Sheep and Speed and Sulfur

So we ended day 1 in Rotorua at the motel pool.  I watched and knit until it was too dark and the kids swam with a Fijian family, who were very tolerant of a rambunctious 8 year old boy!  The motel had private indoor natural thermal pools, but the smell of sulfur (which permeates Rotorua) was too strong in an enclosed space for me.  Instead, we went to the park in town, where there were several shallow thermal pools we dipped our feet in.  It was delicious.

Natural bubbling hot mud pools (just to look at)

Natural thermal foot baths in Kuirau Park, Rotorua

Rotorua Day 2

We started the day with a trip to up the Skyline Gondolas to the Luge!  I only crashed once and that was when I was trying to film the ride with my camera at the same time.  Smart, I know, but it sounded like a great idea at the time.

Skyline gondola and beautiful Rotorua in the background

Chair ride after the luge, which are hanging off of the chair.  The tracks we luged down below.

Then, we went to the Agrodome, where we saw a show about sheep, etc.  We were introduced to all of the different types of sheep.  Who knew there were so many.

Romney, Merino, Suffolk, oh my

One was sheared for us and gave us all a little piece of raw wool.  The kids were both picked as volunteers to go up on stage and Blake got to milk a cow and Liza bottle fed a lamb.

Blurry because he was very fast

Blurry again, sorry.  All of Blake's milking pictures were

The little guy in front bolted off the stage when the little lambs ran on.  It was very cute

They demonstrated how sheepdogs work, ones that bark and ones that just stare at the sheep to make them move.  We then got to go on stage and take pictures and touch the sheep, lambs and cow.  Pretty fun for us city folk. 

He looks worried, but it was all very safe

No fear here.  No one prompted Blake to do this, he just ran right in and picked one up.

We ended the day at a circular shrub maze, which was fun, then had a wonderful Thai dinner that everyone thoroughly enjoyed.