Road Trip to Rotorua

A group of us took a road trip South to Rotorua this weekend. We rented a car and booked accommodation at a hostel in the city for a night. Our first stop was to go lugging. If you're wondering what that is, check out the website: http://www.skylineskyrides.co.nz/rotorua/ssr_luge/

Not the safest activity, but it was definitely fun. You would never find anything like this in the States without some kind of lawsuit hanging around.

 These helmets were just about the only safety feature on the luge.

That afternoon, we booked an appointment to Hells Gate Mud Pools and got our mud on. I was looking forward to this for days. It was a bit pricey, but well worth the experience.









The only other downside was that we all smelled like sulfer for about two days. Imagine five people that smell like fart in one little hostel room... It was not pretty.

The next day we went to Paradise Valley Springs and got to pet seven month old lion cubs. I was surprised at how huge they were... Too big for us to get inside the cage with them unfortunately. There were two cubs, and we got to pet the male, which was the larger of the two. The fur was surprisingly very coarse.

Paradise Valley Springs also has a freshwater spring that you could drink from. Here is the mo'olelo attached to these sacred waters:

Centuries ago a curse was placed on Hinemoa, heroine of the Te Arawa legend Hinemoa and Tutanekai. It was placed before her birth, and long before the deeply in love Hinemoa defied her tribe and swam through the night across Lake Rotorua, into the arms of her forbidden lover Tutanekai.
A great Tohunga (priest) took Hinemoa to Te Waireka, the finest, purest spring, and drawing on ancient ceremony removed the curse. Blessed, Hinemoa lived on to create a Legend.

I had so much fun on this trip, but by far my most favorite part was getting to feed the wallabies. I've never seen wallabies before, and they were soooooo cute! Like miniature kangaroos with big rat tails. They were so quirky, I could have played with them all day. These little guys were actually really really soft. I wish I could have snuggled them all. No giraffes at this wildlife park, but we found some corrugated creations on the way home in Tirau. I had to stop to take a picture =)

All in all it was a great weekend spent with great people!
Thanks to my Norwegian roommie Marte for the pictures.