rolling, rolling, rolling
You can do some crazy things in New Zealand. I’m travelling around on a Stray bus at the minute and they’ve been stopping off in some cool places. I spent the night in Raglan a couple of days ago which is the big surf beach on the north island, so obviously I had to hire a board and get out there! All the pros surf on a small piece of land surrounded by rocks, but thankfully there’s a nice long sandy beach for people who only have a vague grasp of what they’re doing. After being beaten up by the sea several dozen times I did actually manage to stand up on the board, which surprised me so much I fell off! Still, definite improvement - I’m sure I’ll get the hang of it all in California.
After that the Stray bus took me to the Waitomo caves where I saw lots of glow-worms on a sedate boat ride through the caves. I only did that to pass the time before going to the Shearing Shed at 12:45 to watch an angora rabbit being sheared! They strap the bunny into a kind of rotisserie device and then give it a US army haircut. They seem much happier once they’ve been defurred though, they’re just big ungainly balls of fluff beforehand. Anyway, it’s the only place in the world you can see a rabbit being sheared, so a must-see as far as I’m concerned!
I hopped off the bus in Rotorua so I’ve been here a couple of nights now. Rotorua lake is surrounded by geothermal activity, so the whole town smells of eggs. I’m still recovering from my cold though, so I can smell nothing - nice timing really. I went white water rafting yesterday down the highest commercially rafted waterfall in the world - a six metre drop! It was enormous fun, even when our raft capsized coming off the fall. Today I went zorbing, which is jumping inside an inflatable ball and then rolling down a hill. They threw some water in too so the whole experience was like being inside a washing machine. I’d been looking forward to trying this the whole trip and it wasn’t a disappointment! Fun, in a very stupid way. I did a swoop too - which is being winched up about 100ft and then dropped into a huge arcing swing. After that I got thrown around a water course in a jet boat. Like I say, you can do some crazy things over here!