Kia Ora!

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Kia ora!
December 8, 2008

After a solid night’s sleep after a rough day of hiking yesterday in Tongariro NP, I dragged myself out of bed and Joe said I might want to comb my hair first thing. I asked, “Is it really that bad?” He sweetly answered, “My apologies to Leonard Cohen, but you are a sleepy golden storm.”

Folding our sore bodies into the van seats, Joe mentioned that there was an oil leak we needed to do something about. About an hour later in Turangi at the south end of beautiful Lake Taupo the oil light came on so we stopped to check it out. First step in checking the oil is to find the dipstick. The problem was that we couldn’t find the engine. We pushed and pulled everything in the front end of the van. A kind young man getting petrol (nobody here knows what you mean if you say “gas”) next to us showed us that the engine was under the passenger seat, which needed to be lifted up. I certainly didn’t realize I’d been sitting on the engine this whole time and wondered why my seat didn’t feel heated. Anyway, the oil was a bit low so Joe added some and we were on our sort of merry way.

Well, Rotorua ain’t no Yellowstone. We had to come here because every tourist in NZ does. It is famous for its thermal features so we picked the area recommended by the Lonely Planet and by a couple of other websites. It is called Wai-o-tapu Thermal Wonderland. We took the two-hour stroll through the area and while there were some nice fumeroles and pools, I’m afraid that living in Yellowstone (twice) for over six years has certainly spoiled thermal feature viewing in other places for us. And they commit the unthinkable act of putting soap in the geysers here to make them go off. We thought the most interesting thing in the Wonderland was this Asian guy wearing monk-looking garb going barefoot who followed us the entire time. He tested a couple of hot pools with his toe. They were fairly quick tests.

We explored the town of Rotorua and liked the old bathhouse that is now a museum and the city parks that have fences around the steaming fumeroles. The smell of sulphur is almost everywhere. I thought it was interesting that hotels would advertise, “No Sulphur Smell.”

Tonight was just wonderful! We went to “Tamaki” a Maori experience. We don’t usually do this sort of thing, but we had heard that this was pretty special and it was. We were the first ones to board the Tamaki bus that went around town picking up other tourists. The lady Maori bus driver was so funny and charismatic that she had everybody in a good mood quickly. We had to pick a “chief” for our bus that soon became a canoe and the last mile into the village we had to “paddle the canoe” with our arms at the chief’s commands. I know it sounds stupid, be we were all having a good time. The evening was educational and entertaining. The Maori had to “challenge” the chiefs (there were three more busses) before we could enter the village. That was exciting with lots of whooping and jumping around and stick swinging. The village was in a tall forest and there were fires lit at each little house. At each house Maori people were showing a craft or game or custom. Then we entered a staged area where these same people acted out a Maori legend, then danced and sang.

Next we were ushered into a big dining room where we had a traditional hangi (food steamed in the ground on hot stones). It was quite a feast of lamb, mussels, chicken, fish, vegetables and the pudding cake was also steamed underground. We also had that same NZ pavlova we had on the Doubtful Sound cruise that we LOVE (not cooked in the ground). There was more singing and drinking and I don’t usually get choked up at stuff like this, but looking around the room at people from at least 20 different countries all having such fun together gave me a good warm fuzzy feeling.

The bus ride back was fun, too, as people from every country had to sing a song. There was another young couple from the USA and we chose “Take Me Out to the Ball Game” as our song. Amazing that most people on the bus sang along with us. At one point, the driver said that we all had to sing “She’ll Be Comin’ Round the Mountain,” and we soon realized we were in a large roundabout. Soon two other Tamaki busses joined us in the roundabout and we went around about five times while we were singing. Too funny!

So, Tamaki does it right. If you are in NZ, it’s a “must do.”

Oh, and “Kia ora” means “hello/good luck/good health” in the Maori language. So ‘Kia ora” to all who have read this lengthy entry.

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Photos

Wai o tapu
Here's the barefoot guy that kept testing the waters with his toes.

Judy at Tamaki
Don't let the coat fool you, I was (as usual) the only one wearing one. It was a nice evening.