Rotorua! 9/1/2011

Another morning began with packing the chilly bin, but this time we were heading south to Rotorua. The drive was about an hour and a half and even more scenic than the drive up to Auckland. I also managed to stay awake longer this time.

We first stopped at Agrodome and watched a sheep get sheared. The sheep was sooo woolly.The sheep shearer basically brought it out of the pen and made it sit while he shaved her.  This sheep was pretty young and was only being shaved for the second time and kept on kicking. The whole process was really quick and soon the sheep was bald and about half the size it used to be. The sheep shearer told us that within a day the sheep skin would double in thickness to compensate for the lost wool. We all got to feel the raw wool, which is actually really soft and oily. Sheep have this oil called lanolin that is boiled out of the wool when the wool is being processed. Then this lanolin can me made into all different types of products like lotion and soap. He also explained to us that the wool from the sheeps stomach will never be as clean as wool from the sheeps back no matter how much you wash it so it goes in a different pile and is made into dark colored things, like black wool socks or sweaters.

              

After the sheep shearing we went to the ZORB. For those of you who are unfamiliar with zorbing, it is when a person (or in our case, 3 people) climb into large inflated plastic hamster ball filled with warm water and then rolled down a hill. The squishy ball we were in is also encased within a larger squishy ball so we weren’t bouncing the entire way down. Instead, it was a warm, smooth, and slippery roll. We chose the wet roll option because all three of us could go into the same ball and by doing so it was a little cheaper. There is a dry roll option as well but you are strapped into the ball and you roll down the hill with the ball instead of sloshing around inside. I have heard that the wet roll is more fun, and also, I barely made the height limit for the dry roll which is 160cm. Zorbing was super fun and it was totally worth the wet feet I had for the rest of the day.

After zorbing we took out the chilly bin and had lunch at one of the nearby picnic tables. As we ate our sandwiches we watched other people zorb down the hill. Afterwards, we went to the Skyline Gondola and rode up to the top of the hill. It was raining while we were on the gondola but we still got to see the lake and the town underneath us. On the top of the hill we went to the luge track. Luging is basically bumper cars on a windy path going down a hill, with very little bumping, hopefully. Luging was really fun too but because it had rained right before we got there we all had wet bums afterwards. On the track there were also pit stops where you could stop your luge mobile and take pictures of dinosaurs. I didn't stop but I definitely saw big dinosaur statues. I felt like Yoshi from Mario Kart, I even had a green helmet.

We then visited the free hot pools. This is where Rotorua lives up to is smelly reputation. Even before we got out of the car we could smell sulfur, which is kind of like sewage and rotten eggs put together. The hot pools were all fenced off because they are all really really hot. Some were filled with boiling water and others were filled with boiling mud. Now how often can you say, “Mmm yeah, I just walked by a naturally boiling pool of mud.” And despite the unpleasant smell, it was really pretty. At the end of the walk way there were two public hot pools for people to go into. We went for the covered one only to find two naked men there, so we resorted to the non covered one. We soaked our feet there and the water was amazingly warm and comfortable. We sat there enjoying the warmth until we realized that the two naked men were probably druggies. One of the men took out a bag with some unknown white powder and started to sniff from it and at that point we all left in a hurry. I didn’t even put my shoes on and walked back to the car kiwi style (aka barefoot). Luckily the broken glass from Castle street didn’t make it all the way to Rotorua.

Yes, that is boiling mud

We then started to head home, but not without stopping in the small town of Tirau where I took pictures of the big corrugated iron dog and sheep. Again, I hopped out of the car kiwi style (shoeless because my shoes were still wet from zorbing) and ran across the street to these large inanimate animals that are actually shops. Ellie snapped a few pictures of me and then we were on our way again back home.

When we arrived back on the farm we were greeted by Ellie’s dogs, Blue, Scruffy, and Bess. These three are the most well behaved dogs I have ever met. Blue, who is actually an orange dog, gets a little jealous if you don’t pet him first but he is quite sweet. Scruffy and Bess love attention. Bess is obsessed with playing fetch, and Scruffy doesn’t really know how to play fetch but will play defense with Bess. All this means is that Bess will run after the ball and Scruffy will run after Bess to make sure she doesn’t get to it. Very amusing, sweet, and well behaved dogs.

From left to right: Scruffy, Blue, Bess

That night, Ellie made some delicious lasagna. It had veggies, mushrooms, and pumpkin in it. And instead of ricotta cheese, she used a mixture of cream cheese and cottage cheese which in the end tasted about the same as ricotta cheese. Delicious. Ellie's sister Rachel came over for dinner and brought over a lemon meringue pie. After some conversation and a hot drink we all headed to bed as we all had to wake up at 5:30 the next morning for our flight.