North Island

So we made it to the North. We decided to power straight on up to Rotorua. Another spectacular drive north, starting with a very windy scary one lane road, which remained so for 30km!!! Oh well, soon found straight 2 laned tarmac and powered on up, stopping for lunch en route.
We stopped at LAke Taupo on the way. There was a gold gimmick/game there, where you have to try and hit golf balls 150m onto a pontoon out in the lake. If you hit it and got a ball in on eof the holes, you can win a prize. Apparently someone does it at least once a week. Needless to say, none of us did! I struggled to even hit the ball!
We carried on up to Rotorua and found a camp site. We headed out to Tourist Info and booked ourselves onto a white water rafting trip and a cultural evening for the following day. It was raining quite hard as we came outside so we sheltered in a pub for a few drinks before going back to the campsite to cook food.
So the next day, Sunday, we got picked up by Raftabout and taken 30 minutes out of Rotorua to the Kaituna river. We got kitted up in wetsuits etc and taught all the necessary bits. We were in a smaller boat than in Queenstown, with 4 paying people and 2 guides in our boat.We were soon on the river, and I was soaking wet in under a minute, as Matt managed to push me out that quickly! Still was a lot warmer than the South Island so I didn't mind too much. We soon hit the rapids, and the special bit about this river was that we went over a 7m waterfall, the highest commercially rafted waterfall in the world! And it was sweet!!!! So much fun, and we all managed to stay in the boat too! We also tried a bit of river surfing, which basically involved the guides putting the front of the boat into the bottom bit of a rapid, which meant a lot of water came onto the front of the boat, absolutely soaking me and Anna at the front until we could barely breathe!!!
So that was awesome fun, and we had to get the photos to prove it!
Next up that day, we went zorbing. This basically involved getting into a big inflatable ball, filled up with warm water, and going downhill in it! So much more fun than we ever though it could be, and we all felt about 5 years old after! Wicked.
Had an afternoon relax before heading to our cultural evening. We arrived and then headed off into the forest. A war canoe arrived up the river with about 8 Maori men on it, all lit up with fire torches and chanting. They all got out and the chief got into the water, and we all then realised that all he was wearing was a cloth around his waist, which only covered his front half!!! He had an amazing Maori tattoo all around the tops of his legs up to his waist.
After that we saw the hangi, the food cooked underground which we were about to eat - chicken, lamd, sweet potatoes etc - so yummy! We also saw a show, which wa set up in an old style Maori village. They did alot of their traditional songs and dancing, and they all performed the Haka,. It was really quite scary and fascinating at the same time. We also went for a walk into the forest to look at ll the glow worms. Was a really good evening and so interesting to learn about the maori culture and language.
Got back to the campervan by 2030 and watched a DVD before going to bed.
OK will finish the rest later, much more to come!
Hope you are all well and looking forward to seeing you soon

Love Kylie x x x x x