NV to NZ: Rotorua

So my home for the last 2 weeks has been Crash Palace in Rotorua. Cat and I are working for accommodation here. I make beds every morning from 10-12:30 and in exchange we get a free bed in the staff apartment. Rotorua is a funky little tourism town on the edge of Lake Rotorua. It's known for it's geothermal pools. It's really cool because everywhere you walk you can see the steam, BUT the whole town smells like sulphur aka farts. You get used to the smell but when a strong breeze blows through town it will stop you in it's tracks. Cat has been really sick so we've been taking it easy but the adventures are about to start back up again. Here's what I've been up to :)

The hostel was closed for repair for Halloween weekend, so we had a big staff party!! It was really nice to have the hostel to ourselves for 3 days. One of my roommates is a dancer and she had been teaching us the Thriller choreography for the past week, so we performed it for everyone at the end of the night (I will hopefully have a video soon). We cooked a big BBQ together and our boss DJ'd a dance party. It was a fun chill weekend and such a relief to be surrounded by great people for my first holiday away from home.

Ventriloquist dummy

Some of my roomies

Cat rocking the pirate eye patch

The Thriller Team

Family dinner

Saturday market burrito

One really weird, really beige, and really cheap meal

Keeping Tahoe Blue all across the world!!

I spent one night volunteering at our bosses' daughter's kindergarden. We helped a bunch of "kindy mums" make Christmas angels for the spring fair. BUT it turns out that there's a rule in the crafting world that you have to give your first project to someone. So we spent 3 hours sewing these christmas angels and we didn't even get to donate them to the Christmas fair. It was a bizarre night of what we thought was giving back to the community but really felt like a weird Kindergarden flash back. We sat in tiny little chairs while an old lady told us that our creative choices were "interesting". She didn't like my abstract angel with the weird Hey Arnold head, but I'm proud of it.

Team Crash Palace's angels

For my first day off from Crash Palace I decided to go wine tasting with my two British friends (Charlotte and Ryan). It turned out to be wayyyy more exciting than your typical wine tasting experience.