Tauranga / Rotorua

We had our first day of excursions. We docked in Tauranga and our rental car was waiting for us.

Our first adventure was simply adjusting to driving on a different side of the road and to the controls being on the left side.

The driving went fine during the day--no accident so wrong turns. We brought our gps with us and Rachael was a great navigator!

Our first stop was at Te Puia. It is a Maori institute and a geothermal area. We got a guided tour of the area and a demonstration of weaving and ropemaking. They also showed a Maori welcoming ritual and dances. Rachael got up on stage and did one of the dances (I have proof!).

We also got to see a Kiwi bird. It was dark and we didn't see it clearly, but we are going to say we saw one!

From there we were going to go Zorbing. For those who don't know, it is getting inside a large plastic ball and rolling downhill. Unfortunately, it was too windy and they weren't running the Zorbs at the time. So we decided to go have lunch and wait it out. They were only running the water Zorb, which means I would get soaked.

We had lunch a great place called the Fat Dog Cafe. It was very cool.

After that we went to a waterfall that wasn't as great as it was supposed to be. Not even picture-worthy.

We called the Zorb place and it was still too windy for the dry zorb. We went to a few shops to try and find a pair of shorts since I would get soaked. We didnt find any but we went back anyway.

We went and they weren't running anything due to the wind. We waited 20 minutes and they decided to run them. I had to buy a pair of shorts and got in. Rachael got some great pictures and video we will post later. It was awesome!

We then came back to the ship. It was a great first day!
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