Weekend in Rotorua

We had a wonderful 4 days in a place called Rotorua this weekend. It is the most active geo-thermic area in NZ. The ground is bubbling and steaming everywhere you look. We went to a couple of parks that were 'hot spots' and the girls loved seeing and learning about the volcanic activity and bubbling mud. They also had great play parks for the kids. (Us too if you've seen my facebook pic's :)

We also went Lugeing at the top of this mountain. So fun. I'd never done it before but it was a great view and so neat to be able to take the kids.
After lugeing, since it was D's birthday, he and I celebrated by heading out to the Polynesian spa to take in the hot springs and then on to a traditional Maori feast. The Maori's are the native Polynesians to NZ and they have a traditional dinner they prepare called a Hangi. They prepare your food in the ground with lava rocks, wood and sack cloth. Very neat process and very tasty food. It included lamb, fish, kumera, stuffing, veggies and more. It was buffet style and D definitely got his money's worth, lol. The other neat thing about the dinner was that they pick you up in a bus to bring you out to their model village where they have it set up to look like a traditional Maori village and share with you how their ancestors lived and then preformed some traditional Maori singing and dancing. All in all it was really neat experience.
The other really neat thing we did was go to this geo-thermic park called Wai-o-Tapu. It has the largest area of surface thermal activity. It is also the most colorful. The pallet of color's is so amazing. Again, I've added a lot if the pic's of this to my facebook as their would be too many to add on here. Its too bad the girls won't remember a lot of what they are learning but at least the pic's and stories of them being there will hopefully intrigue them enough to have an interest later in life :)
So here is yet another reason for you all to come visit NZ!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!