Rotorua ... what a smelly place :)

Tuesday we caught the bus at 7:30am (another early morning) and headed towards Rotorua. We stopped off at an active gold/silver mine. I have never seen one and it was so incredibly deep and took up land as far as the eye can see!










En-route to Rotorua, we also stopped at the Karangahake Scenic Reserve to look at a gorge and to walk the "windows" trail. The cool part was the old railway tunnels that we walked through. It was so funny because at one point we got separated from the group and had to walk through this pitch black tunnel about 50 m long and we got about 3 steps into it and I chickened out. Meagan forced me go back in and offered to lead us... and she just kept saying "look, follow that little light at the end of the tunnel..." We finally figured out it was a flashlight and we called out to the person carrying it towards us and then the light went off! We just started screaming and ran back out the way we came! haha I was so scared that I even cried a little bit! Turns out, it was our bus driver trying to scare us! It worked. He gave us a little tour of a few of the old tunnels with his flashlight.

I carried Meagan on my back to protect her boots!

Afterward, we stopped in Mata Mata, where Hobbiton was in Lord of the Rings.

Then, we stayed in "Hot Rocks" hostel which was not so nice... but we spent most of the night at Tamaki, a total immersion in Maori culture through a re-creation of traditional villages from the 1600s.

A chief was chosen from our "waka" (canoe/bus) and we had to chant "hee" in response to "Te Waka" and then paddle! How cheesy, but fun :) Then, a traditional war dance was performed by the Maori's about 2 feet from the "chiefs" which was quite intimidating. The warriors were painted up and stuck their tongues out and made their eyes wide and grunted.

We were invited back to the "Marae," (meeting place) where we watched the Maori perform customary dances, skills, and songs. They cooked us a feast of traditionally prepared Hangi (cooked underground on hot rocks) including sweet potato, stuffing, chicken, lamb, etc. It seemed a lot like a Thanksgiving meal back home.