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| driver cum guide john |
As the
lashes of my eyes were separating in ultra slow motion ,the mind was in a state
of confusion ... it was trying hard to make itself familiar with the objects
that were falling in the limits of visual perception…it was dark and cozy and
most importantly cold.. and this combination is ideal to snooze and snooze
more… after a lot of deliberation and compromise in the grey matter of the
brain I got up and came back to reality it was 6 am. i slid the screen and found out that it was bright outside already!
Less than an hour to brush, bathe, dress up, pack, eat breakfast and so much
more. We did manage to do most of it in 40 minutes and then rushed to have
breakfast at one of the highest restaurants in Auckland. The view from the
restaurant was breath taking and the breakfast spread was amazing to say the
least!! I am not gonna list it here or else every reader will drool till they
get dehydrated! With 5 mins left for departure of the coach we were rushing
towards the lobby blaming each other for the delay(ego defense mechanism I must
say). We reached the lobby one min before the scheduled time. we promised to
each other we wont mismanage time again on this trip…
The coach
looked majestic with its gigantic frame and the huge Mercedes benz logo on the
bus was an absolute jaw dropper. We
excitedly got our luggage placed safely inside the luggage stow and got inside
and occupied the first seats so that we could get the best view during the journey
..the coach had 30 odd people in it with 24 of them being indians.. home away
from home… we were driving towards the volcanic city of rotorua via Hamilton.
The coach driver cum guide was a man in his early sixties who kept giving us
info about new Zealand and Auckland and every other possible things on sides of
the road. The roads in new Zealand are some of the best in the world and the traffic density probably the least ,
which means if given the liberty I would drive at 160-180km/hr uninterrupted
but the tragedy was the speed limits and speed cameras installed made sure that
100km/hr was the maximum speed allowed. Such a pity!! Why are such roads not in
india!!! In a few hours we reached
Waitomo where we would sojourn to see the wonderful glowworm caves . . we were
taken on a guided tour of the caves by one fellow chris.. ppl were dividedin
groups of 20 and each group would have one guide. The caves were extremely cold
inside as the whole cave was formed from limestone over the years and after
showing us different formations of the limestone we were taken on a small boat
trip inside the cave to show us the
wonderful glowworms.. photos were a s strict no no as flash would dim the
glowworms.. the site inside was out of the world with millions of brilliant
glowworms shining like stars in the sky.. I would rename the place as glowworm
galaxy if given the liberty. I would rank this as one of the must see things in
life if u are a nature enthusiast. We came back to the reception counter of
caves and we were instructed to have lunch before we proceed further. We had
some fabulous butter chicken and steamed rice .  |
| view from the room with hot geysers behind |
Rotorua was
2 hours drive from here and we made use of it with a refreshing nap. different
guests were staying in different hotels and once driver made sure he knew where
all he had to go he gave us the order in which he would drop us. As we entered
the thermal city of rotorua we could smell something really bad on the bus. We
had no clue where it was coming from and the driver put an end to our
speculations by informing us that it is nothing but from the air of rotorua. We
were also told then that rotorua is standing on top of a huge volcano which can
erupt anytime destroying the whole place but it has been dormant for a few
years now. The presence of the geothermal mud and the natural hot water spring
rich in sulphur gave the rotten egg
smell to air of rotorua.. it was
stinking and we had no clue how we were
gonna bear it for 3 days..
Rotorua
welcomed us with heavy rains and temperature was 5 degree Celsius . the bus
halted in front of the lobby of the Hilton holiday inn where our stay was
arranged. A quiet place situated next to a hot spring which was visible from
the room in which we were put up. It was 3 pm and we were dying of hunger.
There were no restaurants closeby and the one in the hotel had closed. All that
was available were a few pizzas and fries. Hoping we would get to eat yummy
pizzas like in Auckland we ordered a veg pizza(as they had only options of veg)
and fries. Pizza came in flat 15 minutes .. looked amazing 8 piece huge thing…
one bite and next thing we wanted do was to puke it out. The pizza stinked of
horrible flavors and tasted of canola oil which is the primary oil used in nz.
Fries were smelling of the same oil and all the food found its place in the bin
in no time. 20 dollars down the drain…
The
information booklets we picked up from the hotel info centre came in handy and
we found means to kill time and
experience rotorua. We found info about Polynesian spa, one of the worlds top
10 spas and we picked up the phone got a
booking made for a slot for thermal massage . we took the hotel shuttle to the
city tourism centre and once here we exchanged a few dollars and recharged the
phone . it was raining hard and eventhough spa was hardly 100 metres across the
road we had non option but to hire a taxi. The cab driver was harry from
india.. must be harbinder or hardeep in reality but for nzers he was harry.
Polynesian spa ambience was very inviting
and people gentle. We paid for the massage (a bomb of an amount) after
which we were introduced to our masseurs. They gave us our kit with slippers, towels, robes, soaps etc. we
changed and went to the massage rooms which was filled with the aroma of oils
and scent of flowers. The massage was best ever and done by a nepali who had
done his bachelors in physiotherapy from Bangalore! After this we were free to
get into the natural geyser hot sulphur water pools and sit for as long as we
wish. The sulphur and other minerals are supposed to add a lot of medicinal
value to the skin. It was a great experience to sit in the pool built with
rocks alongside a river and what made it better was that the weather was rainy
and cold but the hot pool just felt awesome and especially because the person u
love the most is in your arms. If there is paradise on earth ,its here ,its
here, its here!!
After an hour or so we took shower and came to
the lobby . we had heard a lot about new zealands best ice cream hokie pokie (
amix of carmel,chocolate and vanilla) and had vanilla coke zero. That was all
we had in our stomach and it was dinner time too.. we called harry who then
dropped us to KFC for dinner. Wow! KFC in NZ had to be good ! hungry we(as
always) rushed in for a good meal.ordered a pretty huge meal. Our teeth were
all set to sink into the chicken. Our first bite and we yelled..phew .. bad
food was following us but we had great expectations at least from KFC. This was the worst KFC we ve ever had in our
lives!!! The flavors were horrible , the ketchup also tasted different. It was
time for food to go to the bin again.. don’t like doing that but we were
optionless.
After having
gone through such traumatic experiences with food we just wanted to get back to
the hotel, which we did and thought sleep would be the best medicine and did
just that……
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