I got my car on thursday the 18th and began my road trip to wellington the 19th. I bought a 1996 Mazda Familia, white, and it's ok. Not as good as my corrola, but it'll do for the time I'm here in NZ.
My first stop was Rotorua. There are a ton of hot pools and mud pools in this area of NZ. There is a sulfurish smell at random times of day and random places around the city. Not the best place to live on a permnament basis, but a nice and very cool place to visit. The first night of being there, there was a thing called Carols by Candlelight at this park that was 5 minutes from the motel i was staying at. I ended up sitting next to this guy from Canada and we became friends. He was visiting and heading to Melbourne in Australia for the holidays. After Carols by Candelight, we headed out to a bar and chatted it up. The next day we went on some adventures together. First we went to a Nature Park (Rainbow Springs) and saw kiwis, possums, and a ton of other cool animats. Lost of neat birds but not many mammals. After that, did lunch,then headed to some thermal pools, but got lost. We ended up finding another thermal pool place that also had geysers and mud pools and a cave. Totally awesome, but can't quite remember the name right now, my bad. After that, we went back out to the bar again and I realized that the band that was playing had someone in it that i actually knew!!
The lead singer was a teacher that had come to camp a few weeks earlier with his school and had told beki and i we shold come see him play on new years in Rotorua. I didnt realize it until the night after that it was the same guy, so we chatted and stuff...totally cool that i recognized him and i knew a band member!! LOL
Then on sunday, Jeff and I parted ways (side note, he has worked at camps too, so we clicked) and i continued my road trip.
read the next blog to read about National Park (my next stop)