Exam Holiday

Because Aaron has commented that New Zealand was looking all the same, I’ve decided to blog about the weekend before the study/reading week. Yup, you’re not reading this wrong, 8 of us (4 Singaporeans, 3 Hong Kongers and 1 Malaysian) went on a road trip in the face of impending examinations. :p

21st November 2007: Hamilton

With 2 cars and 4 drivers, we dropped off at Hamilton for a quick brunch at Scotts Epicurean Café, as recommended by Lonely Planet and Yan Choo.

Artistic decor and Chillout background music
Great coffee with sumptuous breakfast

Then it was off to the real destination, Rotorua.

21st November 2007: Rotorua

Of course, anyone who has been to this town would know that there is simply no other places similar in New Zealand. Having extremely active geothermal activities, the ground is incessantly spewing tonnes of sulfur into the air. Being locked and sealed in the car would not protect you from the pungent aroma.

After crashing into Crash Palace Backpackers, I, Ivan, Danny and Grace headed up Te Kauanga Bay where we came to close contact with some bubbly sights.

Rotorua LakeBubble bubble bubble

Seriously, it was like indulging in a pot of rotten eggs.

We continued wandering around aimlessly till we ended up at Energy Events Centre. Judging from the throngs of people entering the venue, we decided to kaypo a bit and join in the fun.

Lo and Behold, it was National Maid Festival in New Zealand!

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.

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Okay, I’m kidding, it was Balik Kasayahan, The National Filipino Festival.

The food we bought was damn good...

... but I still thought I was in Lucky Plaza.

Of course, all of that was not the main highlight of the day. It was Zorbing that truly made my day.

Zorbing is a recreational activity developed in the 1990s that consists of rolling downhill inside of a usually transparent, double-hulled sphere called a zorb, made from PVC. Zorbing originated in New Zealand as the brainchild of Dwane van der Sluis and Andrew Akers. In 1994 they conceived the idea of the spheres in Auckland, New Zealand, and invented the term zorb.

Yes, as many have commented, we looked like boys going for a soccer game.

We went for hydrozorbing, in which we entered this huge translucent beach ball which is filled with warm water, and then rolled down a hill. A 60 second ride for almost 50 bucks. Admittedly, it is expensive but the fun I derived from it was incomparable. I wouldn’t describe it as a thrill ride, but it answered my long time question on what it would feel like to be in a washing machine.

Of course, something shortly happened after I came out of the Zorb which I refuse to divulge. As that made me the joke of the gang for a long long long long long time…

After that, we went to Kuirau Park where we were treated to more sights and smells of sulfur goodness.

Man, every photo I take looks artistic even if it was really randomly shot.

This tree was really unexpected and kinda stole quite a bit of limelight for itself.
*Fast forward to next day*

22nd November 2007: Rotorua

The next day, we headed to the essential tourist trap, Wai-O-Tapu, Thermal Wonderland.

Devil's Ink Pot
Champagne Pool

Sacred Track

Primrose Terrace

Devil's BathDevil's HomeThunder Crater

Fanciful names with quite impressive colourful mineral-filled rocks. But time is not on my side now to blog about everything I saw in Wai-O-Tapu. (It's 1.03AM already!) Indeed, all the sulfuric sights were interesting, but we didn’t drive down for hours to just to witness geography in action.

The MAIN Highlight was Kaitiaki Adventures at Kaituna River, or white water rafting in a grade 5 river!

Rafting or whitewater rafting is a recreational activity utilizing a raft to navigate a river or other bodies of water. This is usually done on whitewater or different degrees of rough water, in order to thrill and excite the raft passengers.

After listening to so many people rave about white water rafting, I was finally going to experience it for myself. There are currently 5 grades or classes of white water, 1 being the safest and 5 being the most shiong. Anything higher than 5 is not commercially safe.

All geared up and ready!

We had some basic lessons and a couple of drills on how to conquer the rougher parts of the river, especially the notorious 7m waterfall.

Thankfully, we could prepare ourselves with two mini-falls before that. The first one was pretty successful with everyone still happy and cheering at the end.

The second was absolutely disastrous for a certain someone sitting at the back. Heh.

I personally found it tragic that the people seated in front were cheering like no tomorrow while someone was still drowning.
Heh.

Then came the mother of them all, the 7m waterfall.

Okay, it doesn’t look too intimidating from the picture but hey, it’s still bloody high by any standards.

The raft that I was in happened to be the last of the 3 rafts going down the waterfall, and out of the 2 rafts that went down, 1 had capsized. Because the guide had told me that the chance of capsizing was 1 in 5, I was pretty confident our raft would emerge triumphant and dry.

And this was how the raft fared...

As I slipped in between the two seats, with one hand hanging to the side of the paddle and raft and another clinging to the bottom of the raft, I felt my heart sink as I descended with the torrents of water. Any feeling of free fall was soon replaced by the inundation of cold water.

I couldn't breathe or see, so I waited and waited... and finally, when I could no longer feel water thundering down my neck. “It’s OVER!” I thought triumphantly.

Yeah right.

The raft began tilting precariously off balance.

I slipped off the raft and all my 5 senses were drowned by icy cold water.

Again, I waited. This time, for the buoyancy of the life vest to take me to above surface. Surprisingly, as I emerged, my left hand was magically clinging on to the side of the raft with my paddle.

With two taps on the raft, it was flipped over. With the help of my paddle, a guide from another boat manage to pull me to my raft as I manage to catch a another fellow victim of Kaituna River.

Despite the capsize, everyone was roaring for more action 10 minutes later.(Okay, 1.40am liao. Time for me to sleep... Zzzz...)