Zorbing in geothermal wonderland

We have a lot of updates! Been lazy to write the last little while so I'll split it up into a few different posts! 

Since the last post, we flew to Auckland which I always thought was the capital but the capital is actually Wellington which we will not get a chance to visit.  The weather only recently improved - there is a tropical cyclone passing through so there has been a lot of rain! Auckland didnt impress us but maybe that will change after visiting the beaches if the weather cooperates. After Auckland we went to a small place called Matamata, which is where the lord of the rings movies were filmed. Although personally i'm not a fan, it was interesting to see the movie set - the hobbit holes and just the landscape in general. The new hobbit movie is soon to be filmed there as well so apparently a lot of what we saw that wasn't there a few months before. Adam was quite excited! Unfortunately we signed a release that we cant post pics on any social media sight so if you wanna see pics, let us know! After viewing the movie set, we had a "farm tour." My favorite part was watching a sheep being sheered for its wool and getting to feed a little lamb! So much fun! Before watching the sheering demo, I thought it would hurt them but it's really just a shave. There are apparently a bunch of different sheep - the wool for some is for clothing and other wool for carpet and insulation. So odd - would never have guessed it was used for insulation. FYI uggs are insanely expensive here and the sheep wool comes from here! So ridiculous! Sheep sheering is a source of income for nz but it's also a sport where people compete on how many sheep they can sheer in an 8hr day. So random but then again rodeo is very random.

After Matamata, we headed to rotorua, which is a geothermal area and one of the main tourist attractions of the north island. There is lots to see and do in rotorua so you really have to pick and choose what to do with your time and money. The highlight for me was definitely zorbing or actually globe riding, as they call it! I was put in an inflatable ball partially filled with water and basically rolled down a hill! It's probably sounds ridiculous but it was so much fun and invented in new Zealand! It's become so popular that there is another company called Ogo that has copied the concept but still not as popular even though it's cheaper just bc of the name zorbing has built for itself.  For my second time I was going to try the other company but we didn't get a chance. 

We also went to Wai-tapo Wonderland where you can watch the lady Knox geyser erupt 20m high in the air. Its also famous for their bubbling mud pools and cool colored geothermal pools - you'll have to see pics! Initially the sulphur smell of rotorua is overwhelming but you get used to it pretty quickly. There are a lot of spas and thermal pools like in banff with nice scenery too. Overall I quite liked rotorua!