WHEW, WAS THAT YOU? OH WAIT, MY MISTAKE - IT WAS JUST THE MINERAL SPRINGS!

March 19th - Wow - today was a really busy day, and pretty much exemplified the "forced march of family fun" moniker.  We started off at the Wai-O-Tapu mineral springs to see the Lady Knox geyser, which erupts every day at 10:15.  I have to admit that it was somewhat of a letdown to discover that they actually drop a surfactant into the geyser at the same time every day to make it erupt on schedule.  I am now wondering whether there may be a hidden tube of surfactants running into Old Faithful - talk about shattering all my dearly held beliefs. It was still quite something to see, however.  Afterwards, we hiked around the rest of the mineral springs park, and the boiling pits of water and mud were quite amazing, even if quite odiferous.  Liam is right - it probably is what Hell smells like on a bad day.

We then went to the Whakarewarewa Maori village for a tour and cultural performance.  I have attached a picture of the signpost - if you can believe it, Whakarewarewa is the shortened version of the village's actual name.  It must be hell trying to get personalized pencils for the gift shop. This village is quite amazing - the whole area is peppered with geothermal vents and hot springs, and houses have had to be moved within the village because a vent opened up beneath them.  Most of the tribe live outside the village but those who remain still bathe and wash in the hot springs and  cook using the geothermal vents.  There must be something to this, because our guide was 63 and looked 50.  I am sorely tempted to try and become an honourary member of the tribe, just to find out their secrets!  We really enjoyed the performance of Maori dancing and singing at the end, and the war dance left me really wanting to watch rugby for some reason.  But the most interesting part of the tour, for me, was how much the kids enjoyed it - they are full of surprises.

After the village, we moved on to the highlight of the day, so far as the kids were concerned - Zorbing!  New Zealand has spawned some really odd outdoor activities (including bungee jumping) and this is no exception. Rolling down a steep hill inside of an inflatable ball while you slosh around inside a smaller ball inside which is filled with water.  Seriously, do these things get thought up in a pub?  I wanted to attach a video of the kids doing the straight run down the hill, but apparently that is beyond my technological capability, so I will save that bit of embarrassment for another day.  They had GoPro cameras with them inside the Zorb and we bought the video, just because it was so funny, but again, I can't attach it to the blog so you will just have to ask to see it when we get home. On the second run, the kids went together in one Zorb down the slalom course - trust me, the GoPro video is priceless and involves a lot of allegations of feet being in faces.  A great time was had by all and we can safely say that we had a true New Zealand experience.

So tomorrow we are going to visit a working sheep ranch, and then we are off to Waitomo to see the glowworm caves.  Much excitement still to be had, so I'd better get some sleep!