Taupo and Rotorua: Part One

We had our third (and final) Loyola-sponsored trip this weekend. Essentially, we went on a four day trip to Lake Taupo and Lake Rotorua and didn’t have to spend any of our own money – so you can guess that it was a pretty good time! So good, in fact, that I am going to split this up into two posts. Here goes part one!

Bright and early Thursday morning, we all met in the lobby of Empire to board our coach bus. We met Linda (the very masculine bus driver who takes her job and her bus extremely seriously) and Susanna (the 60-something year old woman who was to be our coordinator for this trip of 35 college students). So right from the start, the stage was set for an interesting trip! We set out on our way towards Taupo, stopping along the way in Waitomo to visit glowworm caves. (These caves were in the same town as where I went caving about a month ago.) We were supposed to be able to take a boat ride in the dark to view the glowworms, but unfortunately, the water levels were too high. So basically, we just took a walking tour through the cave which, I have to admit, wasn’t really all that exciting. Afterwards, we went to a café where we had the first of the many buffet meals on this trip.

The glowworm caves were the only attraction of Day 1. We just continued on to our hotel and checked in. No, I did not forget the “s” in “hostel” – I really did mean to say “hotel.” Loyola put us up in hotels for the weekend, which was an absolutely wonderful treat!

Before dinner, we took a walk down by the lake:

We were given a sit-down dinner this first night, and it turned out to be delicious. The starter was tomato soup, which was creamy and reminded me of vodka sauce. Then, we had the choice of pork, chicken or fish. After much debate, I decided to order the pork. (And I’m serious about the debate part – the people at my table can attest to the fact that choosing my main course was an agonizing decision for me!) In the end though, I was very happy with my choice. The pork was served in a marsala-type sauce over mushrooms and kumara, which is similar to sweet potatoes. I thoroughly enjoyed it! For dessert, we had the choice of blueberry cheesecake or lemon-lime tart. This time, I made the wrong decision, choosing the cheesecake over the tart - but I still got to taste both! After dinner, we all hung out in one hotel room, until Linda came over and told us that we were being too loud. So we decided to walk the 45 minutes into town - far, I know but hey, you only live once!

The next morning, we got up for breakfast and then headed for a ride on the Huka Jet. (Note: this is the first of several occasions on this trip where we eat a meal before doing something rather active!) The Huka Jet was a half-hour ride on a specially designed boat that travels at a speed of 75-80 km/hour and does 360 degree spins. The boat goes along a river warmed by geothermal activity and travels to the base of Huka Falls, an impressive waterfall. Enough water comes over the falls to fill an Olympic sized pool every 3-4 seconds! The spins on the boat were pretty fun and you got a little wet – but it didn’t really matter because the water was warm! After the ride, we then got back on the bus and drove to where we could get some photos of the Huka Falls from land. We saw two people kayak over the falls, which I would consider quite daring!

We continued on to Waimangu Thermal Valley where we enjoyed a lunch of soup, bread and cheese at the café before heading out on a walking tour. We were right over a geothermal hot spot and hiked down into the valley. Essentially, we were inside of a huge crater. It was an interesting hike, passing hot springs, mud pools, lakes and streams all created because of the geothermal activity in the area. We had a guide with us, explaining things as we went along.

Kim, me, Kelly and Cate in front of a steaming lake!

After the walk, we drove to Rotorua and checked into our new hotel. The rooms here were really nice and almost all of us were staying in the same hallway which turned out to be a lot of fun. We had a chance to shower and get settled in, but then we had to get back on the bus to attend some lecture about tourism. The lecturer wasn’t that bad, but it was kind of weird that we had to go in the first place – we came to the conclusion that Loyola must have gotten some sort of a deal on this trip by promising that we would all listen to this talk! It was all about the tourism life cycle and different marketing techniques, and just seemed out of context with the rest of what we were doing.

For dinner, we visited a marae. where we were able to participate in the traditional Maori way of cooking called hangi. (Well, we didn't actually participate in the cooking itself, just the eating!) A hangi is where all of the food is cooked in a pit in the earth. Before being allowed to enter the marae, we of course had to go through the customary welcoming ceremony. Then we were entertained with song and dance, including a performance of the haka (the traditional war dance). They also had 6 of the guys from our group go up on stage and learn how to do some of the haka, which was pretty funny to watch. After the entertainment, we went next door for the main event: dinner. Everything was delicious and I think that everyone left the hangi stuffed to the max. We had pork, chicken, beef, vegetables and potatoes all cooked in the ground, which gave the food an interesting smoky flavor and was cooked to perfection. There was also salad, coleslaw, corn, delicious stuffing, gravy, and homemade bread. For dessert, there was fruit, cake slices, trifle, and some type of custard. The custard was unsweetened though, so we were all making our own concoctions by adding sugar and mixing everything up into a big mush! The whole hangi dinner was definitely very enjoyable. This was a family marae (not very commercial) and we were the only guests that night, so it really felt like an authentic cultural experience to me. That night after dinner, we went back and all hung around the hotel again.

My dinner table - Dana, Nick, Timm, Ed, Brian, me and TK:

The pit that our food was cooked in: