Notebook of a Nomad

1/17/25

After Hobbiton, we headed to our hotel in Rotorua. The ride to Rotorua was a rough one. Construction backups delayed our journey by about an hour. (Now my only connection to road construction is complaining about it like everyone else.) I don’t have the same level of stamina that I had before my brain injury and I was exhausted. I have learned that sometimes I just need a nap and that was one of those times.

After waking up from my nap at the hotel, Paul returned from his massage and told me we needed to hurry up and get dinner before heading to our glow worm cave kayaking tour. I wasn’t very impressed with my last glow worm experience so I suggested we cancel the tour and just have a chill night. Especially since we had another early morning the next day. He wanted to go more than me but we decided it was for the best to just call and cancel. I felt great after canceling. Like I just got back 3 or 4 hours of my life. I spent a little time journaling for this blog and then we found a spot for dinner.

1/18/25

I woke up feeling refreshed and ready for another day of adventures. Our first experience was a hike through a volcanic crater and up Mt Tarawera https://kaitiaki.co.nz/guided-tours/. It was a really beautiful hike.

 

After the canyon walk, we were tight on time for the next experience. We didn’t have time to eat or do anything but drop a few things in the hotel room. Paul hadn’t eaten all day and I had a banana for breakfast. But we made it to our zip lining experience. https://www.canopytours.co.nz

If you’ve been following my adventures, you may remember that I don’t really like heights so I was a little nervous about the zip lining experience. But once again, once I started the experience, everything was totally fine. My biggest concern was dropping my glasses or phone in the rainforest.

The only part that made me slightly nervous was the zip line that involved us falling backwards so we could see the beautiful big tree we were taking off from. Paul was taking a video of me so I made sure to put on a strong face for the camera which helped me bury any fear I may have had.

After zip lining Paul and I were starving so we decided to go grab dinner and a few brews. After that it was time for me to take a quick nap and shower up. Then we chilled for the rest of the night having a nice chat and then settling in to some nice Last Man on Earth.