Rotorua: Geysers and Maori culture

  Rotorua, North Island, New Zealand
Thursday, May 28, 2009

Nat in the thermal pool at our campsite

So, on Wednesday night we arrived in Rotorua and stayed in our campsite, which was a novelty as it had thermal pools, so we had dinner and then had a nice long soak in those - switching in temperature from the hottest, to the coolest and then to the happy medium :-)

The chief welcoming ritual

On Thursday we got up and had an extremely productive day and we did loads of cool stuff. In the morning we headed into town and sorted out Malaria tablets for South America and had Jimmy's watch fixed and did lots of satisfying bits like that before heading to Te Puia to see some geyser action and some Maori culture.
 

Dance with balls on string

When we arrived at Te Puia we had a quick picnic before heading inside to see a Maori cultural performance. First of all one of the performance group came out and explained to us everything that was going to happen. So the chief of the tribe came out and put some leafs on the ground in front of the chief of the visitng tribe (us - and the chief was a japanese guy who looked a bit lost) picked the leaves up as a sign of submission and then we all walked into the main house together. Our chief, Yoshi, then went up and had to touch noses with all the performers and then the performance began.

Bubbling mud

We saw several dances and they sang beautifully - there were only nine of them but it was so great it sounded like a full choir. We also saw the guys do the Haka which is the war dance, which the Maoris used to do before battle, but you will have seen the the All Blacks do before a rugby match. They also did several dances which involved other props, like juggling with sticks or using balls on rope to do kind of aerial displays wth. It was really interesting and the singing was just beautiful.

Nat with Prince Charles and Pohutu geysers

We then went down to the Kiwi house - which is simulated night time as the kiwis are nocturnal , so that was a great chance to see the kiwis as there really is no other way. Third stop was the bubbling mud pools - which reminded us of The Bog Of Eternal Stench from The Labyrinth, before heading swifty (due to the sulphur smell) onto the two Geysers, Pohutu and the Prince of Wales Feathers geysers. They were erupting in full flow when we got there with huge collumns of steam rising up from them (some of which immediately condenses in the cool air and kind of sprinkles you with rain).

Jim on the hot seat

  They were so impressive and kind of look like something from another world, in huge mounds of minerals formations - with streams trickling out of them and all around. We also went to sit on the "hot seat", literally as they have benches which are heated from the action below!

Our final stops fo they day were the Carving and Weaving schools, which our entry fees pay for to help preserve the Maori culture and they properly train people so that they graduate with a diploma and everything so they were really cool to see.

And that is pretty much all we did - before heading North further and staying at a campsite in the middle of nowhere.

Lots of love to everybody at home as always xxxx