Rotorua and Thensome

After a delayed flight and wrong directions from a crazy ass bus driver, Kendall and I met up with Wes and Amanda in Rotorua. We finally found them at our hostel Thursday night. Once we were situated we explored the town a little then went to the grocery story to stock up for the weekend. Since our hostel was equipped with a kitchen, we all decided to cook for the weekend instead of eating out a lot.

Over dinner we tried to plan our weekend in “Rotavegas.” We didn’t get very far, and when we finally made some decisions it was way to late to book anything. So after breakfast on Friday morning we talked a little more and when Sarah arrived we finally decided to book some stuff.

Friday afternoon we ventured to Hell’s Gate Thermal Park. The funny thing about Rotorua is that it is in the middle of the thermal area of New Zealand. So there are a lot of geysers, and also the entire place smells like sulfur. Walking around Hell’s Gate was pretty cool. The sun was out and it was a nice day, but boy did it reek walking around that thermal park.

After we walked around the park, we went to the spa. The spa was all right; we went there thinking it was going to be a thermal pool and crazy mud pool. Well the spa looked like a collection of hot tubs. The mud pools had some privacy walls around them, but they were filled with borderline hot water that had some mud at the very bottom. Then the sulfur pool was this large communal hot tub-ish like thing. To sum up, Hell’s Gate wasn’t really worth my time or money. I wish I had spent my afternoon doing something else, but whatever it probably could have been worse.

Rotorua has a very large Maori population (the Maori are the indigenous people of New Zealand) so Friday night we decided to do a Maori cultural dinner. We went to the Mitai Village where we learned about their culture and enjoyed a traditional Maori meal.

The meal we had was called a Hangi. Hangi is the Maori word for oven. The Hangi is a pit that is dug out of the ground then filled with some wood then large stones. The wood is set a flame and the stones act as coals. They use the hangi to cook the meat and some vegetables.

Saturday was simply an incredible day. We rented a car and drove out to Waitomo, which is about 2 1/2 hours from Rotorua. There we did a cave tour, which involved abseiling down a small cliff, floating around a pitch black cave on a inner tube, crawling through cave holes, seeing glow worms, and rock climbing the cliff we abseiled down. However, because I was walking through a river in only semi-water proof boots I ended up with a case of frostbite. When was the last time you got a case of frostbite in July? It was so much fun, I don’t even car that I got frostbite on my feet. It was totally worth it.

The scenery on the North Island doesn’t seem to compare with that on the South Island. Usually that’s how people describe both islands, but my trip last weekend on the South Island has really shown it to me now.
It was another good weekend for me. Sadly it was the last trip that my friends and me planned. I’m sure there will be at least one more though, especially since my boss gave me my last week off. Right now I’m trying to decide what I’m going to that week. I don’t really want to stay in Wellington; maybe for a couple of days I’ll try to get out to Australia or somewhere. Depends if anyone is willing to go with me.

Right now work is getting pretty intense. I’m working on two big projects along with my usually mundane duties. Then on top of that, during a meeting today my boss asked me if I was willing to help out with a brief. Me being a retarded intern I said, “yes.” I guess I’m not at that point where I can tell my boss, “Sorry, I already have a ton of shit to do.” I don’t think I’ll ever get to that point at MEC though. It’s hard to believe, but I really only have less than three weeks left. I kind of wish I could stay in Wellington and keep working for MEC. It’s been a sweet experience so far, sadly I’ll have to return to reality eventually and…graduate, ugh, just typing it makes me shudder.

I think I’m all caught up on the blog!! This weekend the gang and are going to see a rugby match. New Zealand is playing South Africa in Wellington. OH, and next week I’m going to the Wellington Phoenix game in Matt and Grant. Steve gave me his ticket, and here’s the best part, we’re going with some media reps, so every thing is going to be paid for. Next few weeks are looking pretty sweet.