Maori

Trying hard to cut down spending on this trip but it’s so hard as there are so many neat things to do and when your wifey wants to go do a morning in the spa on a trip where you’re playing hockey it’s hard to say no so that’s how we started this day . The Polynesian Spa in Rotorua is apparently one of the top ten spa’s in the world but I’m gonna say I have found or looked for that list and based on my experiences I think I would say that’s self advertised . Anyway when we woke up Kathleen was keen to go so we had some fruits which we bought at the grocery store , made a coffee in the room in true Ghetto fashion and jumped in the car and drove on the wrong side of the road to go to this spa . We paid $20 entry which got us into the pools which had some mumbo jumbo hot stuff in them that makes you live forever or something and they had this reflexology walk which was basically a path where you walk on jagged rocks in water and didn’t feel good at all . I put my game face on for this as I’m not the pool hang around kinda guy but stuck it out for my lady and she was happy which is always a good thing . I must admit that the view was quite spectacular and there was one pool where I just sat in and felt mesmerized and almost began to internally cook as it was quite hot . I’m no spa expert and this blog isn’t about spa’s so I’m sorry if you are reading this expecting me to come up with all the technical jargon needed to describe this place .... all I know is there wasn’t a sauna and beer wasn’t served while I was in the pools so it wasn’t my kinda place lol 😝 

After getting water logged we enjoyed a smoothie ... again not my idea as they don’t have beer smoothies and I only eat fruit in their purest form . I know you’re thinking this guys a dick 😜 and on most days I would agree with you but today I was on my best behaviour to make Kathleen happy and after the spa we tried to continue making the trip cheaper and went grocery shopping for some meat , cheese and bread to make sandwiches . We really need to cut down our spending habits big time , my accounts are hemorrhaging hard ! But then I see a bag of biltong and splurge the $10 on it .... some things I just can’t say no to 😋 when we returned to our room we had a sammie and decided to go visit the redwood forest  for some hiking . 

It’s been a few weeks since I hit the treadmill and usually I would rip through a hike and on this day I began to realize that my cardio was taking a turn for the worse .... we decided to do an hour trek and 20 minutes into it I was breathing like a pack a day smoker and opted to find our way to the smaller half hour trail . I was not too pleased with myself and felt a bit ashamed to be honest . The gluttony of travelling has taken its toll on me already and I really need to take care that it doesn’t get any worse . It’s a shame I didn’t get to see more of the trail there but it’s time to head back and take a nap which for me is always more rejuvenating then a spa . We have some time before dinner ....

We had booked ourselves tickets for the Mitai Maori Village  dinner and show and we were picked up from our hotel at around 5:45 pm the Maori are the native people of New Zealand and Mitai is the family name of the tribe that owns this particular land . We were greeted by the family who put on quite a good show firstly by introducing us to the warriors entering the village on a war canoe then we all went to an assembly area where the family did a show of weaponry and sang a few native songs and even performed the Hakka which for me was the highlight . We had a very entertaining host who seemed to know every language you can imagine and then we had our dinner which is called a hangi and it was quite delicious . After dinner we were taken on a walk to see the glow worms and were told if we shined our flashlights on them that they would die ... we were at the very back of the group walking on the path and there was a wall full of glow worms which probably was the highlight of the walk and some bonehead a couple people in front of us took his camera out and took a flash photo of the wall 😖this after being repeatedly told not to flash light onto them !!! I booed the guy immediately and called him a wanker and I’m sure he didn’t put the flash on purposely but it’s one of those stupid tourist things DOH . He didn’t respond to my heckling of him and we carried on and basically got on the bus and were dropped back at our hotels . Of course and as usual we were the last stop hahaha ! Seems to be a thing , maybe it’s karma or maybe I’m just getting more for my money’s worth .