We woke up at 735am to get ready...then we went to the isite at 8am to book a rented car...we managed to get a car from Budget Rental Car for the day...cost us NZD70.00 for the day...GPS another NZD12.00...when we went to collect the car, we were whooping with delight to find the car of the day was a grey Mazda 3X...we thought we'd be getting an old small car...hehe...Cam was the driver of the day...she was so excited to drive...
Our first stop was the Wai-O-Tapu Thermal Wonderland which was about 45 mins from Rotorua... we walked around the reserve, which reeked of hydrogen sulphide...but otherwise, the place was pretty amazing...it was all misty with yellow smoke escaping from fumaroles...there were craters which were named Devil's Home, Thunder Crater, Rainbow Crater, Birdnest Crater etc...there was a Champagne Pool...a Bridal Veil Falls...Primrose Terrace...a Devil's Bath which was a small lake containing a funky green colour water...the whole place was really colourful...mixture of yellow, orange, brown, green... unfortunately we were rushing for time to catch the Lady Knox Geyser which was erupting at 1015am...
So we didn't manage to walk the whole reserve...about 1005am we rushed to our car only to find the place where we parked our car was locked...shit!!! it was our fault really coz the place was the staff parking...hehe...good thing we managed to find the guy to unlock the gate...so we made it in time for the Lady Knox Geyser eruption...it was really cool...apparently some guy found out that you can induce a geyser eruption by dropping a bar of soap into the geyser...so the guy demonstrated to us by dropping a pack of surfactant into the geyser....about 2 minutes later, the geyser started erupting...and swoosh!!! the eruption went as high as about 30 metres i think...after that, we went to some mud pools...of course we didn't get any mud bath...coz the place was boiling...blub, blub, blub...
Next stop was Lake Taupo...which was about an hour's drive away...we reached there about lunch time...there was nothing much there except for the lake...unless you were doing all the extreme sports like bungy jumping...we were rushing to Waitomo which was about 2 hours drive...so we ta pau a Subway Pork Riblet foot-long sandwich to eat on the way...i shared with Jeanne coz Cam ate the ham and cheese sandwich i made for our breakfast...so we were kinda doing the amazing race drive when halfway through Jeanne popped the question: Are we on the right track?...and suddenly everyone paused...and doubt crept into everyone's mind...and so Cam actually stopped by the roadside to check the GPS...of course we were on the right track...so phew!!!
We reached Waitomo with just 10 minutes to spare for our tour at the Waitomo Cave...we stopped at the Long Black Cafe to ask where to meet for the Waitomo Cave tour...took a toilet break there coz i had been holding my bladder for the past 2 hours...then we drove a bit further down the road and made it just in time for our 220pm tour...the tour took about 45 minutes...and our guide showed us the stalactites and stalacmites with odd designs...the highlight was when we went for a boat ride in the cave and saw thousands of glow worms on the cave ceiling...they were like stars in the sky.... really amazing!!!
Then we drove back to the Long Black Cafe to wait for our pick-up to Ruakuri Cave...our guide's name was Lucas, who was probably a Maori mixed Kiwi...he told us Ruakuri means 'two dogs'... Cam and Jeanne had the hots for him...kept calling him 'leng chai, leng chai, leng chai'...hehe...he had too much beard for my liking...the cave was cool (and freaking cold)...we had to walk down a spiral landing to get to the entrance of the cave...and the entrance to the cave is a futuristic, space-ship like hallway...we saw more glow worms...and more upclose too..and this time we could take photos of them...and we even saw the actual look of a glow worm...it wasn't too pretty...after about 2 hours walk in the cave, it was time to go...Lucas told us earlier that the acoustic at the spiral landing was great...so as we were walking up, at Jeanne's request, i sang "Wonderful Tonight"...really, the acoustic was great...it actually made me sound good...there was another elderly Caucasian couple with us on the tour...and the guy actually commented that "he felt like he was in heaven"...hahaha, i'm not going to read too much into it and will just take it as a compliment...
It was dinner time...so we stopped by at McDonald's before we started our drive back to Rotorua... i had a bacon and BBQ burger...they didn't have chilli sauce so we had honey mustard sauce instead...which was quite yummy...Jeanne drove the way back...at one T-junction, the GPS didn't show the way to turn and we kinda panicked a while...but we managed to reach Rotorua without getting lost despite the GPS bringing us through small roads...we went back to the YHA and bathed...Jeanne was staying another night at Rotorua before going back to Auckland...she stayed in a 4-bedded dorm...there were 2 Japanese girls and another black girl from London whose name was Naomi...
We found out that she had been travelling in Australia and NZ since November 2009...she even shared about how she got conned by a MoneyGram scam...she would be visiting Malaysia before going back to London...ahh...how nice...i wish i could be travelling that long...Cam and i drove the car back to the car rental place and dropped the keys...then we waited for our InterCity bus from Rotorua to Wellington which was scheduled to leave at 1125pm...the bus was actually late...so we went to a nearby backpacker to use the toilet before we boarded the bus...there was another guy waiting for the bus as well and he actually asked us if he missed the bus...like we would know... anyway, the bus ride was quite a horrible one as we hardly slept at all coz the seat couldn't fully recline and it was cold...but we made it to Wellington anyhow...
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