this morning i was a pack mule. had a late start which was nice but then we changed hostels and carried everything in one trip. we had not only our usual baggage, but also our food for the next day. we had to walk several blocks. with each step our goal seemed further. i didn't think i could make it if i stopped for a break. "just keep swimming..."

we changed hostels because i'm an idiot, essentially.
1. we could only use 2 vouchers for base and we will now be on our third night; i don't to pay base any more money
2. i wanted to check out the hot rock hostel as it has three pools and is where all the kiwi experience people go, despite having read terrible reviews of it

we get there and yes, it is just as dirty as the reviews indicated. i don't even want to use the restroom. it all just feels icky. from the first moment it was bad because i was waiting patiently in line and the kiwi bus pulled up. some pom twat cut in front of me in line. what a fucking cunt. then it turns out we're in the same dorm! only the top bunks are left and they're very wobbly. fuck this... we put our stuff away in the kitchen then go down to reception to change rooms. turns out the poms hated us too or something because they've checked into another room. good, saves us the trouble of doing the same. so then we walk all the way back up to our room (top floor no less, no elevator of course, it's alright, it's all part of training for the tramps i say!) and claim bottom bunks for ourselves. then we got on with our final day in rotorua.

kuirau park

mudpool in kuirau park

we walked across the street to kuirau park, which is a free public park with geothermal activity. quite nice activity too. there are some tiny pools for public use, but they looked nasty. there's steam rising from all over the park. much of the steaming areas are fenced off for your own safety. some parts were so steamy that you can't see anything. on top of that, if you wear glasses, they fog up of course and you're left doubly blind.

after the park, we walked down to st. faiths church. it's an old anglican church highly decorated with maori carvings. the carvings are quite spectacular, actually. there are several buildings and a cemetery. the church is still in use and offers services in maori and english. damn, to think that yesterday i could've attended an anglican church in maori! we sit inside the church for awhile and it was amazing how eerily catholic it was. i suppose it's no surprise considering how the church of england was formed, but still, it was odd. there was geothermal activity right next to the church. the church is right on the water and houses are next to it. some of the houses even have steam rising from their backyards. i certainly wouldn't want to live there!

st. faiths church

once we had enough of the church, we decided to continue on with our day (skipping lunch) and walk to the museum. we figured we would have a snack there and it would tide us over until dinner. the museum is an old bath house building from the victorian days. in the front are some gardens. old people were playing croquet (japanese say gateball!) and lawn bowling. these are two sports i do not understand at all. i just watched, amazed and confused as to how it's played, scores kept, and so forth.

fancy a game of croquet?

or a game of bowling?

the guy on the phone is so happy because the boy toy he called is available in the evening

while we were having munchies at the museum library, we were flipping through some magazines when i happened upon an ad for coffee. the ad line was: "not as ponsonby as the name suggest." now, ponsonby is joked by jaffas (aucklanders) as the gay district of auckland. there are one or two restaurants in particular that they make fun of, but i digress. after reading that line, i had to know the name of the brand. fagg's coffee. 'the great straight coffee'. i took a picture to share.

after walking all around the small museum, we went to the blue baths building next door because it's also included with admission. they've reopened the pool but we didn't use it. we just walked around the museum bit of it. after that, we were quite tired because we had actually been walking around all day and all yesterday. on our way home we came across a few interesting things.

it's nemo! "remember kid, all drains lead to the ocean"

this explains why stores in new zealand are never open