Almost caught up #3 Some days you just feel like a tourist

Saturday July 3, 2010
Today’s the day; today I made the valiant attempt to eat Vegemite. After carefully toasting my bread and then spreading a single corner of it thinly (per instructions) with the dark, devious spread. One sniff, and a quick glance at the curious eyes around me, and I quickly bite in to it. This turns out to be a horrible idea; the bitterness of the spread completely overwhelms the taste of my toast turning it all in to one unpleasant mouthful. My cowardly audience erupts in laughter as my face displays just how tasteful I find this new cuisine. Only a couple of them are brave enough to try for themselves, and they too go through the same horridness of my experience. New Zealand may be one of the most gorgeous places on earth- but they most certainly do not know what to put on toast.

After this morning’s regretful experience we drove from Auckland to Rotorua, This involved a three hour bus ride through the beautiful North island countryside. Along the way we learned a little about the history, such as the Maori Land wars and how they struggled to be seen as first class citizens. We made a stop at an extremely touristy farm to learn about sheep breeds and watch a ewe being shaved… the two farm girls from Minnesota were extremely bored, but all of the city kids loved it. I’m not sure how often I had to explain that no; shearing them does not hurt, and is actually better for them in the long run. It’s amazing how ignorant people are of simple animal care. End rant of the day. Anyway, back to New Zealand, we finished with the farm (bleck) and went to a little zoo/nature trail area, Called Rainbow Springs, where we got to see some pretty awesome native birds and were shown the kiwi bird enclosure but couldn’t find the actual Kiwi birds that supposedly lived there.
Our day ended with a relaxing trip to the hot springs in Rotorua. Which left me thoroughly exhausted, so it’s off to bed!