Day 6: A Donkey on the Roof

Sunday, March 15

 I usually have a gazillion different things to blog about and I can barely keep up with all my ideas for the blog, however I think I've developed A.D.D. when it comes to New Zealand.  I so rarely try to slog my way through so many blogposts on the same general subject, that it's been hard for me  to get excited to recount yet another day of our trip and I can only imagine how intensely boring it is for you,  dear readers.   It's only the realization that I am already starting to forget some of the details that's keeping me on task tonight and I hope you'll forgive me as I make my way continuing to blog about  the last few days of our trip!

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Sunday morning dawned bright and clear, making it hard to fathom that a cyclone was quickly bearing down on New Zealand.   Cyclone Pam had already decimated the island nation of Vanuatu and we were a tad nervous about what it might do to our plans for the remainder for our trip.   We knew it would be weakened by the time it potentially arrived and that the infrastructure of New Zealand was much more modern than that of Vanuatu, but still we worried about being in an unfamiliar area with potential power outages and roads flooding, etc.  

In the end, the cyclone turned out to be nothing to worry about, but at this stage we felt like we were racing against the clock.   We were still close to the east coast and wanted to be at our final destination, which happened to be much further west, before any of the storm hit.   We went to church in Rotorua and left right after sacrament meeting to be on our way.

We arrived to our next "hotel" and had to laugh when we arrived to a little visitor grazing on the roof.    

The inside was anything but fancy, but it was adequate for our needs, and the kids were quite taken with the cuteness of the  hobbit-ness of it all and the friendly donkey on the roof.   

The second night we were there, we ended up split into two different rooms….a hobbit room and a ship room (shown on the right below).   It was actually an old ship transplanted into the country and made into this fun and quirky hotel!   All in all, we were happy enough with our stay and it was nice to be so close to everything else we wanted to do on our trip.  

That Sunday afternoon after getting checked in, we took a drive and hiked to Marokopa Falls.   It wasn't a long hike from the road, but the kids amped up the difficulty by going off the trail and scampering over rocks and through mud to get to the base of the waterfall.

It was the biggest of all the waterfalls we saw in New Zealand...

and provided a perfect backdrop for lots of pictures! 

I love my silly kids!

After that we went on one more hike on the Ruakuri Bush Track.   This was a fun and funky hike that could have only taken about 1/2 hour, but there were so many cool natural features along the way, that we kept stopping to explore and/or take pictures.

 

There were boardwalks along cliffs, bridges...

small caves, rocks to scramble over... 

 

tropical vegetation that made us feel like we were in the jungle….

and even a good spot to rest the camera and use the timer to capture a picture of the whole family.    

It turned out to be a great Sabbath Day, taking the sacrament,  moving our bodies, and enjoying this little corner of God's beautiful earth!

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Day 5: Mudpots, Maoris, and Wallabies

Saturday, March 14:

By this point on our trip, our body clocks were pretty adjusted to New Zealand time, which meant the kids were taking advantage of being on vacation by staying up late into the night.  Because of that and the physically draining day we'd had the day before, we had a hard time dragging ourselves out of bed this particular morning.    If we'd been at home, we probably would have indulged in a lazy Saturday morning, but alas we were half-way across the world and the call of more New Zealand excitement proved too much to keep us in bed for too long!

Our first stop of the day was Skyline Rotorua Gondola and Luge!   Our GPS led us a little astray in getting there, so by the time we arrived the day's heat and the weekend crowds had already kicked in.

We enjoyed the fact that the gondola was large enough for our whole family….

so I could make sure that everyone had their sunscreen on...

and then ooh and ah over the lovely view together! 

After the gondola ride and the conversations about how much better we liked the view of Rotorua from a distance, we went on to the next part of our adventures….the luge! 

 

We had a grand time getting on our inner bobsled...

and ended the morning with tired arms, sweaty backs, and an appetite for ice cream!

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After a little rest and some nourishment, we headed to Whakarewarewa Viewpoint Track, which was essentially a moderately difficult hike partway up a mountain.   Along the way we passed boiling mudpots...

which the kids were obsessed with throwing rocks into, so they could see them swallowed up in the bubbling mud!

The view from the look-out was amazing and once again we marveled at how lovely the over-commercialized Rotorua looked from a distance.   We especially enjoyed being able to see some of the geothermal features...

including this erupting geyser that  people had to pay $30 to see up close. 

 Rotorua is situated over a hotspot in the earth's crust, much in the same way that Yellowstone National Park is.   There are geysers, mudpots, hot springs, and the smell of sulphur everywhere!  The main difference is that YNP was protected and made into a National Park for everyone to enjoy and Rotorua had a city built up around it.   Most of the main attractions are privately owned and require an entrance fee to see, so being able to see the erupting geyser from above was actually quite a treat!  

We also enjoyed the beautiful New Zealand forest we walked through along the way, including some more redwood trees!  The girls were enamored with the Kiwi wildflowers and enjoyed making little bouquets for themselves.  

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After that enjoyable hike we headed to Kuirau Park to relax a bit.  Kuirau Park is just a city park with walking trails, water features, and a big playground...

but since it's in Rotorua, it also had dangerous thermal areas within a stone's throw of the playground...

The pond there was unfenced, bubbling, and smelled of sulphur and we had to laugh at how different Yellowstone would have been if they had decided to commercialize it and turn it into a city instead of a national park.  

We enjoyed the leisurely pace (and the cooling weather) here and it allowed everyone the opportunity to unwind a bit. 

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Our last adventure of the day was the Tamaki Maori Village.   

It was a challenge getting there and buying our tickets, but after a whole lot of running around, a pitstop at an iSite tourist spot we eventually got squared away.   

The Tamaki Maori Village was a fun cross between the Polynesian Cultural Center in Hawaii and Medieval Times.   It was extremely commercialized (as was everything else about Rotorua), but  actually ended up being one of our favorite activities of the whole trip.  

Everyone was dressed head-to-toe in traditional Maori costume and we enjoyed the "stations" where we learned little tidbits about the Maori way of life.  

…including how to do the Haka!  (you can see Spence, Glen, and Adam if you look on the back row) 

Ellie got to try the poi ( a traditional Maori rhythmic activity)...

As always, Ellie loved meeting people and learning more about them.  

The Maoris only came to New Zealand about 800-years-ago, but in that relatively short amount of time developed some rich traditions...

After some more traditional Maori song and dance….

we enjoyed a hangi feast that came straight out of the ground.  

It really was an enjoyable experience and one we would highly recommend to someone spending time in the Rotorua region! 

Driving home from the Maori Village was the latest at night we ever drove while we were there, but it was also the coolest.   There were animals EVERYWHERE on the way home, including two wallabies which practically sent our car into hyperventilating excited hysterics.    We were convinced they were baby kangaroos until we got back to the cabin and looked it up.   It turns out that they were actually dama wallabies, which had been introduced to NZ from Australia and ironically only lived in the very immediate vicinity of where we happen to be!

We didn't get any pictures of the wallabies we saw, but this is the same species.

Seeing the wallabies was the perfect way to end another adventurous day in New Zealand! 

Day 4: Zipping through the Trees, Jumping into Canyons, and Some Redwood Trees

Friday, March 13

We spent Friday the 13th experiencing some of the best of the adrenaline and adventure that New Zealand has to offer!  

Make-a-Wish had arranged for us to start the day at the Rotorua Canopy Tours….an awesome zip lining tour through a native New Zealand forest!  

We had done an adventure ropes course last summer in Asheville, so really we weren't  nervous at all about zipping around in the trees 72-feet above the ground.  In fact, even Adam and Ellie happily jumped right in (or off the edge as the case may have it) without even a moment's hesitation.  

The ziplining itself was pretty exhilarating, but honestly I enjoyed the walking and the guides teaching us about the native New Zealand forest almost as much.

We learned a lot about the 500-year-old trees we were standing in and the danger to the unique forest ecology that small land mammals (like possums, stoats, rats, etc) were posing.   Because of the geographical isolation of NZ, ecologists estimate that up to 90% of native wildlife and plant life found there is endemic, meaning that it can be found only in New Zealand, and nowhere else in the world.

Being avid birdwatchers, we loved seeing the different variety of birds that resides on the other side of the world.    Being in the middle of the forest, we actually saw some pretty cool birds along the way (that the guides told us all about).   

All in all, other than the lack of bathroom facilities along the way, it was an enjoyable morning that we would happily repeat….at a course closer home or back in New Zealand.  :)

After zip lining was done, we drove about an hour south to beautiful Taupo, New Zealand to try what was one of Spencer's most anticipated activities of the whole trip….bungee jumping!    The first commercial  bungee jumping operation in the world was founded in New Zealand and Spencer latched onto this idea that bungee jumping was one of the quintessential items he needed to cross off his bucket list while we were there!  

Spence talked Cami, Emma, and Glen into joining him in his venture, but there was no way on earth Ellie, Adam, or I were going to have anything to do with it.     I think Adam potentially could have been talked into it after having watched everyone else do it safely, but by that time it was too late and     Ellie and I were perfectly content to watch from the sidelines, pet the resident cat, and ponder over the American vs. New Zealand way to spell bungee (or bungy)!

We had the option of a couple of different places to bungee jump, but ultimately picked Taupo Bungy based on the spectacular setting.  The scenery is classic New Zealand and absolutely gorgeous.  Poised 154-feet over the Waikato River, it was hard not to be enchanted by the beauty of this location! 

Spencer wasn't looking much at the scenery though,  was excited to get the jumping started!   He was really happy to be there and didn't even seem all that nervous beforehand.  He had hoped to be able to dip into the water a bit at the bottom, but because of the strength of bungee cords they had to use for his weight, he never did touch on either jump and you can hear his dismay at just missing it!

Cami volunteered to be the next one to take the plunge (literally and figuratively), but you can see in this video how incredibly nervous she was.   She missed touching the water in her first jump.

Emma went next and definitely had the best scream of the day!  I could hear her loud and clear even from across the ravine where I was standing with Ellie and Adam.  She was the only one to touch the water on both of her jumps.


Glen went last and was the one that got the best spin going.


Taupo Bungy (the New Zealand spelling) offered a significantly reduced rate for 2nd jumps, so Emma, Cami, and Spence all opted to try one more time.   Spencer's 2nd jump looks pretty much the same as his first jump.  Emma went off backward, did a lot less screaming in her second jump, but otherwise it is mostly the same.  Cami's 2nd jump, however, was pretty spectacular.   Not only did she barely look nervous, but she went off backwards, AND touched the water.    She's practically a bungee jumping expert now!

Here are some more crazy pictures of them….

After all that expenditure of adrenaline in one day, we needed somewhere a little more relaxing to finish off the day.  I had read in the guidebooks about some New Zealand redwood forests and found that there was one right on the way back to our lodging for the night.    We stopped there and were immediately taken in by the peacefulness and quiet beauty that lay there.  

The redwoods were planted in the 1800's by settlers who intended to use them for lumber, so they weren't quite as large or as grand as the behemoth redwoods in California that are thousands of years old, but they were breathtaking nonetheless. 

The wending path through the trees proved to be the ideal way to end an intense day...

…and sealed the deal for falling in love with this beautiful country!