Today is the Queen’s birthday and a public holiday in NZ. It also happens to be our off day. We had planned a day out with Ah Ming and Adreana to Rotorua. Initially, the plan was to go to a Polynesian thermal hot spa and soak in the water for the whole day. But we ended up going to an off-road activity center instead.
For breakfast this morning, K had wanted to make Bombay toast. But as usual, we dilly dallied and ended up running late to meet up with the other couple. So K made toast with melted cheese and sugar instead. According to K, the sugar was supposed to caramelized on top of the cheese, but it didn’t. Still, it was nice. = )We drove over to Ah Ming and Adreana’s motel, picked them up, and headed off to Rotorua around 12pm. Despite knowing that we had eaten breakfast, Ah Ming packed some penne pasta into a lunch box for us. They even wrapped a spoon in a piece of tissue for us to use! The penne pasta was my lunch. There was sausage, onions, fried luncheon meat and plenty of tomato sauce. As usual, it was yummy. Nothing less to expect from a chef!! = ) The rest of them skipped lunch and munched on tidbits instead.
We saw the off-road thingy at the information site that we stopped over at in the town center. Which was a good thing cause I had a great deal of fun today. We booked ourselves 02 Suzuki 4-wheel drives, and drove into a bush safari jungle full of unexpected obstacles. Throughout the 1 hour drive, we had a guide with us talking through the walkie. It was great fun and I think K enjoyed himself cause he always wanted to drive a 4-wheel drive car and do off roads. The whole ride was bumpy but fun. We drove into huge water holes that submerged half of the car, drove down extremely steep slopes that made me scream like I was on a roller coaster ride, drove into a dark cave, and also drove a short distance along a small slope with our car tilted at about 40 degrees. Halfway through the drive, the guide asked us to stop and took pictures for us. = ) Here are some of the photos we took.. And videos.. more on Facebook!!
Us before we set off for the safari drive!
After our off-road adventure, we went to explore the other activities in the center. We watched some people go-kart and drift, and another group doing clay bird shooting. After that, we headed off and passed by another tourist attraction and decided to go in and take a look. This one had bungy jumping, sky dive simulation, etc. We also saw some interesting animals there. 3 really adorable and fat ponies, and plenty of ostriches! Ah Ming and Adreana fed the ostriches potato chips to lure them to come nearer to the fence, and we took the opportunity snap some really close up photos of the big birds..
We headed off for dinner after that. We had made dinner reservations at Valentine’s earlier in the day. Valentine’s is a restaurant serving western style buffet meals. I didn’t really like the spread though. Thought it was pretty expensive for the kind of food they served. We chatted over dinner for the next 2 hours until about 8pm, then headed home.
Overall, it was a fun day, given that we haven't really done much "playing" for the past 2 weeks stuck at the pack house!!
We headed off for dinner after that. We had made dinner reservations at Valentine’s earlier in the day. Valentine’s is a restaurant serving western style buffet meals. I didn’t really like the spread though. Thought it was pretty expensive for the kind of food they served. We chatted over dinner for the next 2 hours until about 8pm, then headed home.
Overall, it was a fun day, given that we haven't really done much "playing" for the past 2 weeks stuck at the pack house!!
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