Kiwi Paradise : Temple and Rotorua

Friday morning we were up early and off to the temple in Hamilton. We had a few hiccups as we were leaving so we actually hit the road about half an hour after we were supposed to. We took the giant van and as well as Erika's car. The drive down was pretty uneventful. It was almost like any other road trip I've been on with lots of cows and sheep pastures, rolling hills and trees mixed in with big patches of dry grass. The temple is only an hour and half away but there was some traffic driving down so we ended up pulling into the carpark just 3 minutes before 10 (when our session was scheduled). The three of us from the group who are endowed ran up the steps to the temple entrance (of course the temple has to have about 7 flights of mini stairs just to make your race that much harder). Well, we made it to the recommend desk just in time for them to tell us that the session had started. So we decided to do initiatories instead of baptisms with the rest of our group.

It was such a neat experience! The sisters serving there were so kind and happy to see us. Afterwards we met up with the rest of our group and ate lunch at the temple cafeteria. Yes they serve fish and chips and milo at the temple. :) They also eat a lot of chop suey here probably because of the heavy Asian influence. During lunch we convinced Erika to stay with us so we could go to the next session that stared at 1230. So James took the rest of the girls in the monster van while the four of us stayed for the next session. I'm so glad that we stayed! The feeling you get inside the temple cannot be found anywhere else well except maybe the visitors' center but then again I'm a little biased.

We stopped by the VC before we left and boy was that cool! I forgot how much I enjoy being in a temple visitors' center. It's like coming home :). Inside we met up with a couple if guys who had been in our session. They asked us if we would sing the American national anthem for them. Haha which we did...outside and they filmed it! Then they sang theirs for us and also performed a haka for us. It was so cool!

Pretty soon we were on the road again making our way to a place called Rotorua. It's famous for its Maori culture and its thermal pools. People call it the Yellowstone of New Zealand. After meeting up with our group at the hotel we all changed into our togs and piled back into the cars. James took us to swim in one of the most beautiful, clear lakes I have ever been in. The water was a clear blue and you could still see the bottom even when it was more than 6ft below you. We swam out to a floating dock about 40ft off shore and took turns jumping off. There was no seaweed which was another plus!

After swimming for a bit James had us pile back into the van and we drove to a natural hot springs. It was pretty small but it felt so nice. The warm water would come in waves. We also had our own therapeutic experience as we took some of the white clay found along the shore and made our own face masks. What more could a girl want? :) There was another neighboring hot springs nearby that we also visited but it was much warmer than the other one and we took turns just putting our feet in for a minute or so and stepping out.

That night we had some of the best pizza I have ever had! Where did it come from you ask? Oh just hell. Yes hell's pizza is quite the thing around here. The best part is that your pizza box can be converted into a coffin that is perfect for storing any leftovers in the fridge. Super delicious!

That night we slept in a motel with 5 girls in one room and 5 in the other. There was a big reggae music festival going on downtown and from the sound of their music most of our neighbors were hard core fans. We even were stopped twice to have our drivers breathalized as we drove to and from the lake/hot springs. It was an awesome day!