed out for some munchies.  We found the Pig & Whistle, the town's historic pub which used to be the Rotorua Police Station (hence the name). 
The mineral hot springs boil with stinky steam!Good beer and an odd selection of snacks, and we were made in the  shade.  Actually, we were made in the sulfur-smelling shade.  Did we mention that due to Rotorua's natural mineral springs bubbling up all over town, a strong sulphur stench permeates the air???  In other words, the whole town smells like rotten eggs.  Sounds gross, and it was, but you actually get used to it after just a little while.  Mmmm, pass the ketchup please.

Our many adventures in  Rotorua  -pronounced Ro-ter-ooa-- were quite enjoyable.  We did a little concrete luge track down a mountainside, which Whitney enjoyed immensely.  We did a little whitewater rafting, including a 21 foot drop down a waterfall on the Kaituna River, the highest commercially rafted river waterfall in New Zealand.  John was given a paddle (for show) and told to hang on.) 
We JUST came out of the 21ft drop!That he did, even as we plunged the 21 feet plus falls, as our boat went under the falls straight down, then popped to the surface with a great force.  The nice part about rafting, outside of the class 5 excitement, was the respect that the guides showed for the Maori people and their history with the river.  They said a short prayer to the River gods before our trip, and along the way showed us where the wives and children of Maori warriors would stay in caves while the men went off to battle other tribes.  It was all very cool. 

The next morning we started off the day with the AgroDome Show about 10 kilometers away.  The AgroDome is a family-run working farm that invites tourists like us onto their land for a really cheesy - but super fun - guide about shepherding and livestock raising.  The main show exhibited all the different breeds of sheep, whose wool can be extremely expensive.  Our farm host, Chase, did a short but efficient shearing of one sheep while all the prize-winning bulls stood watching (see photo).  We saw the boarder collies do their thing, which included running up and over the backs of the sheep in order to keep them in line.  An old dairy cow was milked onstage by some embarrassed and confused tourists, and all sorts of great farm related stuff was available to show-goers.

Sheep Show: So cheesy, but SO FUN!The highlight of the day, even more so than our feeding of the different animals, was watching the driver of our farm tourist train blow the door off of his tractor when he mis-judged the metal fence that led to the alpaca and deer section of the farm.  The door didn't actually come off, but the top and bottom glass exploded so violent the entire train gasped in horror.  Almost as comical for us in the front row was watching the driver attempt - out of habit, we're sure - try to keep the door open when he'd exit by reaching for the bottom glass which no longer existed.  His hand went right through the door frame and he kept balking at the sensation of the glass being missing.  When we got to the part of the tour where we saw how the olive groves and Kiwi fruit were grown, we were promised a special treat.  The driver took us to the processing plant where they make the Olive oil and Kiwi wine.  Whitney saw the poor guy tank four straight shots of the kiwi wine; the stress of the broken tractor glass brought him down. 

Jump if you love to ZORBAfter our farm tour at the AgroDome we drove across the dirt road to the ZORB complex, which proved to be the best 1 hour and $150 investment we've made in a while!   Imagine a huge plastic sphere rolling down a large hill with two people and three buckets of water inside... It looks a lot like a hamster ball, but feels like a waterslide and rollercoaster when you're inside the ball!  We laughed hysterically as we slipped and slid all over each other inside the compact inner sphere before two teenage 'sk8er boyz' let us out at the bottom of the hill.  It was such a hoot, we took two rides.  John wants to bring the franchise to the East Coast, as of now its only in Tennessee in the USA.  Any other investors out there who want to join us??!!?? 
JB snorkeled the gorgeous blue waters of the Blue lake.  and found a white sock,  6 feet down.  Ugh.  He loves whipping out his $600 worth of fins, mask  and snorkel!

Following our ZORBing hilarity, we longed for more water, so we asked the big mean-looking Maori guy who ran the Laundromat where we had all our dirty clothes about a nearby beach.  He suggested the Blue Lake, a 20-minute drive and a whole-world away.  What a great tip; we had a lovely two hours there with a few sandwiches and sodas.  Ahhh, vacation:  there are worse ways to while away a few days, and we did those days proud in smelly Rotorua. 

- Whitney