Raglan to Rotorua

The big stop of the day was the Waitomo cave which after trying to save money and not do a tour we were talked into do the Spellbound tour by Veno, only to then find that there were not enough places and we had to spend the day doing free stuff anyway.

So Veno kindly set about entertaining the six of us with nothing to do. Our first stop was The Sheering Factory and no it was nothing to do with sheep, they were sheering angora rabbits. It was quite a sight as they stretched out the rabbits with bungies (this wasn't as cruel as it sounds, it stretched the rabbits wrinkly skin to stop it getting cut during the sheering), then turned them rotisserie style as they sheered off their fur.

They had glove puppets in the shop made from really possum skin (possums are a pest in NZ and cause a lot of damage) and the owner was walking around pretending one was alive and she made Samantha jump when she went to stroke it.

We were then taken on a walk nature walk to explore some of the caves open to the public which was supposed to only take 20 minutes but we stop at a cool, quiet spot by a rope suspension bridge and ended up chatting for about an hour.

It was then time to head to Rotorua or Rottenua which is a more appropriate name as there is a strong sulphate dioxide smell in the air from volcanic gases venting in the area.

On the way to Rotorua Veno decide because it was such a nice day we would stop at a waterhole for a quick swim. He said the water was a little cold so only half a dosen people went in (including me). I was a little reluctant at first as first few made out it was really cold but when Veno started offering free beer I was straight in but f@#k me (censored version - Oh my) it was so cold I nearly died of shock.

Veno then raced the bus around Rotorua on a whistle stop tour of sight. We then dropped off at our hostel where we found voucher for Dominos pizza (usually we would cook for ourself but pizza in NZ is so cheap at $6.90 or £2.50 for an almost large pizza).

We finished the day with a heavy night in the lava bar where pretty much the whole bus got hammered (including Veno cause the bus didn't depart till 1pm the next day).