THE RACHELEN PROJECT

Helen and I decided we would watch all three Lord of the Rings films before we visited Hobbiton to make sure we fully appreciated the visit. We made a good start on the 8 hour bus and paused our marathon an hour into the Twin Towers.

The first thing we noticed about Rotorua as we got off the bus was the stench; people aren't kidding when they warn you about it! The sulphur from the volcanic pools (Rotorua sits in the middle of a gigantic crater) gives off a distinctive rotten egg smell that hits you in waves when you least expect it. 

Our hostel was pretty good but we slept in four different rooms for our five nights there due to our weird inability to book more than one night at a time. We walked around the town of Rotorua I'm about ten minutes; there's not a lot to do in the place itself but it's a good base point for many nearby activities.

Tuesday was Helen's birthday! We'd met a girl in Waiheke from New York who we also met up with in Rotorua, and she came out to celebrate with us. After treating ourselves to an expensive brunch, we went to a park called Skyline where you can roll down a big hill on a marked track in a little "go kart", only it doesn't have pedals and you're powered purely by gravity. It's called luging and it's so much fun. I don't know what speeds we got up to but it felt fast; each ride lasted a couple of minutes and we got five rides each, plus a ride in a gondola and several ski lifts. Appropriately they were playing Eminem's Lose Yourself at the entrance so naturally we all got 'luge yourself' stuck in our heads.

We also did wine tasting at the top of the gondola ride. It's the only winery in the region, according to the lady that served us, but judging by the size of New Zealand that probably means within a 5 mile radius. The wines were great I'm sure but the best part was the view; we could see the crater that Rotorua sits in, as well as its impressive lake and the mountains surrounding the crater.

We had a few drinks in the hostel that evening and tried to find somewhere to go, but strangely all bars in Rotorua shut at around 11 (might have been to do with it being a Tuesday). Disheartened we were in bed by midnight, promising ourselves we'd have a repeat birthday night in Wellington.

The following day we went to see some volcanic craters and rock pools. It was the smelliest place I've ever been to and even my scarf couldn't mask it. The pools were cool to look at and some were bubbling at 100 degrees. Many were stained yellow from the sulphur. A mud pool had some mini geysers that bubbled and spurted with some gross sounding noises, but unfortunately we didn't get to see the daily big spurt. That evening Helen opted for a night in while Marlena, our American friend, and I went to the Polynesian Spa for a treat. There were four lake pools overlooking the large lake which looked spectacular in the moonlight. They were all naturally heated to about 40 degrees which was divine in the cold winter weather, although we both smelt of egg for the next few days. There was also a 'healing' pool for aches and muscle pain, and I don't know how psychological the effect is but I felt magical the next day. 

This was probably a good thing as we had a lot planned! First on our agenda wad Hobbiton. Marlena kindly offered to drive us around despite having never seen the Peter Jackson trilogy, but she found it interesting as an actor to see the movie site and hear about the runnings of the set. The set was beautiful; a lot of people warned us that they were disappointed after having been there, but I honestly don't know where that came from. There's a lot to be said for its attention to detail and the careful upkeep that goes into it! Each of the 44 hobbit holes has a different occupation behind it, for example the artist's hole has a little easel and palette set up out the front. Anyway I won't say too much else because I think everyone should go and visit. It was so interesting to see the familiar scenes in real life, learn about the forced perspective technique and enjoy a pint in the quaint Green Dragon pub.

After our tour ended we drove straight to Waitomo for a quick walk around the glow worm caves. We decided to do the dry tour due to our busy schedule and the cold weather, and this included a boat ride through the darkest part of the cave. There were millions of glow worms that actually shed some light on our faces and produced a cool reflection in the water. Glow worms have a life cycle split into four parts; the maggot stage is followed by the glow worm stage, where the hang around on the ceiling with a feeder line a bit like a spider Web to catch passing flies. Glow worms need a fly every four days to survive and it makes me wonder if the tour guides sometimes gave them some help. This stage lasts for about 9 months. After this the glow worms build a cocoon around themselves and emerge a couple of days later as something similar to a mosquito; however their mouths are so poorly designed that they starve after four days or get eaten by their fellow glow worms before their time is up. The boat ride was good and very quiet (we weren't allowed to make noise), and quite eerie. Definitely something worth doing in Waitomo.

We made it back to the hostel with one hour to spare before heading out for a traditional Maori dinner. Maori is the culture that existed, developed by Polynesian settlers 700 years ago, in New Zealand before it was 'discovered' by Europeans. We were picked up in a bus and driven to the village where we were greeted by a small tribe and given a quick tour of the village. The village warriors made their entrance on a war ship sailing down a small river, performing a traditional Haka, while we watched from either side. Following this there was a short performance in which the tribe members welcomed us, performed several traditional songs, introduced us to some musical instruments and exercises and finally demonstrated some of their weapons. They finished the performance with another Haka and we all shared a large buffet which had been cooked underground. It was a fun evening and, despite the heavy tourism element to the evening, it was really interesting to learn about certain aspects of Maori culture.