rotorua & taupo

SATURDAY carmz and i headed for taupo to meet up with van, logz, and blair. on our way we went through rotorua which let me tell you REEKES of rotten eggs. but it's because of all of the thermal hot pool in that area which are sulfuric. we stopped so i could see the lake there as well as some boiling mud pits which pump out steam. it's quite a sight seeing mud boiling on the surface of the earth..makes you wonder what's going on much further down.

lake rotorua

continued our trek to taupo and met up with the others at a market. we got some feed then headed out to float down the waikato river which connects into lake taupo.
we got all geared up into wetsuits, pumped up some tubs and an airbed and set out for our river mish. after a few moments of trying to figure out why my wetsuit wasn't zipping up properly logan looks at me and says, you've got that on backwards, see those knee pads, they should be in FRONT of your knees. weeeell we all had a good laugh and then had to wait another good five minutes for me to remove said wetsuit and adorn it properly. so much effort. but of course it's always worth it in the end.

the team: logz, carmz, van, me, blair, and stephan in the back, he regretted not wearing a wettie

chillen like some villans

beaut of a day

"standing" on the airbed

the boiz were bringing up rocks from the bottom. logans was by far the biggest.
and then they decided to carry it the whole way..

a bungee tower right above us! we got to watch a guy jump, wasn't
 too entertaining tho as he didn't squeal or anything.

look at that clear water! 

at the end there were hot pools you could sit in, which were SOO hot, such a contrast from the really cold river.

hot hot pools

it was a little too hot for carmz :)

we went to get some more grub after and then headed to the skate park to watch the locals and the bois skate. there were so many cute/real good little little kids, probably as young as 5. there was this one little girl riding her skateboard and playing one note on her recorder which was quite entertaining.

after dark we headed to a place where a hot stream meets up with a cold stream, almost like a fork where they connect and it creates a perfect temperature sitting pool. you can move more one direction to get warmer and the other to get cooler. it is such a beautiful area especially at nighttime with all the zillions of stars. since i was with people who had done this before we were super set. with a boogie board to put drinks and snacks on to float between us, and tea lights to put on the rocks around us. such a mean experience.

boogie board goodies 

loving life!