Rotarua

Please say it with rolling R's as everyone here does. Mom and I went here next after one more night in Auckland. Once again we were booked on a tour with fat American couples and Japanese families... random, just random. We were waiting for our bus on our sketchy street of Auckland (more to come about that), when a cracked out Maori couple were just feet away, sitting on a bench. They started yelling at tourists- a lot to handle at 8 in the morning!

We made it on to our bus with again another chatty bus driver that talks the entire time. Please note I have become a pro at tuning them out. I put my alice band headband (cotton headband) over my eyes with my bright purple pillow perfectly placed around my neck... I slouch down and pass out! I think mom read like 6 books during all of our bus journey's... me, I sleep! I think I needed to catch up on all the lost sleep from Oz!

Well, I did not get to sleep too much. This was yet again a jam packed day. I think mom and I were a little over stimulated at this point with all that we had seen... but we were enjoying each other's company... and how often do we get to travel NZ?!

One of our first stops was the glow worm caves. We had no idea what to expect or what they even were. An educational sign was displayed outside the center. We read all about the worms and the larva- how they turn into flies... yuck! What the heck were we going to see?! We thought this might be another mis-adventure of ours... but to our surprise it was really cool! The caves looked like cement drippings... big droops that formed arch ways and gloppy solid columns. They were all natural occurrences from water that had once flowed through there- it was limestone that now formed these caves. We still were confused by the glow worms... where were they? What were they? We walked with the guide to the end where it got very dark and we were to load onto a huge row boat. He explained that these worms hang from the ceiling and have no poop shoots... the food gets broken down and forms at the end of the worms... and that my friends is what glows! We looked up and saw a few... but once we were loaded in the boat we saw thousands! I wish my poop glowed...

We also saw geysers this day. Smelly, blow holes from the earth and stinky colored pools of water. If you have never seen one, head to Yellowstone Park, I think they are more impressive there. The Geo-thermal park was very cool though and we had the best Maori woman guide. She was very graceful in her mannerisms and once again mom and I impressed a tour guide with our enthusiastic questions. She showed us the carving school they have there. In Maori tradition, still practiced today, it is the men that do the carvings which serves both as art and tells a story. At first this struck me as sexist, but it is their culture and the explanation- which other than the women can't drag the tree out of the forest to make them- I can't really remember. We also saw the weaving school- yes, yes, for the women.

I can't remember where- I think it was the trout farm... I wont even bother it was so lame... where we saw a life sized statue of a once present bird in NZ. Again, I can't remember it's name but it is in the Emu family- not the friendliest of birds! It stands at over 6 feet tall! The things were massive. They are now extinct, as they served as the Maori's protein meals when they first settled in NZ. I believe it was said that NZ had no mammals inhabiting it when humans first reached here. They also have nothing poisonous (or so we were told, apparently there is one spider which is deadly)... but other than that, no snakes or scary animals! They do however have tons of sheep... 5:1 ratio on sheep to New Zealanders! After driving through most of NZ, I would have guessed 10:1!

We stayed in the nicest hotel in Rotarua. We were signed up for a traditional Maori feast and cultural play... we knew we were in for a doozy! It happened that it was in the conference room of our hotel and the food turned out to be a buffet (grrr). We were seated with a Japanese couple with their adorable 2 year old daughter that was scared of the performance (don't blame her!). An Australian family was also seated with us. It was the nanna (young in her 50's I would say), her husband, the woman's daughter (in her 30's), and the granddaughter at age 12. At first they seemed lovely and the nanna seemed to have a lot of class. But as the night progressed the dynamic between all of them became apparent and the conversation just geared toward the inappropriate side at times. I will move on to the Maori hokey show...

Obviously they were in traditional clothing with face paint and all... a lot of chanting songs and arm waving dances. I don't mean to poke fun at their culture, but they make funny faces to put it simply. To scare off other tribes, they widen their eyes and stick their tongues out and make it move like a sleazy construction worker or gypsy cab driver. This was done to scare off the other tribes. It just looks ridiculous. Mom and I had to hold back laughter as we really did not want to offend their culture. We had a few cocktails with this dinner it was needed!

All I will say about the family is the little girl made insinuating jokes that the Maori men took a liking to me and then simulated their tongue action. She is 12. Mom and I left right after the performance.

The food... the meat was cooked underground from the earths steam... the smelly blow hole stuff. I am sure you can imagine how not good it tasted! It was bland and stunk like egg.

The next day mom and I were to do another tour. The man got there and it turned out we were the only ones on the tour... it was us and the tour guide, in his van with his 3 year old son. What?! We didn't mind, the kid was cute, but it once again was odd. The man for starters had crazy eyes... where do we look?! He was actually very interesting and insightful on the Maori culture, but a little instense. In the present day they are much like the US's Native Americans minus the Casino's. The culture is dying with the older generations as younger one's assimilate into the more prominent lifestyle. It was apparent this saddened him, understandably. But he and others are doing a lot to help their people and spread more education about the Maori culture. He did however talk far too much, poor mom got stuck talking to him for a couple of hours as I took a snooze.

Mom and I saw some more geyser's, some beautiful gorge's, and a lot more... I just can't remember. We did so much it all blends together. This was Easter day and a really amazing way to spend it. We headed back to Auckland for an evening arrival. We met up with my friend's Celia and Lottie that I had met in Bondi beach. We had a lovely dinner and headed to the hostel where I would spend the following two nights. We introduced mom to her first glass of goone, out of a mug! She couldn't even finish it. but we did get her very giggly- especially trying to pronounce Aluminium (the English spelling and way of saying Aluminum).

It was my last night in a hotel and my last night with mom. We did so much, but it went by so quickly, that I can't believe it came and went. It was harder saying good bye to mom this time round then it was when I first left NY. It was an unbelievable 10 days together.

I miss you mom... thanks for the memories... glad you treated yourself for once!!! Wish you could be here still... miss you tons! You are the best.