However, that does mean that it hosts some pretty dramatic "living villages" and Maori cultural shows, which we struck out for our first night by bus. Once there, we were greeted by the fearsome warriors, and then welcomed into the little village. It was all a little hokey, but all still incredibly entertaining.
We were then treated to a hangi, which is essentially food cooked in the ground, or dirt food, which was cooked in the traditional manner, including rubber-gloved chefs to dig it out of the pit.
It did come out tasting a lot like smoked chicken, which is not my favorite, but it had a really earthy flavor to it. The presence of giant green cocktails didn't hurt either.
The next day we went Zorbing, which, for those of you who don't know, is a completely ridiculous Kiwi-invented activity that involves rolling down a hill in what is essentially a double-chambered hamster ball. I was dubious, but it was surprisingly fun. You enter and exit through a little navel-like hole, and at the end it feels like coming out of a birth canal or something. It was pretty bizarre.
That afternoon, I got a crash course (but not literally) in both car rental and driving on the wrong side of the road, and we set out for Waitomo. The drive was incredibly scenic and green, and my main difficulty was in looking for a clutch that wasn't there. The left-side of the road thing surprisingly wasn't much of a problem.
Waitomo, for all the hype, was pretty much a one street town (if that), with a pub, a store, two hostels, and apparently no houses. This is, of course, because all there is to see in Waitomo is underground. We went black water rafting through the caves, and it was an incredible experience. They kitted us out with wetsuits and headlamps, and then drove us to a little hole in the ground to climb down. Riding an inner tube off a waterfall 65m underground was unreal, and the caves were gently lit by a star-studded sealing of glowworms (which are actually maggots). Seeing as it was a fairly rough and dark adventure, I don't have any pictures, but it was amazing.
The next day, we headed back to Rotorua to catch our various busses. We stopped at the "Kiwi House" on the way, which was a bird sanctuary. Kiwis are nocturnal, so I don't have any pictures, but it was amazing to see them running around in a night room. They're like big footballs on little, muscular stilts.
The boys also found some weta molts, which they thought were hilarious. Wetas are giant crickets, and the heaviest insects in the world. These were from some of their smaller cousins.
The last day, we split up and I headed to Wai-o-Tapu to see the geysers, which were alien and wonderful, and had some interesting vegetation around them too.
Finally, I took the intercity bus back to Auckland, and succumbed to a nasty cold.
