Feb 10

Saturday, February 10

I fell asleep with the blinds left intentionally open so that when the sun came up I could look out across the lake and see the two volcanoes in the distance. Around 6:30 am, the sky was clear and I could see the volcanoes clearly without any clouds around them. I tried to get Josh to wake up and take a look since the clouds would roll in later in the day, but he would not budge. Of course, I couldn't take a picture of the volcanoes because of the dead/charging batteries. Curses.
I went back to sleep unil 9 or so and then made my breakfast for one (because Josh was still sleeping) to have out on the patio. Toast, yogurt, fruit, cereal, orange juice...pretty good stuff. I even got ambitious and tried to make coffee rather than going for my usual hot tea. Mistake. Is coffee supposed to be gritty? Down the drain with that stuff.

Josh joined me on the patio as I was finishing breakfast. He ended up eating leftover KFC...now that's a hearty breakfast! Josh called the Zorb place to see if we needed a reservation before we drove 2 hours round-trip. Nope, just show up. Then, I started getting nervous. What if zorbing made me feel sick-I didn't want to pay money for that. Maybe we should do this some other time. But Josh wasn't having any of that. We called about getting massages on Sunday but all the places were closed (as is typical of a lot of shops in New Zealand on Sunday).

On the road again...this time we were wearing our bathing suits so we wouldn't have to change when we reached Rotorua. You can do a wet zorb or a harness zorb (strapped in inside the ball). We were going for the wet zorb! First, we had to stop for gas and buy batteries. If only Josh would follow the rules on the pump, getting gas would be a lot faster.

Gas is expensive-$1.43 NZD per liter and there are 4.6 liters in a gallon and the current exchange rate is 1 NZD = 0.682896 USD -Can someone else do the math? That's $4.49 USD/gallon if my math is right (and it's probably not). So, basically double what we were paying in the states. YIKES!!! Uh, maybe fewer road trips in our future! But, we were going to Rotorua.

When we paid for the batteries and bottles of water inside the gas station, the young store clerk asked us if we were American. We said yeah, we're from Arkansas. He asked if that was by California. Interestingly enough, Hurricane Katrina has helped us put Arkansas on the map when we speak to people. We'll usually say Arkansas is by Texas but if that doesn't work we'll say it's north of where Hurricane Katrina hit. While New Orleans isn't technically close to Fayetteville, it's a lot closer than California!

We made the drive to Rotorua passing lots of geothermal places and touristy sites like Puzzle World, mini golf, and mazes. We made it to Rotorua without any problems (it was only when I came back from the weekend trip that I learned that Rotorua has the 2nd worst gang problem in New Zealand after Auckland...apparently two of the gangs are named the Mongrel Mob and Black Power). It seemed like a nice town to visit and the Zorb place was right outside of the city.
When we drove up, I was definitely nervous but we were going to do this. We walked inside the building and it was a bit chaotic. A sign on the wall listed prices ($30 NZD/person-we had a 10% off discount coupon in our brochure too), people were walking around in their bathing suits, it wasn't clear how you signed up or paid but we figured it out. The girl who took our money had clearly done this before because she spoke a mile a minute, told us to read a waiver of our rights if we were injured, and stamped our hands to indicate we had paid.

Josh and I were going to do the zorb together but the weight limit was 250 kilograms. We were like, do we weigh more than that? Turns out, an easy way (though slightly off numbers-wise) to convert pounds to kilograms is to take your weight in pounds and half it to get kilograms. Done. We were safe to go together.

When you go to zorb, you have to leave everything behind in a plastic bin (glasses, camera, clothes, shoes, etc.). A safety nightmare but what are you going to do? We left the camera in the car but still had our wallet/credit cards in the backpack we were carrying. Next, we waited in a short line to catch a white truck up to the top of the hill that we were going to zorb down. The guy driving the truck was crazy fast taking us up the hill...BUMP, JOLT...vomit!

Surviving the winding ride up to the top, made the zorb seem like a piece of cake. Josh and I let two other couples go before us to see what happened. Basically, there is an enter/exit hole in the zorb that you jump into to get inside the ball. I got stuck trying to jump head first into it. Once you're inside, the worker guy zips up the window you just climbed in through with a plastic cover. The inside of the zorb is humid, slightly claustrophobia-inducing, and more or less terrifying. Each time someone gets into the zorb they fill it with fresh water.

Then, it's time to go down! The worker guy will hit the zorb on the outside to signal to you that you need to push the zorb down the hill (usually by standing up inside). Once you start rolling, it's anyone's guess on how you're going to flip and flop around inside. When Josh and I rode together, I screamed the entire way down because I was afraid with our extra weight we were going to roll off course or hit a fence at the end of the ride or something. You can't really see out of the plastic.

We made it safely to the bottom, however, and there was a worker there to take our picture. I hate when tourist sites take your picture...I had a bad experience at the Empire State Building in 2004-I did not want to have my picture taken and I kinda got in an argument with an employee! (Although this time we did end up buying the cd of prints).

Josh and I decided that we couldn't go down just once after coming all the way out here, so we paid to go down in the zorb a second time. This time, Josh and I would go down separately. I would go down the straight path and Josh was going to take the zig zag path down. Up the hill in the white truck, this time the driver wasn't on a death mission and drove a lot slower.
We let a group of pre-teen guys go down 2 zorbs with three guys in each. Then, our turn. I got stuck a second time trying to get into my zorb. It wasn't quite so terrifying the second time because I knew what to expect. The ride is definitely FUN and everyone should try it. I got to see Josh go down the zig zag path. Josh said you go slower on the zig zag but you catch more air time when you make the turns.

After our rides, we dried off and bought the cd of pictures after looking at them. Josh almost didn't want to get them, but I reminded him of the time we didn't buy the cd of pictures from our snorkel tour of the Great Barrier Reef which in hindsight we should have bought.

Driving back into Rotorua, we bought a McDonald's lunch from the largest, nicest looking McDonald's we'd ever seen. It looked like a house/lodge you'd see in the Australian outback. Good food but I forgot to get my cheeseburgers with only meat and cheese...gross pickles...but Josh ate those. On the way back to Taupo, we drove out to two different geothermal spots. The first place wanted $28 NZD/person to take a walking tour of their different sites and the second place wanted $25 NZD/person. Basically, their hot spring pools look like those in Yellowstone so we were in agreement that it was a lot of money to go on a nature walk to see things we've seen before in the states (used the free bathrooms though). We'd rather spend our money on things we couldn't do at home (like the zorb and the jet boat).

Except, in actuality, you CAN zorb in the states. Or, you will be able to at some point. According to one of the Zorb staff members, they're building a course in Tennessee (and here I thought I was being special) but Rotorua has the only zorb in New Zealand.

Anyway, we did look at the boiling mud pools which were free to view. The hot, gray mud looked so tempting to touch. The texture was so smooth and you could imagine how relaxing it might be to put on your skin (if it didn't burn your flesh off first). We then drove on to the Aratiatia Dam where, by a fluke of fate, we made it just at the right time (4 pm) to see the opening of the dam. We even got front row parking right next to the bridge-weird! It was very cool to see the water level quickly rising to cover the rocks below.

Next, we drove down the road to the jet boat place but they had closed for the day. Maybe we'd do that tomorrow. For now, it was back to the apartment to enjoy that more. The maid had restocked our breakfast supplies so we were set for the following morning. Onto the plunge pool!

This time, we set up the laptop to listen to some Kelly Clarkson and David Gray while we enjoyed the lake view from the plunge pool. Drinks in hand, we were living the life. It just goes to show that you can never count yourself out from having a certain experience in your life. I mean, I never thought I'd been sitting in a million + dollar place watching sail boats go by on the lake, but here I was. The thing is, that if this type of lifestyle becomes common, not to ever take it for granted. We certainly appreciated having this experience!

Josh and I planned to go out for dinner tonight. By the time we were ready to go out, it was 9 pm. The first place we went to was an Irish place. The girl at the counter said they were still serving dinner, however, after we paid at the bar, she found us at our table and said the kitchen was closed and that she'd give us cash back for our food purchase. Josh had bought a beer already, so we sat and people watched while he drank that.

We went next door to a place called the Shed. The outside dining area was crowded (and Josh noted the smokers) so we got a seat in the back corner of the restaurant inside. It was quiet and we had it to ourselves. It looked promising...for awhile. However, once the food arrived, it started going down hill.

My sirloin steak was impossibly tough. I couldn't even cut it myself! and the mashed potatoes were cold. Josh had to cut my steak for me. His ribs weren't any better. He said they were just the bone...no meat! Although they were piled about 20 high, there was nothing to eat. Then, a loud group was seated next to us. Then, the bar music cranked up so loud that by the end of our dinner I had to shout to "talk" to Josh. Get me out of here.

Well, that wasn't the kind of dinner I was hoping to have by going out to eat in town. At least that was the only disappointment of the weekend. Back to the apartment, (after grabbing McDonald's ice cream...we should buy stock in this company). I put some laundry in because getting to use the dryer here wouldn't cost anything. The same thing with washing dishes in the dishwasher...I might as well use it while I had it! Josh and I fell asleep on the couch watching a cricket game on tv in the living room.