Day in Rotorua
Working in the tourism industry definitely has it's perks! On top of meeting awesome people from all over the world, we are often able to familiarize ourselves with other companies and their products for free or at a discounted rate. We call these "famils" for short. George, Phil and I decided to spend a day in Rotorua doing famils, and we had an amazing time!
Our first stop was the Skyline Gondola, where we went luging. We could have easily spent half a day there, just going up and down the hill.
To my surprise, my favorite part of the day was zorbing. It was entirely more fun than I expected it to be. Zorbing is something you'll only find in New Zealand. I'm not sure how I'd even go about explaining it. Simply put, there is a big clear plastic ball, suspended in the middle of an even bigger clear plastic ball; you get into the middle ball, they slosh some water in with you, and you roll down some awesome green hills. Or in other words, you roll down a hill in a hamster ball.
There are two zorbing companies in Rotorua, Zorb Rotorua and OGO. OGO was the originial company so we decided on that one, and it didn't disappoint. The staff members were all extremely bubbly and helpful; they were also really excited that we were Black Water Rafting guides. We were able to do both the straight zorb, and the windy one, but we were only allowed two at a time going down the windy, so George went on his own while Phil and I went together. I think my favorite must have been the straight path, because we bombed down the hill so much faster with all three of us in the ball. Working in a cave, I got so used to jumping into cold water, that it was a shock to me when we got into the ball, and the water was warm. I thought it was also really awesome that they even had hot tubs there for us between each zorb we did.
Te Puia was the only part of our day that we actually paid for, and we got a 50% discount, so we only ended up paying about 50 NZD a person.
I would recommend this tour to any tourists that only plan to spend a few weeks in New Zealand, because you get a fairly comprehensive experience of the geothermal area and the Maori culture in the area. It is designed for tourists that would not have many other chances to experience Maori culture. Having already spent a few months here, I myself was slightly unimpressed. I have learned much more about the Maori culture from merely spending time around New Zealand, and just asking people.
I have to say I was really excited to go to Te Puia because Pokarekare Ana was the first Maori song that I had learned, and I gathered that it was a love song that was based out of Rotorua. I was really looking forward to hearing the full story behind the song. They did sing the song for us, brilliantly I may add, but to my disappointment, they didn't tell us anything about the song at all, just that it was a Maori love song.
After the tour around the geothermal valley, and the Maori performance, we had our haangi. The haangi was cooked in pretty much a huge oven underground, and it consisted of a variety of meats and vegetables: pork, lamb, chicken, beef, potatoes, onions, capsicums, and a few others. I was really excited for this as well, as I'd heard so many amazing things about haangi's, and how delicious they were. I have to say, I was a little more than slightly disappointed. I'm not sure if it's just not my kind of food, or if it's just not as good as a homemade haangi. I reckon it's a mix up of the two, but I didn't favor any of it.
