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Rotorua Part Two

 

The first night in Rotorua, we attended a Hungi. The Maori people serve a banquet and perform traditional dances and use weapons. It's a bit like a luau, just for the Maori. It's really quite incredible. They speak in the traditional dialect and paint their faces.

The next day we rode up the gondola and rode a luge down a mountain. The luge we had was more of a go-cart, and there were tracks you could steer down and hills to slide over. One of the guys that worked there was in a New Zealand boy band. 

 

 

 We visited an old spa that had been turned into a museum. Wealthy people came from all over the world for mud baths and prescribed care. We went from the museum to a Polynesian spa, where we spent the rest of the evening relaxing.

Rotorua

Rotorua is a town with geothermal springs. The springs are nice, but it makes the whole town smell like sulfur. The Agrodome was the first stop. I thought it would be a little lame, (The Shearing Museum?) but everyone recommended it, so we all went to see it. It was actually a really cool stop. They had a showing with all the sheep, and they had volunteers to come up and milk a cow, and feed baby goats. It was really funny. At one point, they had a bunch of sheepdogs come out. The sheep all stood up, and the dogs ran over their backs like stairs.

 

We went straight from the sheepshow to the original home of the Zorb. The Zorb was invented in Rotorua, and they have a few tracks. This is the coolest thing I've ever done. The Zorb has an outer ball, and an inner ball tethered in the middle. The opening is tiny, I had to run and dive through, and I landed in a small pool of water. Siena dove through too, and we were sent down the hill. I couldn't see out of the Zorb, it just kept spinning, and since there was water on the bottom, we just slid around it, crashing into each other and screaming our heads off. It was so cool! We both were soaked by the time it ended. There was a discount if you did it twice, so we each did a separate time. The second hill was a lot bumpier, and I was alone. I was bouncing up and down all around the Zorb. The water got in my face and I was practically flailing around. It was so wild, so out of control. I loved it.

   

Great Barrier Reef (Part Two)

The first snorkeling trip was kind of crowded, but really cool. It was so great I wanted to do it again! So we took another trip out, and this one was fantastic. The boat stopped at three different reefs, and the weather couldn't have been better. T the last reef, I snorkeled through a huge school of miniscule fish. I drifted toward them, letting the water carry me, and they all went around me. The fish were metallic silver and blue, and they sort of encased me in a big blue bubble. I was surrounded by these shimmery fish on all sides. It was an amazing experience. Swimming through the area felt like I was in Finding Nemo. The coral was so detailed. There were giant iridescent clams, that were over three feet long. They were immense. Unfortunately, we didn't get any underwater pictures, but I can say first hand that pictures will never do the sights justice. It's that incredible.

Australia Part Two: Zoo and Ziplining

Kangaroos and koalas were on my bucket list when I came to Australia. So my grandparents took us to a zoo where we could touch crocodiles and snakes and actually feed baby kangaroos! Exotic parrots were flying around our head and we saw a cassowary bird.

The baby kangaroos were so cute I could barely stand it! After our zoo experience we had lunch and drove up to Daintree rainforest. Daintree is the oldest rainforest on earth, at least 95 million years old. In some places, it's three times as old as the Amazon! We hiked up to the zipline, which was maybe a ten minute walk at most. We passed more plant species in that short walk than in all of Europe and North America combined! It was a spectacular view, at one point in the zipline they stopped us over a river that was about a hundred below and let us dangle. It was beautiful. 

They wrote cool names on our helmets. I was Pippi Longstocking, Siena was Mary Poppins, Grandma was Cookie Monster, and Grandpa was King Kong.

Yes, I'm zip-lining upside down.

 

 



  

Australia Part One:Snorkeling and Beach

So we got back from Australia yesterday, and unfortunately our hotel didn't have wifi. Here's some updates on our first days there:

We arrived Sunday, and lounged/recovered from jet lag until Monday. Tuesday we went out snorkeling on the Great Barrier Reef. Siena and I had the chance to do a really cool underwater submersible helmet experience. You basically have a bucket on your head, with a tube up to the surface and you can breathe and look out through the helmet without getting your hair or face wet. We stood on a metal staircase and watched fish swim around our heads. It was one of the most amazing things I've ever done.

 The weather was a little iffy and there were quite  a lot of people, but we still managed to see some incredible coral and fish.

Wednesday and Thursday were beach days. We went in the water without sunscreen for maybe half and hour, and both got so burned it hurt to put a shirt on. Luckily they healed, but it was still pretty painful. While we were burning we got some cool pictures though......

The sign says crocodiles may be present in these waters.

That last wave caught me by surprise.