Saturday, November 30, 2013

Rotorua - 10/29/2013

Saturday morning we headed out for Rotorua. Along the way we got to stop to do what is called OGO. It is also known as zorbing. It is a giant inflatable ball that you go down a hill in with water on the inside. Words cannot even describe how much fun this was! You go down with another person inside the OGO with you. They were not kidding when they suggested picking a partner you were close with, because you get to know that person on a whole new level...


We got to Rotorua by lunch time, and after grabbing a quick bite to eat it was off to the luge track. You take a gondola up to the top where you then can go down many different tracks and take the chairlift back to the top. You got 5 runs. This place would not exist in the US, too many potential liabilities to even discuss… but that’s why I love New Zealand!

We stayed at a hostel on Blue Lake, which is absolutely stunning. That night some of us went to a playground a little way down the road. It would have been awesome to be a kid in New Zealand because all of the playgrounds are different and so cool. This one had a giant spider web type thing you could climb to the top and star gaze. There was also this four person standing see-saw-type thing. I can’t even explain it because it would never be on a playground in the US. There was also this spinning disk that was on a slant so the when you laid down in it, it kept spinning. I was laying on it and some of the guys decided to use it as a torture device. I almost fell off and I could not help but laugh/cry. It took me a while to be able to stand up straight.


The next day we headed to a thermally active lake. We saw geysers, black swans, Frying Pan Lake, and Inferno Crator. It is the newest thermally active area around Rotorua.








The next day on the way back to Auckland, we stopped and a few others got to raft the river that I had rafted earlier in the semester. We then got stuck in five hours of Memorial Day traffic on our way back into the city, but it was fun weekend and chance to hang out with everyone on the program before finals started.


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