Thursday evening my bus pulled into Rotorua and I was picked up by Jacko and his daughter Te Aorere. They're both Maori and were going to be my impromptu couch surfing family for the next two nights. On our way home we stopped at Pack and Save, where they bought groceries and so many biscuits. Like, imagine going to the supermarket with the mindset of a 10 year old, and then just doing your thing. Cadbury chocolate bars, chocolate fish, and rolls of cookies. The uje. I offered to cook dinner for them, and was even scrambling to get recipes from my flatmate over text, but on my way home they decided they were too hungry to wait for that and picked up fish and chips instead... and when I say fish and chips, I mean they got more fish and chips than I had ever seen. As we were waiting, Jacko told me that this is the place they always go because you'll go in, ask for 3, and leave with heaps of fish and chips for the price they were originally going to pay. No lie. We got home and there were masses offish and chips... my only regret is that I didn't take a picture of the spread on the table.
We went to bed early-- I was sharing a room with Te Aorere, and in the morning we woke up at 6:30am to begin the day Since it was a Friday, there was school and work for both of them so I was on my own. I was dropped off near Jacko's work and wandered around the area, armed with a little map he had for his couch surfers, labeled with places to see and how to get around. I started in a park that was filled with hot pools. The smell was something new-- I was warned that Rotorua has a certain scent to it, because of the sulfur in the thermal heated hot pools, but it wasn't something I expected. Vaguely revolting, but pretty cool to look at. There was also a little kid park set up with things to climb on, slides, swings, and whatnot. I found a massive contraption spider-web looking thing, got to the top of it, and sat up there for a while, drawing pictures and watching little asian ladies on a tour group that had arrived struggle and fail at getting up it. I also chatted with the tour-guide from that trip for a while, as he made his way up to say hi and tell me to go to Taiwan if I ever get the chance. 
In addition to hot pools to look at, there were also a couple of spots where there were pools for people to rest their feet in, also heated from the ground. I hung around by one for a while, heating my feet. It was sooo hot, but nice to get away from the rain in. Chatted with a girl there who had the cutest puppy.
After wandering a bit more and climbing a tree, I headed towards a walking path that went around the entirety of Rotorua's coast. It was pretty interesting and nice, and started off with a Marae that I could walk into and look around. Though my studying, or lack thereof, for my Maori paper didn't let me remember the names of everything that I was seeing, it was cool to be able to properly see it. The rest of the walk was dotted with weird landscapes and weird smells, and ended in a massive garden.
After, I wandered around the shopping area for a while and then settled down in the library, for some much needed magazine reading and relaxation, but not before going into a weird shooting range with air sof guns [new zealand...] It was $3 for 12 shots, and the nice asian man working thre taught me about how to correctly hold a gun, and gave me lollies for the targets I hit. He also took heaps of pictures of me with the guns. cute ha.
For dinner I cooked chicken tikka masala number 2 for the fam, which was some weird version of it since they were without cinnamon, cayenne pepper, ginger, and had garlic paste instead of garlic, but all was well and all was swallowed down happily. I also prepared a little icecream dessert for them before we went to bed for my last evening there. In the morning we went to the saturday market.
There wasn't much there that I wanted in terms of clothing, but the food selection was really great. Even though we had already had breakfast, Te Aorere bought lamb kebabs [awesome, I had one] fried dumplings [also amazing] & fried bread [didn't try]. I then saw a sign that indicated the largest hotdog at 1.5 feet, and had to buy it. On a ciabatta roll and dressed in bbq sauce and mayo, it was a challenge, which I got some help from Te Aorore with, but managed to complete.
After I was dropped nearby at a gypsy festival where there was more food, weird entertainment, a mini cooper festival, and zombies. Well, people that were dressed as zombies or in the process of getting face painted to look like zombies. Apparently it was for a zombie walk to raise money for brain disease, a concept I'm not sure how keen I am on, but it was funny. [I ran into their walk while I was waiting for the bus to leave, so I was met with hands slapped against the window, and dragged across sloppily. The high point of my gypsy stay though was when I found a small ceramic painting stand where you pay 2.50 for a little something and paint it. Amongst the numerous little kids all painting single coloured, or multicoloured, mud like pieces, I stood there for ages, perfecting my little tokens. I left with a cow turn vampire, and a silver fern
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