Te Puia Rotorua

"........ where unknown earth is under my feet. I arrive where a new sky is above me. I arrive at this place which is a resting place for me o spirit. The stranger humbly offers his heart as food for the journey".

This wonderful Maori saying sums up our own experience of NZ and the Kiwis on our travels so far!

We visited Te …

Efter et sløjt nytår i Auckland (ikke på grund af de vilde udskejelser, men nærmere det modsatte) var det tid til igen at samle familien. Mette kom tilbage til Auckland efter et hurtigt besøg i Melbourne, og Troels og Birgit kom tilbage til nordøen efter at have kørt rundt på det meste af sydøen.

Og når nu vi havde besøg af geologerne, s …

Left Lake Okareka and went to visit Te Puia (used to be Waka). had a good look around at the mud and steam, had to wait for "Pohutu" the Geyser to build up pressure, it only errupts every hour or so.
Well worth the wait, amazing sight, it carried on errupting for 15 -20 minutes.
The wood carving and weaving schools are worth a look also.

Vandaag staan we niet onder enige tijdsdruk en voor ons gevoel hebben we lekker uitgeslapen. Het is echter ongeveer 8 uur als ik opsta, dus het is meer het gevoel dan werkelijkheid. Dat geeft niets, want ondanks dat er geen tijdsdruk is, hebben we weer een vol programma. We gaan na het ontbijt en als de hele bende weer in de auto is geladen, op weg …

Today we started out with the Te Puia Thermal Park - home of the Pohutu Geyser. I had seen some geysers over the last few years and, at most, they last for a couple of minutes. It began slow and based on previous experience it was like "okay, is that it?" and then the real show started. Not only did this one go for what seemed like an eternity ( …

We woke up ready to check out all of the cool volcanic and geothermal activity the town had to offer. Our first stop was the Buried Village, a town that was, you guessed it, buried by a volcanic eruption in the early 1900s. The village, Te Wairoa, was a tourist stop where people would come to see the Pink and White Terraces. These were a geothermal …

Te Puia was a feature attraction. The Maori consider Te Puia sacred. The geysers, hot water springs, mud pools make one feel as if you are at the center of the earth. Rotorua is filled with elements from the 'center of the earth'. Of course the sulpher smell is all over town, if the wind is blowing in the right direction. Te Puia is a large Maori …

Leaving Waitomo behind we set off on the less travelled roads to spot a few of the impressive photo opportunities that lie in New Zealand. First stop Mangapohue Natural Bridge and then onto the Marokopa Falls. These were mere interludes in our 4 hour journey to Rotorua. "Egg" would have been a better name for “Rotorua”, or to more …

... been dumped overhead during the past week. Rotorua has no shortage of Maori sites and villages most based around the many geothermal areas with Te Puia on the edge of town the one I choose to check out. Te Puia is a mix of Maori village pieces with ...

... knowing that you don't increase your carbon footprint in the process.   During the day we've spent in Rotorua we've visited Te Puia, a touristy spot displaying Rotorua's most famous geysers (Pohutu) that can shoot hot water and steam up to 30 ...

In the morning we drove the hour drive back to Rotorua, adn today we had plans to visit Te Puia, the Maori cultural centre, which also had mud pools and the big geyser there too (I can't remember the exact name but will update when I do, Pohutu or ...

... the Raggamuffin Festival.  The lady behind the counter said we'd have to sleep in our car! Accepting defeat we went to Te Puia, a Maori cultural centre.  Here they teach young maoris how to carve wood and weave flax like their ancestors, as ...

... to run back to the campervan in the freezing cold.  Bet they don't make you do that there. 26th April 2007 - Rotorua, New Zealand Our weather luck ran out today and it rained most of the day. We visited Te Puia today, a cultural centre ...

... weer even hoe het ook al weer was. Grapje Ron. Hoe dan ook, mijn eerste kennismaking met deze thermische activiteit was in Te Puia, een betaald park vol met kokende modderpoelen, geisers en zelfs een centrum met een kijkje in de cultuur van de Maori. Na ...

... checking in at our hostel (the Rotorua Treks Backpackers - very nice) via a detour down Sumner Street, we dashed off to Te Puia at Te Whakarewarewa (shortened to Whaka). Our guide for the one-hour tour round the park gave us a brief background to Maori ...

... and ended up falling out backwards.  Ror came down after us on the zig zag track which looked cool.  We drove to Te Puia then where we went into a Maori prayer house and saw them perform traditional dances and songs and the Haka which is a ...

... in a park in the town centre. These were mainly steaming pools of stinking mud but were interesting. We then hit the Maori park Te Puia which had more thermals and an amazing set of Geysers. These geysers used to be the largest in the world there but ...

... around the North Island. We didn't really see much of Aukland but I was instantly struck with how friendly kiwis are, how similar New Zealand is to Britain and how New Zealand's popular phrase "sweet as"  seems to have somehow lodged into ...