Later on we drove north to Paihia in the bay of islands region, the weather was perfect and there was only one other guest at the motel we stayed in, meaning that we got the pool and communal cooking facilities to ourselves for our two night stay, this was good as it meant that there was no one around to witness me attempting to dive into the pool only to belly flop and hit the water face first, no one except Amy anyway who has probably uploaded the photos to facebook so the whole world can laugh at me!
The next day we went out on the ‘Hole in the rock’ boat tour to get a closer look at the areas many islands, we were expecting a gentle cruise but were surprised to find that the boat was very fast indeed, the sea was rough and choppy at times and we had to cling on to the rails to avoid being thrown overboard. We could have just sat inside but that would have been boring and it was worth getting wet for the amazing views. The boat slowed to a halt as we were lucky enough to spot some dolphins swimming side by side in front of the boat and a little later when we stopped at the town of Russell to pick up some more passengers we got to watch some local kids perform the haka.
The conditions at sea had worsened by the time we arrived at the hole in the rock, a large island with a hole right through the middle big enough for a boat to go through, the captain wasn’t sure whether to go through or not but after some hesitation he went for it, it was a rough ride as we travelled straight through the island and out the other side, people all around us were screaming but ourselves and the boat made it through unscathed, later on we saw another boat approach the hole and then decide not to go through, our captain joked that whoever was in control of that boat obviously hadn’t been drinking as much as he had. After a short stop at the beautiful island of Urapukapuka with its green hills and clear water it was time to head back to Paihia, by the time we got back we both had some pretty crazy hairstyles due to the force of the wind as we rode at the front of the boat.
We headed down to the wharf the next day to try parasailing, we paid for a tandem ride so that we could go up together, all the way up to 1200ft we chatted away as if it was a perfectly normal everyday thing that we were doing, the view from that height was amazing and we both really enjoyed the experience. We were soon back in the car heading back to Beach Haven for the night, we drove along the west coast, through a huge forest and around steep and winding roads along the way and eventually came across ‘Café Eutopia’ an ongoing project which was an organic café shaped like a boat from the outside. Inside it had themed rooms, art and books to buy and looked unlike anything we had seen before.
Rotorua was a place we had both been looking forward to visiting for a long time, as we walked into the town centre in search of something to eat we noticed that it was very quiet indeed, almost like a ghost town in places, there was hardly anyone around in the streets and then we noticed the notorious Rotorua aroma, due to the geothermal activity in the area you would now and again catch a whiff of a rotten egg smell which took some getting used to. One of the first things we did was try out some Segway machines on an outdoor circuit, we had loads of fun zipping around the track, weaving in and out of cones and even more fun when the owner turned the speed restriction off. Next it was time for my first zorbing experience, something that I had wanted to do for a long time, Amy didn’t fancy it so she took photos as I was strapped into a huge rubber ball and rolled down a hill, it was disorientating and over pretty quickly but was a lot of fun and one more thing I could tick off my list of things to do in New Zealand.
The previous days activities were good fun but one of the main reasons we had come to Rotorua was to do some white water rafting at the Kaitiaki river with its 7 metre waterfall, the highest commercially raftable waterfall in the world. We were picked up in the morning by one of the rafting guides, he explained that due to some heavy rainfall the river had risen to its maximum level, when we got to the waterfall there would be nearly twice as much water going over it than usual and the water would be moving faster. Upon arrival at the rafting base we put on our helmets, boots and life jackets and made our way to the top of the river, after a brief speech and a maori prayer from one of the guides it was time to get in the raft. We were introduced to our guide Corey who realised that me and Amy were the only people in the raft who spoke fluent English so he put us up front, later on he got quite strict with the rest of our crew, one of them didn’t know the difference between forwards and backwards and they all seemed oblivious to the danger we could potentially be facing, they just smiled and nodded at everything he said. Somehow we made it over all three of the waterfalls safely, rafting over the 7m waterfall was a real thrill but we were all a little nervous about falling out of the raft as we went over, we got a good face full of water as we were enveloped by the raging white water at the bottom but as we emerged everyone was still in the raft. The whole experience was amazing but over to soon and I wanted to go straight back up the river and do it all again, I’m sure it won’t be my last time.
Later that day we discovered our favourite restaurant so far, ‘Lone star’ a cowboy / western themed bar / restaurant which gives you huge portions, we left full to bursting and went and watched a local band for a while, out of sympathy more than anything as there was only one person watching them when we arrived, once some more people arrived we walked to the local park, Rotoruas geothermal nature caused the pools of water and mud there to bubble and steam, once we had taken advantage of a naturally heated public bathing pool it was time to return to the hostel and catch some sleep before setting off for Taupo the next day.
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