Last week I went to Rotorua for a conference. I drove down Thursday morning (about a 2.5 hour drive from Auckland) went to the conference Thursday and Friday, then stayed on for the weekend to check out the tourist sites.The conference was the 2nd Annual Traffic Simulation Conference and I presented my research "Incident Modelling with Paramics and FUSE". The idea of my research is to investigate the use of SCATS (adaptive signal control) to handle the change in demand due to incidents. This is exciting because I get to use microsimulation liked directly to SCATS. I've also been lucky enough to work in the Auckland traffic control room as a SCATS operator which has a great way to learn SCATS as well as see how incidents are managed.
Now, on to the fun stuff. I stayed at a backpacker, nothing flash, but it was cheap, had it's own restaurant, thermal pool, bar and lounge (to watch rugby). I went to a spa where I had a soak in the thermal pools in a beautiful setting, followed by a mud wrap and a massage. It was absolutely heavenly. Then I headed over to the agrodome for the sheep show and farm tour.
The place was packed full of people from tour buses, even though it was an overcast wintry day. They brought out all the different breeds of sheep, did a shearing demo and then came the dogs. They had a NZ heading dog (like Tui) herding some ducks, and then she did a sheep trialing demo outside. The NZ huntaways (who use their bark instead of their eyes to herd the sheep) barked their heads off and literally ran all over the sheep. It was very cute.
The farm tour was interesting as it's actually a working farm with all sorts of interesting animals. We kept stopping to hand feed the sheep, lamas and pigs. We also saw kiwi fruit trees and had some kiwifruit wine. 
The next day I went to a Maori exhibit at Te Puia. There is a large Maori community in Rotorua as well as extensive geothermal activity. I learned about the Maori history and culture, which is really quite fascinating. The geysers and mud pools are beautiful.
I had a fun weekend, but am actually keen to return to Rotorua to see some more when my friends come to visit NZ (hint hint).
