Advertisement
Published: March 25th 2008
We left Roturua early on in another morning to make the most of our time in the geothermal and cultural centre of Roturua. We travelled via Whangamata ('wh' is pronounced 'f' in Maouri) which is famous for the spectacular ocean beach that provides some great surfing breaks. We only stopped here breifly though, so couldn't take advantage of all it had to offer.
Next we visted the Karangahake Scenic Reserve to explore stunning native bush-clad gorge. We took a walk that followed the river and crossed over two questionably shakey swing bridges (which Laura took much pleasure in shaking and scaring the crap out of the rest of us!) and went through a 1 km long railway tunnel used in the old gold mining days.
We passed through Matamata which is the home of Hobbiton, but decided not to do the seemingly overpriced tour and instead just took some gypo pictures of ourselves outside the sign of the museum!
Rotorua means "second lake", which is just a description of the story of it's founding. Lake Rotoiti (small lake) was found by the Te Aroha people first when they settled in the area, then came Lake Roturua. It's an unusual town. Steam
can be seen coming from under the street and through storm water drains and there are boiling mud pools and geysers aplenty there. It has been called Sulpher City, Rotovegas and Rottenrua but we feel the Maori name for it: Whangapipiro is more apt. It means 'an evil smelling place' and this is quite true of the scent, which can only be likened to eggy smelling fart! And yes, even I, Mel could smell how bad! The geothermal activity is the culprit for this stench.
While in Roturua we, and the rest of the bus for that matter, decided to take in some of the culture and booked into a Tamaki tour for the night. Which was an unforgettable Maori cultural experience. We were collected on a bus by a Maori guide who could speak pretty much every language possible and who got the entire bus singing and shouting 'Kia ora' (the maori word for pretty much everything positive, it would seem!) every ten seconds. We were taken to a re-creation of a 1600s traditional village. We were subjected to a traditional challenge in which the tribe determined whether we were friend or foe (a chief was selected from the
bus. His name is now Chief for evermore). We were entertained with some incredible tribal dancing and singing and then treated to a traditional Hangi dinner which is cooked deep in the ground on red hot rocks and was absolutely delicious! After this there was more singing and dancing before our chief led us back to our bus for even more singing and dancing. At one point, while singing "round the mulberry bush" the driver circled the roundabout for a good few minutes while also hooting the horn. The locals must love him! We did...
We then went straight to the hostel bar and drank into the night with our guide who was absolutely hilarious but is also able to do the scariest frozen eyes and tongue freeze... check the photos for confirmation!
Advertisement
Tot: 0.08s; Tpl: 0.011s; cc: 11; qc: 52; dbt: 0.0519s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb
