We left early Friday morning and stopped in Hamilton to go to the temple. It was wonderful, and it is, of course, so beautiful! The Visitors Center had a 'Reflections of Christ' exhibit - my favorite.
After the temple we went to the famous Hamilton Gardens. This place is so huge and so absolutely beautiful! It was one
We then drove further south to Rotorua, where we stayed the next 3 nights. We stayed with a LDS family that our tour guide (James) knows. They had a big, beautiful house and let us all come and take over for a few days. The live right by a natural hot spring, so they have a spa that they can easily fill up with the hot water. We did legitimate mud masks and everything.
Rotorua has been dubbed "the Queenstown of the North Island." It is famous for its volcanic history and is home to geysers, mud pools, and thermal springs. As a result, that delightful sulphuric scent lingers in the air. Saturday the 27th we went to the Maori Cultural Center and saw the Pohutu geyser. In my mind it was basically the Yellowstone of NZ - we still hand to stand around and wait for it. We saw some massive boiling mud pots and other signs of your typical geothermic activity.
We also went on the luge - it's basically a 3-wheeled cart that you ride down the mountain. So fun! We rode the gondola up Mt. Ngongotaha where you could look out over all of Rotorua, and took 5 luge rides down on 3 different routes (scenic, intermediate, and advanced).
Sunday we went to church, then joined the ward afterward for a big feed because it was their ward conference. We then went on a long drive to Lake Taupo, the biggest lake in NZ. We had a nice picnic there then drove back to Rotorua.
Monday the 29th was a free day, so a lot of us did our own thing. However, we did all go zorbing together. What the heck is zorbing you might ask? It's spherical. It's plastic. It's a gigantic beach ball. And it rolls down a grassy slope with a passenger inside. We all had water added inside the zorb ball, so made it more of a slip 'n roll adventure down hill. Although this joy ride only lasted 24 seconds, it was quite enjoyable. It's not everyday you get to feel like a hamster. :)
We browsed all of the souvenir shops in town for the afternoon - there were heaps of them. My favorite part of the city was that right in the center there was a nice area that had a piano sitting there for anyone to play. People would come and go and play a song or two. I just loved it. Later that night we attended a Maori theater dinner. We had hangi-type food and watched an interactive performance about some of the history of the Maori people. It was entertaining and fun to go out.
Tuesday we headed further south to Waitomo to witness the gloworm caves. A gloworm is basically a maggot that uses its glow to attract food. Insects fly towards the light and get stuck in the sticky lines that the gloworms hang down to catch food. Eleven out of our whole group went tubing down the caves - we were decked out in thick wet suits and gear and trudged through the cold water of the rocky cave tunnels, more than 200 feet below the ground, for about 1 1/2 hours. It was AMAZING! Such a fun adventure. We had to jump backwards into our tubes over a couple of waterfalls. At one point we all formed an "eel" by holding onto each others' feet. Everyone turned their helmet lights off and one guide pulled us all silently along a tunnel. It was pitch black, silent, and there were fluorescent lights everywhere above us! So cool. The gloworms were fascinating and clumped together on the limestone ceilings of the tunnels. The 2 guides we had were hilarious and made it very entertaining as well. We were treated to some hot soup and bagels afterward to help warm ourselves back up.
After our little cave exploration we headed up north back to Auckland. We are home for one day and then take off again for one last adventure up to the north part of the island. :)
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