After I checked out I decided to visit my two German friends, who I met at the caravan parc. Isabel and Laura are from Bavaria and have wwoofed in a huge house in St. Helliers where they have to take care of cats. They stay  on the other side of the city and so I had to take buses I have never taken before. When I finally had arrived at the bus stop where they live, I couldn’t find any street names, and so I decided to hitchhike at about 8:30 pm. This time a nice old woman picked me up (her name was Sandra) and gave me a lift to the house of the girls. It wasn’t at all on her way, but she was happy to have somebody to talk to. When she dropped me in the driveway she gave me all her personal details and invited me to her house in St. Helliers whenever  I will come to Auckland again. I was very glad that I had got this lift from Sandra, said thank you and goodbye, and walked along to the house, where the girls were already waiting for me. We spent a really funny night playing all kinds of games, we played with dices, UNO and I enjoyed a fabulous dinner. I could print out all my tickets for my trip and had a nice place to stay over the night.

Today I got up at 5:30 am, had breakfast and caught the bus to downtown. After a 25- minutes-drive I arrived at the bus stop and realized the nakedbus to Rotorua was already  there. I checked in and we departed at 7:15 am. Four hours later I arrived in Rotorua.

After I had booked the tour to Te Puia and had checked in at my hostel, I met a nice Japanese girl called Ayli and told her about my plans. She wanted to join me and so we arranged the booking together. We started the tour by bus to Te Puia. Te Puia is a Maori cultural place with hot geysers, mudpools and Maori cultural perfomances. There, first of all, we went to see the Maori perfomance, which was due to start at 12:15 pm. It was really interesting to see the Haka, a traditional Maori dance to scare away their enemies,  different dances for the men and for the women.

Both of us, Ayli and me, took part in the different kinds of dances and the Maoris showed us and other tourists (most of them older than us), the dance moves. One dance position I definitely liked best, maybe you will find out which one it is in the pictures.^^

Dancing for 40 minutes was quite hard, and so we decided to walk to the Pohutu Geyser and the mudpools. Since I’ve never seen an active geyser before,  that was an exciting experience for me. It’s so impressive to watch this hot mixture of water and air splashing out of the earth. The blue pool had a really nice colour and a little waterfall was coming down to it.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The mudpools were also very impressive to see. But I was a little bit disappointed because I had expected to take a bath in them or go for a swim. :/  Unfortunately thas was not possible, or we missed the right ones, I don’t know.

 

For lunch we had Hangi (the traditional meal of the Maori). The meal was served in a handmade boule and the ingredients were pumpkin, sweet potatoe, chicken, pork, a special rice served with gravy and the typical Maori bread on top. It was really healthy and tasty,  but not enough for me, so I bought another pie and a muffin for dessert.

When we had finished I was full and we started to walk to the Kiwi station. That was quite dull because we just saw one kiwi and this one was sleeping. We waited really patiently and didn’t make any noises, but when a huge group of tourists appeared,  we just went off.

At the end of our Te Puia tour we took some beautiful photos with our guardian angels. Mine is the guardian angel of wisdom (April).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Back at the hostel I decided to go to the Polynesian Spa. It was just a few meters away from my hostel, and I chose the program “Lake Spa”. In the queue in front of the Spa I met a Swedish girl called Sarah. We spent almost the whole time of our stay together, had good conversations, enjoyed the different-temperatured pools (42-45°C) and took some beautiful photos.

 

 

 

 

 

In the end of my spa-stay I met a really cool family from California who invited me to stay with them when I come to California. I left my signature in the recommendation book of the spa and went home.  On my way back I realized, that my necklace has changed its colour. Now it looks more like an used “ old-travel-necklace” because of the hot pools. Actually in Te Puia, I had found out, that my necklace symbolizes the Hei Matau, a traditional Maori hookworm which signifies strength (Mana), prosperity and peace and harmony with all water elements. Blub^^