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Hamilton - Waitomo - Rotorua

We awoke early in the morning (yawn!), packed and checked out of the hotel (saw a hot-air balloon floating in the distant mountains!) as we had a full day ahead of us. We’d originally planned to reach Waitomo Caves by 9am to catch the Glowworm Tour at 9.30am, but we ended up just missed the 9.30am tour cause I was rainbow chasing (unsuccessfully!). Since we were already late, we took the opportunity to stop by a small town to buy breakfast (ham and tomato sandwich for me, roast pork sandwich + brownies + cream donuts for hubby) as well…hehe…=)

The Glowworm Caves is situated about 5 minutes from the main office (you have to purchase the tix from the main office, then drive further down to the caves), and it’s a steep but mercifully short climb from the car park to the cave entrance. The tour takes about 45 minutes where you are taken into the caves by a guide who will explain to you about the cave history, etc. Because it was all enclosed and rather dark, I did feel quite claustrophobic even though I don’t usually fear small and enclosed spaces. Anyways, the tour ended with a VERY SHORT boat ride where you can see the glowworms…urm…glowing…in the dark. I know I’ll probably get shot for saying this, but frankly, I felt that the tour wasn’t worth the admission price. NZ$30 ok?!? Don’t pray pray. I personally found it neither awe-inspiring nor breathtaking. Sure, it’s old, it’s a hole in the ground, and the glowworm glows. I suppose I’m just not a nature-type of person, plus, I hate insects. Anyways, maybe it’s just one of those things you have to do in NZ…but I wouldn’t go back again. Oh yeah, I didn’t dare to open my mouth while staring up at the glowworms lest I swallow one…*grin*

On the way back out to the highway, we made a quick stop at the Shearing Shed…rabbit, not sheep shearing, that is! Now, THAT was worth going…and it’s free!

And even though the rabbit shearing demo was scheduled later at 12.45pm, there were enough people there for them to put on an impromptu demo…yayy! But first, the rabbits. The Shearing Shed is the only place in the world where angora rabbits are shorn for their fine hair. The rabbits are HUGE and they are especially bred for their fine and soft fur (it grows back in about three months, so don’t worry, the rabbits don’t freeze to death in winter!). I got to pat one, and mannnn….the fur was super duper soft. But the way they were sheared was hilarious. Firstly, the rabbit’s paws are trussed up so that the rabbit won’t struggle during the shearing process (think of a horizontal kebab…hehe…). Then, the shearing begins. And trust me, they get sheared everywhere! What’s left of their fur after the shearing process is not much, but at least they don’t shear them all the way down to their sensitive skin. Anyways, the poor rabbit looked so pissed off…I still laugh when I see the pics hubby took.

From Waitomo, we backtracked to Cambridge and took a turn off highway 3 towards Rotorua. We stopped at Tirau for lunch where I had a huge hamburger…beef somemore (I haven’t eaten beef for more than 10 years)! Hubby had McCain potato wedges which were really nice. Took some photos of the iSite office there…it was situated in a building made to look like a sheep and a dog…so cute! The weather at Tirau was bright and sunny when we arrived, but by the time we finished lunch, dark clouds were rolling in!

We also made a quick stop at the Agrodome which is situated about 15-20 minutes from Rotorua. Before the trip, I’d found the Agrodome website and decided that we were going to try Zorbing! Yes, that see-through ball thingy where you squeeze yourself in and roll down a gently-inclined hill. Unfortunately, they didn’t have the Dry Zorb, and since we didn’t fancy getting wet in the cold weather, we had to give it a miss…=(

They say that you can tell when you’ve reached Rotorua…just sniff the air. And yup…sulfur, alright!! Ewww….!! Luckily, the hotel we stayed in had good air circulation even though it was situated right next to Lake Rotorua…no rotten eggs smell at all. Phew! After checking in, we drove to Whakarewarewa, a Maori Thermal Village, where we joined the short tour around the village. We were shown their thermal pools, a nearby geyser, the tombs, bathing and cooking areas and their ancestral meeting house. They still cook their meals in the ground, and you’ll be amazed at how warm the ground temperature is…I sat on the ground and I could feel the heat through my jeans! Pretty nice, actually, during winter. Can’t imagine walking barefoot during summer though…=)

We’d originally planned to attend the Maori performance and Hangi dinner at our hotel, but it was fully booked! Luckily, the lady at the reception found us another hotel that had a similar performance, so we decided to go there instead as it was less than 5 minutes away. The Maori performance started in the lobby of the hotel where the guests were invited to go into the cultural theatre built specially for this performance. While the performance was interesting, with lots of singing and dancing, and also audience participation where some of the men were taught the haka, I can’t say the same thing for the dinner. The food was bland and tasteless with very little variety. The desserts were not much better. Oh well, that’s two nights in a row of not-so-nice food.

Back at the hotel, we watched another ’show’ where a couple of (probably drunk) Taiwanese men made a huge ruckus right outside our room. They were yelling and shouting and slamming doors…what’s worse, they were smoking on a non-smoking floor! At one point, one gwai-mui shouted from her room, asking them to “effing shut up”…but to no avail. We were equally fed-up as we were trying to get a good night’s rest, and I was prepared to call the hotel manager, but someone else beat me to it. From the peephole, hubby saw the hotel manager go into their room only to be ignored! Finally, he just left and shut their door. At least that helped, abit. But five minutes after the hotel manager left, they started up again. That was when I shouted from our room to ask them to shut up…well, ok, I actually said ’shut the eff up’ as well…*grin* We also ended up stuffing towels at the bottom of the door to prevent the ciggie smoke from wafting in. Talking about literally being in hell that night…hehe…complete with the smell too! =P

PS: Check out our photos here!