Rotorua/Taupo Road Trip with Luke

ROTORUA:

The plan was to get up early as possible to make our way down to Rotorua so that we could spend some time seeing things and doing stuff....haha only sleep got the better of us after having a late night. Force of habit maybe? Luke is always on at me about late I am up...(not my fault to talk to him I have to stay up late to catch him online and awake not to mention all his midnight prank calls he would make..!!). We arrive around 2ish I think in Rotorua - we stopped off at some Geothermal activity for Luke to take some  photos before we headed to the iSite to get information on how to get to our motel. Turns out it was in a different direction! We checked into our motel for the night and Luke decided he wanted to go out kayking on Lake Rotorua. The kaykas at the motel hadnt been used in a LONG time..they were covered in spiders and I was screaming my head off at them....I HATE spiders, I have a huge fear of them, and I refuse to kill them also, superstition about it being bad luck.

I havent been kayking since about 1999 when I was at camp, and I still remember that day I started to drift away from my class and out to see a bit...oops...I also have a slight fear of water and cant remember how to swimming fully - thankfully though Lake Rotorua is only about knee/waist high in depth. We went what seemed like half way out into the lake. It was so calm and peaceful....Luke had brought his camera with us so we took some photos of us in the kayka - there were a few self timer shots up on the little dingy/warf. Not an easy thing to do getting photos of us together when no one lese is around! Luke took heaps of photos of our Motel room, i love that we have the same sort of love of traveling and taking photos of just everything, the meals we eat, where we stay, of the roads and stuff.....NZ has alot of hills and grass and sheep and cows...but its such an awesome site to see away from the hussle and bussle of the CBD thats for sure. I love how clean it is in the country areas compared to the congestion and rubbish and tagging you can find in Auckland's CBD. It always saddens me seeing that. The traffic jams....ugh.

After our kayaking experience we drove to Hell's Gate for a mud pool experience and a look around the park. Luke kindly paid for me to go in, fortunately I came armed with as many discount vouchers are possible for activities as well as getting a good discount on the motel (love my corporate discount i get from working for a hotel!!). It was so amazing seeing all this geothermal activity, the smells, the temperatures and different effects it had on the earth - we even got to see the only hot water waterfal in NZ - after taking heaps of photos and a few videos, we ended the tour with a bit of carving. Luke finished his before me, I say he had an easier design, but for me it was a slight challenge due to being left handed. I kindaly asked for the guy who was leading it if he could stain our designs which he did - sadly due to MAF restrictions Luke wasnt able to take his carving with him, so I have kept it safe for him. It was an interesting expereince the mud bath, getting use to the tempuratures of both the muddy water and to the hot water - between each session you have to have a cold shower to climax your body again to its correct tempurature, they also only allow you to be in the mudbaths for a set time due to the temperature dangers. I must say my skin is feel so much better after this experience - a very expensive one but well worth it.

After Hell's Gate I let Luke drive back to the motel, where we got changed and then headed back into the centre of Rotorua, to have dinner - shocked at how everything was closed at 5pm...! We were torn between Thai and Indian for dinner, Luke loves his food spicey and I like mine mild, we both love Thai and Indian....and both restaurants were right next to each others. The Thai place was pretty busy and the Indian was well empty so I went to Indian purely based on there being no one there. We had really good service and the food was great, they asked us how hot we wanted our curries, we had an endless supplies of Poppadoms which I am now addicted too I think (instead of naan bread) - I love how after they brought our meals out that asked if they were to our liking, if they needed to be more hot/mild - mine was just perfect that was until i tried a bit of Luke's which was VERY hot, and well it was all over from then for my enjoying my dish..i ended up taking it as left overs as i couldnt finish it all, however I ended up not even finishing it all in the end. It sat in the backseat of the car from the moment we left the next morning to go to Taupo until we got back to Auckland!

We spent the rest of the night in the motel watching TV about Britians worse Serial Killer...

TAUPO:

We had to get up early to head off to Taupo as Luke had a bungy jump to do - I had a special voucher that allowed him to do it for a cheaper price but on the conditions it was carried out by 11am..! It took us about an hour to get from Rotorua to Taupo. We arrive JUST before 11am and Luke was allowed to his jump for the special price. He purchased the package that also gave him photos and a DVD of his jump. His heart was pounding while he was waiting on the plateform, and I was waiting near by taking photos - however just as I got my cameras set up to start filming he jumped and I missed out on most of the whole thing! As well as not being able to get photos of him jumping....I only managed to get him rebounding! I was so proud of him, however I chicken out of doing it - that and I couldnt afford it. We were going to do a a jet boat ride but just didnt have the time or money.

We went to Pizza Hut for lunch, and stopped off at a couple of shops to get some items, a T Shirt of NZ for Luke, and I got him some NZ Stickers for in his travel diary as a Number Plate sign that had his name on it (my cheese early 21st present for him) - and just before driving back to Auckland we stopped off at an internet cafe to check emails and update facebook. Luke was able to upload his video to YouTube and Photos to Facebook of his bungy jump while we were at the place itself.

I feel a little stink that I didnt get to show Luke more of Taupo let alone Rotorua there were so many things I wanted to show and do with him, however this is the difference between us - Luke is into Adrenline Adventure things, Sky Dives, Jet Boating, White Water Rafting, Bungy Jumping....me Im more of the nature historical person, I love going to museums and animals parks, and parks that show off just the natural beauty of areas. I really wanted to show Luke the Maori Culture while he was here. I wanted to take him to the Desert Road and up to Mt Ruapehu - however somewhere along the way I took a wrong turn....and wasnt able to get there...money was getting short for me, and gas was getting low in the car.

We ended up heading back to Auckland. I let Luke sleep for half of the drive back, and then he took over driving the other half as my knee was starting to play up.