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BRACE YOURSELVES
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On this "3-part-post" you are going to see what a
simple idea, nice people, 3 cars and some cash can make when you put
them together.
First, everything started when it was suggested in our Whatsapp group that we should go on a trip. The first place that everyone wanted to go
was Taupo - a beautiful city that I`ll describe for you later. But since we have
got the entire weekend for ourselves we planed to see also another two places,
Rotorua and Coromandel.
The scheduled was to go out around 4 am of
Saturday and drive straight to Taupo. When it was about 7 pm of Friday one our friends from Brazil, Leo, arrived earlier at the YMCA - where I`m
staying, not permanently - so everyone got down at the Ground Floor just to
chat some. There the first surprise happened. Outside, where his rented car was parked, a
truck was getting really close to it, and when we felt that it had touched the car we stepped outside to talk with the person who was driving the truck so he could explain himself. For our surprise, he was actually an officer. He was about to squeal the car!! We tried our best to explain
the situation - the fact that we did not know that there was a parking meter on the
corner, very well hidden by the way. - but no vocabulary that could work, nor a "Brasil Way" that could save us, we had to pay NZD $100 dollars to
release the car.
After that, with everything set up, all the 15 people of the trip got
it into the YMCA. We told them about this brief history. Around 4:30am
we've departed.
To go to Taupo from Auckland its a trip of almost 290 Km,
and since it was raining - a lot - on the way, we spent 3:30 hours to get there - more than expected. The rain actually compromised almost everything that we could
do in Taupo, and it was very cold - like freezing - so at the end we just
looked at two people doing the Bungee Jumping - we will come back on that
later.
To don`t lose the trip, we changed the program, so first
we went to Rotorua, because it was sunny over there, and we had plans to visit Maori Village around 2pm.
ROTORUA
From Taupo all way to Rotorua, it took us only one hour. So by 9am we
were there, with nothing to do until 14pm. We started to explore the city, and
I would like to say it is a very beautiful one, very green, with Geothermic
activity everywhere. You can see the steam coming from behind some places. But,
it smells like Eggs our something - it didn't smelled good - because
of the sulfur that exists on the thermal pools vapour.
The kart goes like this: you go all way up on this hill by cable car, where on the top you can
see Rotorua city - and the lake!. To go down you a ride a Kart that seriously
goes 30 km/h or more in some parts of the track.
We paid for 3 rides on the Kart, in two different tracks. In the very first one, I hit the wall 3 times. It was shameful, four kids pass me on the
way down. Really, a shame. I didn`t understand how to ride that thing. But in
the second one, I got it, and also didn`t crash, on the third I was like a
professional and even pass three or four friends of mine.
ROTORUA: MAORI VILLAGE
TEWHAKAREWAREWATANGAOTEOPETAUAAWAHIAO
That is the name of the Village. Actually, this name is the second bigger word in the Maori language. Just before we went through, our guide explained it to us a little of the history of the place, the names of important people that have founded or lived once there. - I`ll make my best to go there and get again this information, the names for example!.
Above is the entrance of the Maori Village and just next to it there is a bridge that shows to be very important. You see, back in time there was nothing there, so to lead the tourist into the Village they have to carry them on their backs. The firsts Britain tourist actually threw coins in the river that crosses under the bridge and then Maori children collected them. Some real money was raised this way, so much that they afforded a bridge!
As I said before, Rotorua is located on a place with geothermal activity. Also inside the village, there were thermal pools that the Maori use to cook their food. Some of them are directly connected with the tectonic plates. For example, the second pool that he - the guide - showed to us it`s often changing its volume of water. Once, when a devastating earthquake happened in a place far away from New Zealand but stills in the Fire Ring, the water on that pool became very shallow.
You can see how they look:
Moving on, and as our guide explained a lot about the Maori`s culture - to speak more I have to visit that place again - we walked through all the village. There are three more things that are important to show, one is where they cook their food, another is where they make the ceremonies including graving and the last is the Geyser point, where you can see the full geothermal activity of the place:
By the end of the tour our guide made himself a performance
of a Maori song - a love song that the British have for Romeo and Juliet.
I didn`t get the name, though.
At night, we stayed at Hot Spot “something” Hostel that was
close to Lava`s bar. I did not think it was important to get the name, but if
you are reading this post and you pretend to travel to Rotorua in a large group
with your friends I recommend you search for this one.
--------------------------------- OUR TRIP CONTINUES IN THE NEXT PART -----------------------------
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