This morning we left the hobbit hotel to go to a town called Rotorua. Along the way, we stopped off at a park that had a bunch of hot springs, which were pretty cool (but quite hot). I guess they were caused by volcanic activity. Here is a picture of one of them. You may not be able to see it in this picture, but there was a basketball floating around in this hot spring.
After spending a brief amount of time in the town, we went white-water rafting on the Kaituna River. It was quite cold and rainy, but we got set up with wetsuits. The rafting was great. It was only about an hour long, but the rapids were almost constant. There was even one immense 7 meter rapid that we went down, which was spectacular. I'm embarrassed to admit that I my paddle fell out of my hand when the boat hit the water, but at least I didn't fall out. I have a picture of the waterfall, and I'll try to post it when I get a chance. Later there were some kayak races going on at that river, so we stayed around for a bit to watch. It would be pretty crazy to go down that waterfall in a kayak.
After the rafting we drove to a Maori house where we observed a traditional Maori dance (see below) followed by a really good meal that had actually been prepared in an oven dug into the ground and covered (called hangi). The Maori are the indigenous people of New Zealand. After dinner we went to a big hot spring for a swim, which was wonderful. The water probably would have been too hot for comfort, but the cold air and rain made it quite pleasant.
No comments:
Post a Comment