kiwi kristmas
christmas went off big: rotorua is basically quite empty, but fortunately as time wore on more and more sound people crept out of the woodwork. first up was alish (eyelash to me), a lovely, if loud, irish girl who was in my dorm. we decided to go to the xmas bbq and see how things panned out and were not disappointed... there were not huge numbers of people there, but every single individual was an absolute pleasure; from andy, the sunburnt scouser (red not blue, sweet as!), to helen, the non stop talking kiwi who had walked out on her happy clappy folks in the morning (her mum makes them sing happy birthday to jesus) because they kept telling her she was en route to hell, to dave the yank, who'd never seen a christmas cracker so tried to unwrap his (you may have had to be there, but at the time it was eye wateringly hilarious), to a couple of sound dutch guys (chris and dan you mudernirkers!), and tom, the friendliest japanese man in the world.all us christmas orphans were happily reminisicing about long boozy noels of past, and cursing the fact that you are not allowed to buy alcohol on public hoidays in new zealand... we'd had a few beers with our sausages, but they'd run out pretty quickly, and your man gareth wasn't opening the bar till six, so a long day stretched out ahead. xmas in the sunshine is a bizarre experience: to be honest your mind doesn't register the fact that it's december until it's given the visual slap of a santa hat or some tinsel. taking advantage of the good weather, we went to the park to throw a rugby ball (sweet) and a frisbee (stupid yanks) about for a few hours, whilst checking out the bubbling water and mud that rotorua, awash with geothermal activity, is famous for.
it was especially nice talking to andy and eyelash, who are both very well travelled, and both feel exactly the same about this place as me: having come with high expectations due to reports from friends, they're equally shocked by the prices, and disappointed by what's on offer. it's nice to know that i'm not some malcontent freak, but it does just heighten my disillusionment with this place.
at 6pm the bar opened... gareth let us have two for one beers and free pool all night, and the inevitable happened, as the ten of us overran the bar. cue long games of killer, christmas songs and karaoke, bad singing and dancing, and general festive frolics. it was an awesome xmas, better than i could have ever hoped for... the only thing is that it was the first time i really got into the christmas spirit: normally we start in november, so i have a whole month's worth of silliness bursting inside me that i'm going to have to repress till next year. thank god for xmas cheese on my mp3 player.
boxing day morning was grey, as was my head. still, i dragged myself out of bed to go to a maori and geothermal reserve with eyelash and the dutch guys. you turn up, pay your money, and get shepherded off on the guided tour: it was insane, just like being at school, with lots of warnings not to to stand up in the trains or wander off. i kept expecting to get told off for talking! the geysers and bubbling mud were pretty impressive, a first for me (which is a first for nz), but the maori cultural show was pure comedy: the young guys doing it kept struggling not to crack up at the absurdity of it all, the fake challenges and singing and dancing, whilst all the while happy japanese and israelis thought they were having some totally authentic experience. it was fun enough, but maori culture must be greater then some disneyfied stage act: god knows where to find it though, there's too much money to be made in mcmaori to allow access to the real thing.
i was keen to check out the climbing wall here, but it's closed, so a night in the polynesian spa is looming before i head out to taupo tomorrow. it's been a good few days, again because of the people, and most of them are actually heading in the same direction as me, so the craic should continue for a while longer.
posted by bicrom @ 2:55 am
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