The Alex & The Eleanor + 1

Dec. 26 2007 – Boxing Day
Rotorua
Sunny in the morning, rain showers later, chilly

Today we begin our adventures, but not till we have breakfast. And the advantage with going to bed at 10pm? Getting up at 8am without an alarm clock. We wander a bit in Rotorua a bit, since things are actually open, at least more things then yesterday. How to say this politely…. Not a town that overwhelms me with its snobbery. We find the Mall though, and explore what must be the local Kmart or Target or something. It’s the best part of traveling aboard I think, seeing the weird stuff everyone has. Its somewhat disappointing as a lot of it is the same as the States, but at least the chocolates and chips are British. Bacon and cheese and burger and lots of chicken flavored chips. We next head to the Agrodome, at least to check it out, not sure if poor sick Alex will be up for it, but we shall see. Driving is getting much much easier. Still often turning the wipers on instead of the turn signal, but I am relaxing into it some. So, the Agrodome, they have sheep shearing shows and bungy jumping and all sorts of weird things, we reserved the “Freefall Experience” and “Zorbing”. (not that we needed too, it was not busy, but I was a bit paranoid) The freefall thing is basically floating on top of a jet turbine. I do the full four minutes and come out quite wind burned for it. Its fun, esp. when I get my spin on, but I would rather skydive again. Alex is quite manly and does 2 minutes, being convinced that it will blow the cold out of him. Not sure if that was the wisest move since the previously clear skies open up and it pours on him.  Strangely Alex spots a person with a Deerfield sweatshirt on waiting to bungy, but he seems quite a bit younger then me and I feel too weird about going up to him. Next we head to the Zorb, which is a giant ball of air, with another ball inside of it which you then get into and they throw some water in and then push you down a hill. Its really a lot more fun then it sounds, we were able to go together, and expect for being quite wet and chilly at the end and it being outrageously expensive for 30 secs of fun, I would most definitely do it again.  We head home and then pop back to the Spa for a bit more soak. Might as well take advantage of being so dang close. And my knee felt fabulous in the morning after being a bit achey on the plane. I guess I have to give mineral baths a thumbs up. And now that I am used to the smell a bit more, its rather nice to sit in very hot water. Our dinner plans are going to see a Maori cultural show and dinner. We arrive and are seated in a large tent which starts to feel increasingly like summer camp, and get a little background as to whats going to happen, and find out there are 23 countries represented. Impressive. More impressive is our host, who greets all but 2 with phrases from their own language. We then go out into the woods and see the native canoe type thing and then go to a stage set up looking at a recreated village. At this point it starts to feel a lot like summer camp, and we are starting to get very hungry. We see some dances and songs, which are very cool, and learn about the meaning of some of the tattoos, and then (finally) go back to the first tent for the hangi – which is the traditional way of cooking – digging a pit, putting hot rocks in the bottom, then the food on top and burying it all for 8 hours or so. The chicken and mutton are ok, the potatoes are not my thing, but they have a cauliflower salad that is really really fabulous. Sadly, I start to get a nasty headache and both of us are getting quite cold, which is not good for fighting colds, so we head home before going on the bush walk.