Waitamo and Rotorua - Night 47

I awoke and went for a jog at what I thought was 6am. Upon returning I found that it was already 7:20 and my bus was due out front of the hostel at 7:55. Apparently sometime during the night my watch lost 50 minutes. Piece of shit. That or I can’t tell time.

I made my bus, shower and all. Our first stop was a quick drive up Mt. Eden, which having seen this last night, was not much of an attraction for me. The large Magic tour bus was about 1/3 full, a few older couples, a number of pairs of friends and probably a dozen solo travelers like me. I heard some German, Italian, and an unknown Slavic sort of tongue, definitely a multi-cultural group. Greg was our driver for the day. A friendly guy, he did not quite have his tour guide routine down yet as he stumbled over a few explanations and forgot the names of the some of the sights along the way. His actual maneuvering of the vehicle, however, was superb.

Deep in the Cave

The first stop was the small town of Waitomo. Located above some amazing limestone karst geology, the name Waitomo is Maori for “the place the water disappears,” referring to the numerous creeks that appear and disappear into caves in the area. Greg pitched the black water rafting adventure hard, but most of the group, myself included, was scared off by the $89 price tag. Another pay option was to do a guided walkthrough of a cave that housed some glow worms clinging to the walls. Not being much for guided tours, especially since a bus of Japanese tourists arrived at the same time as we did, I opted for door number three, a six mile roundtrip hike through the countryside to a large natural bridge/cave on the upper Waitomo Creek. The weather was warm but windy and the hike proved harder than expected. Much of it was exposed, the terrain undulating, and as a result I was sweating like a pig by the end of the second mile. It proved to be better training

The Waitomo Creek

for Tongariro (on Thursday) that I had expected. The payoff at the end was worth it; a massive cave where the water came tumbling out of. I could feel the cold air rushing from the cave long before I could see it. A natural air conditioner if I’ve ever seen one.

We left Waitomo around 3 and were in Rotorua, our final destination for the day around 5. Rotorua is an adventurer’s paradise with rafting, skydiving, zorbing, hiking, and many other activities all located in the immediate vicinity. Upon arriving, the sulphurous stench from the nearby volcanic vents was evident, but not as overwhelming as I had read online. Perhaps the wind was blowing in the proper direction. After checking into the Crash Palace, I made a grocery run and then a pork pasta dinner. I also booked a whitewater rafting trip for tomorrow morning. Exhausted, I was, once again, early to bed. My self-imposed drying out period is working well here in New Zealand; more on account of my fatigue than my self-control.

What I Learned Today: I thought the Aussies were geniuses for cutting out the penny and rounding everything to the nickel. Well, in typical South Pacific rivalry fashion, the Kiwis have one-upper their larger neighbors by eliminating both the penny and the nickel. That’s right, everything is rounded (by the “Swedish” system – 0-4 = 0, 5-9 = 10) to the nearest 10 cents. As the British would say….”Fucking Brilliant.”

written by

exumenius on November 26, 2007 from Rotorua, New Zealand

from the travel blog: Kiwis and Kangaroos

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