DAY 127
Week 19
AUCKLAND (Auckland, NZ) to ROTORUA (Bay Of Plenty, NZ)
Wednesday October 25th, 2006
TODAYS MILEAGE – 154 miles or 248 kilometres
TRIP MILEAGE – 24427 miles or 39311 kilometres
Here we go, heading South. 
I treated Dougy Doug to one of Brucie's Diners eight buck breakfasts, which is one of the cholesterolly worst ways to start the day, but the best after a couple of sherbets from the night before.
We hit Highway 1 around 10 o'clock and were headed for Rotorua. The weather was kind of weird as you'd drive through rain showers and then brilliant sunshine. We also had a natter on just how many Asians there appeared to be living in and around Auckland. As you walk around Auckland, you can't help but notice the abundance of noodle houses, Korean BBQ joints and corner mart owners/employees and people walking the streets. Outside of Chinatown, I have not seen such a concentration of Asians in one area and was wondering why that is.
Anyways, Dougy Doug is a huge fan of the Lord of The Rings, so we detoured over to Matamata which was where most of the Middle Earth scenes were shot. We were all as keen as mustard to go on the Hobbiton Movie Set Tour to check out the sights, but were stopped in our tracks due to the $50.00 per person cost. We enquired as to what you got for your fifty bills. A 45 minute bus trip and about an hour looking at a couple of holes in the hill that only bear a fleeting semblances of the movie set, and then another 45 minutes back.
We asked if we could drive out there under our own power. This was met with a firm "NO", as we would be traveling to someone's farm. Dougy Doug looks at me and says fageddaboutit!!! As much as he's a Lord of The Rings fan, that doesn't mean we'd like to get gipped for something that seems pretty ordinary.
Speaking of ordinary and I mean ordinary. We stopped at the Skyline Skyrides and Luge just on the outskirts of Rotorua and paid $23.00 to ride the Gondola to the top of the hill and then another $7.50 to ride the luge. As scenic overlooks go, both of us were extremely disappointed due to the costs. $5 to $10 would have been more like a fair price.
The luge ride was a unique experience that was tempered somewhat by having to go down the "scenic" route (i.e. the beginner track) that was strewn with Japanese tourists who had no idea that you had to push the handle bars forward to go and pull back to stop. After an excruciatingly slow ride down the first ¼ of the track, being nice to these morons who had no idea, I said "fuck it" and let it rip 'tater chip. I pushed the handlebars all the way forward and played bumper cars the rest of the way down the hill, without using the brakes once.
The day was saved from being a total failure by going over to the Tamaki Maori Village. At the recommendation of one of my good mates (Riles), Dougy Doug and myself stumped up the $175.00 for two tickets to the 5PM show. I had some trepidations to the show as I was thoroughly disappointed with the Polynesian Cultural Center I visited in Hawaii, only to find out it was an advertisement for the The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, with South Pacific dancers and dining.
From go to whoa, the Tamaki Maori Village experience was worth every penny. From Danny the bus driver, to all the performers and the catering staff of the hangi, you could see that these people were enjoying their work and loved to share their ancestry, heritage, history, culture and lifestyle with you. If you only do one thing in New Zealand, this would be it.
We're staying at the Millennium Hotel and at $150.00 a night, you'd expect to get free internet access at the very least. Nope, no way dude. In fact, they've got the highest charges we've seen so far at 68 cents a minute. Can you say rip off???
Not sure where we're headed tomorrow, but it'll be somewhere in New Zealand.
• ROTORUA ~ Skyline Skyrides (Bay Of Plenty, NZ)
• ROTORUA ~ Tamaki Maori Village (Bay Of Plenty, NZ)