This hostel is awesome. Simply, if you ever come to Rotorua
you need to stay at Crash Palace, it’s everything a hostel should be. The beds
are comfy, the people are nice, free pasta and rice (and even a free BBQ on the
weekends), free book exchange and even a hot tub! Don’t get me wrong, Crank was
comfortable too. And cheap considering the RWC. The cool thing about Crank was
the climbing wall that was next door/underneath us, so that in the bar the big
windows looked out onto the upper half of the climbing wall and you could see
people coming up.
I’ve been in Rotorua for 2 days now and I have 4 left before
I move on to Taupo. Yesterday when I got into this hostel, I got upgraded! I
was booked into a dorm for the first night and a single room for the second
night because it was all that was available, but the owner put me in a single
for both nights. I think I might have been charged more, which sucks, but it’s
been nice to have my own space, not to mention catching up on some sleep. So
yesterday I spent settling in and going to get some food. Pasta of course being
o the menu alongside noodles; I also bought some cereal because I find if I eat
breakfast, I’m not hungry again until dinner time. In fact, my appetite has
been weird the last few days in that I’m not hungry any time at all. After I’d
been shopping I went for a walk around a local public park, where there are
geothermal pools. You can pay to go see pools and stuff, but why do that when
you can walk around the park and see them? There was also a farmers market on,
which was nice to wander around and look at. The pools were amazing, even though
the smell of sulphur (which smells like rotten egg, just FYI) was horrible! I
even found a little pool which had been designed so that you could sit on the
side and put your feet in. Sadly I’d made the wrong clothing choice and due to
the wearing of tights, couldn’t get my feet out without stripping off. I feel
that in a public park, that’s probably inappropriate.
Last night there was a free BBQ here at the hostel, so I
obviously had some of that – salad and a sausage sandwich went down quite nicely.
Got myself a beer to go with it and settled down with everyone else to watch
the England v Romania game on the big screen. As I’m sure you’re aware, we
thrashed them 67-3. I’m really glad I
made myself get out of my room and socialise though, because I was feeling
quite anxious yesterday and not really wanting to deal with people. When I’d
eaten I wrote out some postcards then went and got in bed, ready to Skype Mum.
She was a little early and it was so nice just to chill out and chat with my
Mum, all relaxed. That’s another plus to being in a single room, the privacy to
just chat away. I’d say the quiet was nice too, but I’m on the ground floor and
there was a party outside! I didn’t think I was that tired, but after I got off
the phone to Mum I put a movie on my laptop and fell straight asleep!
Today I spent a good portion of the morning just chilling
out and planning my day. Around lunchtime I walked down to the Polynesian Spa,
about 5 minutes away, to see if I could get a therapy treatment or use the hot
pools. In the end I got both! I went into the bookings area, because the spa
treatments have to be booked in advance, and they happened to have an opening
at 4.30pm, so I took it. Included in the treatment is unlimited use of the
thermal pools. I’ll try and explain to you best I can what it was like. In New
Zealand right now, it’s pretty cold, varying between 9-14 centigrade in the day
time, today it was also raining. It was a very weird feeling to go from that
into a pool which is at 38 degrees. Even weirder is feeling the cold rain on your
face, but the rest of you being boiling hot and relaxed. The juxtaposition of
the heat was actually very relaxing. I spent a good hour in the pools, then
probably 45 minutes in the showers taking advantage of their products (sure
beats my Herbal Essences that’s for sure.) Then I took myself through to the
spa lounge, in my fluffy robe that was provided (and disposable underwear but
we’ll come to that later) and spent two hours reading glossy magazines in the
warmth overlooking the lake. It was so so cosy. The time came for my treatment
and my therapist, Alyssia took me through. I had the Mini Spa Sampler, which is
pretty much a little bit of everything. All you wear for the therapies is the
aforementioned disposable underwear, hardly flattering, but I figure this woman
sees all sorts. Still, not too comfortable with a woman I’ve just met getting a
good look but sure. The first bit of the treatment was a thermal mud back wrap.
It was a strange sensation, having mud rubbed onto my back, but the heat was
really relaxing. Alyssia was from New York so we talked about that a little and
the rest of the regular small talk. The next bit was a leg massage with some
kind of oil, which left my legs really silky! Then a foot massage. Then after
getting the mud off my back, the same oil was used on my back, including a
massage. Overall, it was amazing. Half an hour of pure bliss. Once I was robed
back up, I was shown into the ‘private lounge’ to enjoy some herbal tea and
views of Lake Rotorua. It was a really relaxing afternoon.
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| A bit steamy... |
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| Some legs! |
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| Looking hilarious with my hair pulled back, y'know how it is. |
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| View out to Lake Rotorua |
This evening I’ve hung out at the hostel. It’s the Ireland v Russia game tonight, so there’s literally just me and 4 other girls here. I’m not sure I mentioned how many Irish people are here, but the majority of guests are Irish right now. I spent some time sewing. Sewing up the whole in my jeans, sewing up the hole(s) in my PJs, and sewing the clasp back on my sandals which broke today – who said I couldn’t fend for myself hey? And Mum, you’ll be pleased to know all those ‘cast on/cast off’ lessons when I was younger didn’t go amiss, I sewed very successfully. I’ve just sat with some Japanese girls and watched a Japanese boy band concert, which was both horrible and entertaining at the same time. They’ve gone to dinner and I’ve been talking to a girl from Munich, retelling all the stories from February 2010 when we all went with the college, good times. It’s still early, and depending on how Ireland do I can imagine another party here tonight, so I’m going to keep an eye on the result!
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