What was for lunch? We were!

Today's agenda included being nibbled on by ostriches, alpacas, sheep, and goats!

We left Rotorua this morning, and headed back north to Agrodome, where we took in a show that taught us all about local farming/agriculture, and went on a tour of the farm! The show involved 19 different breeds of sheep being presented (with some interesting information about each type), talking about sheep herding dogs, one sheep being shorn, a giant cow, some ducks (AFLAC!), and the host scaring the crap out of a confused Chinese woman. :) They asked for volunteers when they had the giant cow on stage, so CLEARLY, I raised my hand. The cow and I got very close.... I have a "certificate of udderance" to show that hand milked a cow at Agrodome! The next (and final) group of volunteers they called for were each handed a bottle of milk. The host said that they were going to have a drinking contest. He added, "on the count of three, shake the bottle, and turn it upside down for a drink." The girl from Texas actually put the bottle in her mouth, while the other three saw the baby lambs that came out. :) The look on her face when he said "no, it's for the lambs!" was priceless!

We took lots of pictures with the sheep and dogs after the show. Some of the sheep had dreadlocks, one of them was a black sheep, one looked really sad compared to the others, since it had recently been shorn, and some of them had horns!

After that, we hopped on a tractor-pulled cart for a tour around the farm (which lasted an hour). We saw and fed alpacas--they were very soft, and VERY interested in our food! They kept trying to climb onto the cart, even though the food was outside of the cart! We also fed ostriches--one tried to bite Corey's hand (it mostly just startled him)! We fed sheep and goats, but didn't quite want to get out for the Highland sheep or cows (both of which were HUGE). We also saw (from a distance) American Bison, deer with antlers, and a bunch more sheep and cows! I'm sure I'm leaving out some other animals, too. Also on the tour was a stop at a kiwi orchard! The kiwis are picked before they ripen, and I snagged one to take with me to ripen over the rest of the trip! We also saw olive trees--I tried an olive... it was terrible, since it wasn't even close to being ripe! The other highlight was a stop in a barn where we saw old kiwi processing equipment, as well as got to taste kiwi juice, kiwi wine (not very kiwi-y), and manuka honey. We tasted Manuka leaves while on our tour in the rain forest outside of Auckland. It is where tea tree oil comes from! The honey was incredible, and we bought a small bottle of the kiwi juice!

Once we finished the tour, it really started to pour! We went into the wool shop, but didn't find anything we wanted. We headed back to the main auditorium area where our show was, and found the nursery off to the side. During the show, they had brought out the baby lambs, and we wanted to see them up close! We were able to get into the pen with the baby lambs. They were very soft and adorable. Equally adorable were four baby goats, three of whom decided that my pants, jacket, shoelaces, and hair were their lunch! They seemed to enjoy climbing all over me. I definitely did not mind being surrounded by such adorable and curious little guys! Corey described them well: "They were like toddlers-they had no boundaries and were cute!"

This is where the small black goat is trying to eat my hair, and the white one is eating my shoelace. Most of the pictures came out blurry since the goats were so energetic!

Agrodome was much more exciting and interesting than I think either of us expected! I recommend it to anyone who visits Rotorua!

We headed back into Rotorua for a quick lunch. Corey grabbed some McDonalds (their menu is very different than ours, and they have some very cool marketing strategies!), and I got some "takeaway sushi." I haven't found a sit-down Japanese restaurant yet, only small take-out places that sell sushi by the piece. I had 2 pieces of salmon nigiri, 2 pieces of salmon and avocado roll, a small piece of a teriyaki chicken roll, a piece of an avocado and seaweed salad roll, and a piece of avocado nigiri. It was ALL excellent, and the salmon rivaled Sushiland! (For all you Redmond folks, you KNOW how amazing it had to be for me to even say that!!! One of the two pieces may have even been better!)

From Rotorua, we headed south towards Taupo. On the way, we stopped at the Aratiatia Rapids viewpoint, where we watched a spillway open that emptied water from a large lake downstream. Ultimately the water ends up in Lake Taupo. We were there for about an hour, and were able to watch some very pretty rapids from a few cool viewpoints that we hiked to. Here are a few photos from our hike:

Next, we stopped at a glass blowing factory. We thought there was a free demonstration/tour, but there wasn't. The pieces were very impressive, and neat to look at.  From there, we headed further south to the Huka Honey Hive. We tasted a bunch of honey liqueurs and wines and 12 (!) types of honey. It was awesome! They also had a bunch of information about bees, that I found interesting. The best part was that the live bees they had on display were separated from us by thick plexiglass! :D

The last stop of the drive was at Huka Falls, which has an enormous volume of water released per second, from a rather small opening! It is not as spectacular as Snoqualmie Falls up in WA, but was still pretty cool!

We finally pulled into Taupo around 4:45, and came to our hotel to check in. We're across the street from Lake Taupo (the largest lake in Zealand), but will hopefully have a rain-less view tomorrow morning.

We had dinner at The Mole and Chicken-which was full of locals (we were definitely the only non-New Zealanders). Corey had schnitzel and I had a honey ginger chicken with grilled veggies. The chicken was definitely some of the most succulent chicken I've ever eaten--yum! Corey also had a NZ beer called Old Dark. It was like a Guinness but with a smoother finish.

On our way back from dinner, we filled up the car. We drove 600 km  (375 miles) over 3 days on one tank (~14 gallons). It cost us about $87 USD to fill up our tank, which puts gas here at about $6.20/gallon. Yeesh!

We have a giant spa tub in our room. It was nice to just soak and relax. We're calling it a night a bit early tonight, because we've got a very full day ahead of us tomorrow! (About 6 hours of driving plus 3 hours at the Waitomo Caves)! We'll probably stay in Palmerston North tomorrow, unless we somehow make it all the way to Wellington. Either way, we'll be back in Wellington on Saturday morning to turn the car in! (Note, if you ever come to New Zealand, RENT A CAR. I think we would have had much less awesome of a trip without the flexibility of moving at our own pace and being able to stop wherever we wanted!)

Also, Dad-I didn't go bungee jumping today. Maybe I'll go someday at home. You can go with me!