Rotorua, New Zealand

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G'day Mates:
Our stay in Rotorua, New Zealand has been a very exciting experience, with the following three highlites: First was Te Puia, New Zealand's premier Maori cultural centre and the home to the world famous Pohutu geyser. They also train Maori students to carve and weave with local material. The tour took us through the park and explained the Maori cultural. We also saw two Kiwi behind glass in a nighttime environment as the birds are notural. The geyser - which erupts twice every hour for about 30 minutes - is surrounded by a large pool of boiling mud.
Wednesday evening was the Tamaki Maori Village where we stepped into a tradiational Maori village deep in the Tawa Forest. There we experienced an evening of ceremonial ritual and performances followed by an hangi feast (all the food was cooked under ground). The food was amazing and lots of it...
Lastly was definately the most relaxing and mud slinging fun... we spent the morning at Hells Gate where we got interactive with geothermal mud pools. Yup! we spent the morning playing in the mud !! Followed by a relaxing soak in the traditional Maori sulphur spa therapies............

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Photos

Hells Gate
Getting all muddy

Rotorua, New Zealand
Some Maori cultural

Te Puia, Rotorua
Pohutu Geyser

Comments

[Lynne]

I'm soooo jealous!
Sounds like you're having an awesome time! Fun, fun, fun!!!

[Donna]

Fountain of Youth!
With all that mud slinging you will come home looking 10 years younger -- try to pack up a baggie full for me as I have been battling a chest infection since arriving home from India. I did a search for your name and discovered your blog this morning so I will follow it more closely from here on -- enjoy every second. Love to Fred --

[Eric]

Amazing!
I envy you guys. ;)

[Kristina]

Am loving all the pics - looks like you guys are having a great time!