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Published: September 12th 2010
Before I launch into an explanation of the title of this blog, I thought it would be nice to update you on where I am writing the blog from. No, I am not 35,000 feet up like the last couple of times, we are sailing across the beautiful Cook Strait in between the North and South Islands of New Zealand, on board the early morning ferry from Wellington (North Island) and Picton (South Island). Looking out of the window, all I can see is the beautiful blue expanse of the windy strip of water, and in a couple of hours we will be navigating our way through the picturesque lands of the Marlborough Sounds before we dock in Picton.
Anyway, back to the story of our New Zealand adventure, and our journey to the heart of the Maori culture at the start of last week (Monday 6th September). Our first stop after Mount Maunganui was Rotorua, a medium sized town near the lake of the same name about two to three hours drive south of Auckland. Now, the guidebooks had warned us, locals had told us and even friends back home who have been before said to get ready; but
Rach and her mate
At Whakarewarewa Villagenothing could have prepared us for the stench of this town! The foul smell of rotten eggs wafted up our noses as soon as we got within a kilometer or so of the lake. Despite this, we were still both sticking our heads out of the windows of the van like dogs trying to get a smell and see what the fuss was about! (We also, childishly I admit, couldn’t stop blaming each other for causing the smell through flatulence, despite knowing for once it wasn’t down to us!) It was a strange experience as steam rose from random places both near the side of the street and into the distance as the late afternoon drizzle helped give the town an eerie feel.
Rotorua is a ‘hotspot’ (pardon the pun) of geothermal activity and the steam rising, the smell and also the abundance of natural, mineral rich hot water pools are all down to cracks in the earth where sulphurous gas and liquid escape from beneath the earth’s crust due to New Zealand’s location where the Pacific and Australasian tectonic plates meet (hence the earthquake in Christchurch last week.)
Once we had been to the local iSite (tourist
information centre) to book our activities for the next couple of days, we decided that being on a seven month holiday wasn’t relaxing enough and that we would have to head to the Polynesian Spa by the lake for an evening of soaking in the natural hot pools. The place wasn’t very busy, so it was almost like having our own private spa and the experience was great. There were four pools, all continuously filling with mineral rich water from the ground below. The heat ranged from 36 to 42
degrees centigrade (I would say 42 degrees is like the temperature of a very hot bath) and the water felt almost silky because of the different types of minerals in it. The view out over the lake as night fell was beautiful and we had a lovely couple of hours blissfully enjoying the facilities. The contrast was stark between the lush hot water of the pools and the frigid evening air as we moved from pool to pool, and to say my nips were like football studs is an understatement!
There was no escaping the stink when we arrived at the campsite and we drifted off to sleep
feeling relaxed but with rotten eggs on the brain. The relaxation ended abruptly the next morning as we drove towards the Maori village we were visiting, when we realized our camera was missing! Thankfully we both stayed relatively calm as we retraced our steps of the following evening trying to remember where our camera (and all the photos we had taken of New Zealand over the previous week) had got to. The only place it could be was the Polynesian Spa, so we sped off to see if it still was. (Mum, Dad and In Laws, when I say sped, I mean sped but within the legal speed limit and if by accident we did creep over the limit…Rachel was driving.)
To our dismay, the staff at the spa had not seen the camera and as the manager very eloquently put it ‘we get shit nicked all the time!’ Gee, thanks buddy! Anyway, we had a decision to make, we could either wallow in self pity and get really annoyed with ourselves, each other and the thieving so and so who didn’t hand in the camera but instead took it home with them, or we could chastise ourselves for
being careless and get on with our adventure and buy a new camera. We decided to take the second option and tootled off, tails between our legs, to Dick (how apt) Smith Electronics to see what we could get. Rachel and I have found over the course of this trip, that photography is starting to interest us (I defy anyone to see the sights we have seen and not want to do them justice by capturing them on camera to enjoy over and over again). We had discussed previously our desire to invest in a better camera than the bog standard digital one we had and were planning to buy a new one in Thailand. Well, fate (carelessness and a great sale at Dick’s) had handed us the opportunity on a plate! We found a great camera (somewhere between a normal digital and a super duper big one with all the knobs and whistles (I am sure that isn’t the right turn of phrase but never mind!)) and with the price being so tempting decided to take the plunge. The assistant also assured us that we had 14 days in which to trial the camera and return it should it
not suit us.
No sooner were we back in the van and on the way to the Maori Village (again) did we notice that Rachel’s phone had a voicemail from, yes you guessed it, the Polynesian Spa saying that our camera had been found! Now, this was a conundrum (especially for me as a male.) Here I was with a brand new gadget in my hands (Rachel was speeding, sorry, driving again), just begging to be fiddled with and explored, and yet we could just take it back to the shop and forget the whole episode. No chance! We decided that we would be entirely logical and have two cameras! The new one had some great features including the ability to shoot panoramas, better night time shots and a much more powerful zoom, and we knew we would regret getting rid of it, especially with some of the photo ops coming up on the South Island.
We pulled into the car park of the Whakarewarewa Thermal Living Village (Pronounced Fah-Ka-Re-Wah-Re-Wah, and that’s the short version of the name!) at last and proceeded to take a most informative and insightful tour. The village still has a Maori tribe living
there amongst the steaming geothermal pools and bubbling mud pools. They still cook their food using the steam from the pools, in what is known as a hangi. We were shown the ancestral meeting house, the multi denomination church, the bathing pools and also a viewing platform for the two large geysers on their land; Potuhu and the Prince of Wales Feathers (last time I looked Charlie had no feathers, but he did have massive ears, maybe the Maoris got confused!). After the tour (which was headed by a current resident of the village), we went and watched a cultural performance by some of the residents including song, dance and the famous haka. It is quite a sight close up, even when performed by only three men. The bulging eyes, potruding tongues and guttural grunts and sounds they make, used to intimidate rival warriors, make the haka a memorable and frightening experience. Our next little stop was at the Moko (Maori tattoo) hut, where we met the tattooist who, after a short discussion, designed me a Maori tattoo (Don’t worry Mum, Dad, Robert and Maria, I didn’t have it actually tattooed onto me, I’ll wait until I get home for
that!) The design encompasses various shapes and symbols which represent significant aspects of my life such as parents, Rachel, grandparents, brothers and also safety whilst travelling and other bits and pieces. The famous Maori tattoos were used to signify ancestry and status but were usually on the faces of the people. We also learnt that a small facial moko could take up to a year because it was carved into the face and not just inked. If you rubbed your hand on an old Maori’s moko, you would feel the grooves and indentations. No thank you, not for me! We finished what had been a fascinating visit to the village with a short walk around some of the geothermal pools and a visit to the local carvers workshop, where Rachel fell in love with the carvings of tikis. Tikis are small good luck charms which look like cartoon warriors, and they can be bought in wood, bone and greenstone. We will be getting one for the house before we leave.
Tuesday evening was spent at the Tamaki Maori Cultural Experience, something we thought would be an ideal end to a Maori filled day. We were wrong. In principle, the
event sounded fantastic. In reality it wasn’t. We were due to be transported out to a small village, where we would be welcomed in the traditional way by Maori warriors performing hakas and laying down a peace symbol to see if we were friendly. Then, we would get time to look round the village and learn about carving, the houses, the food they ate etc etc. This would be followed by a performance of song and dance, before a traditional hangi meal cooked under the ground and then transport home. What actually transpired to happen, was a coach full of tourists (yes I know we are tourists too!) taken to the ‘village’ where we watched the haka and challenges (which were excellent) before we got to look round the houses (not real, just built for the purpose of this event) for about 15 minutes. Then followed the ‘performance’ by 6 or 7 overweight (yes I know I am overweight too!) ‘Maoris’ whose face Moko was running when they sweated, before finishing the night with a ‘hangi meal’ which was not a traditional Maori meal cooked under the ground, but instead a bland roast dinner cooked in an oven. Most disappointing.
Much to our dismay, we noticed more problems with our van on Wednesday morning, the sink was blocked, the waste water wasn’t emptying properly and there was another leak! This coupled with the fact the bucket they gave us had a hole in and the van curtains were too small and didn’t fit the windows meant we were coming to the end of our tether with Backpacker Campervans! After a phone call to their office, we were told to take it to their service centre in Taupo (our next destination) the following morning. We decided not to let it ruin our day, and made our way a few kilometers down the road to Hell’s Gate. This ominously named area is a hotbed (sorry again) of geothermal activity, with a dual role as spa and walking area. We took the hour long walk around the reserve to look at the many different ways in which the thermals show themselves above ground. Mud pools, steaming lakes, mini volcanoes, deep boiling pools of mineral rich water, hot waterfalls and sulphur attained trees were amongst the sites we saw. It was strange, the landscape was barren, almost lunar like, and very dead looking,
despite being more ‘alive’ with activity than most places on earth.
After the walk, we went into the spa area for yet more ‘pampering’, but this is true travelers pampering: using the natural resources. Firstly we had a mud bath using the clay like mud from the mud pools in the reserve. We watched the man digging the mud that was to be used in our lovely hot bath. After larking around in the outside bath for a while, we had a cold shower and moved on to part two of the spa, the hot sulphur pool. By now we were getting used to the eggy smell, so we dipped into the off yellow colour of the pool and relaxed whilst the natural minerals of the water worked its magic on our skin. When we left, we did notice that our skin was noticeably softer, thanks to the exfoliating properties of the mud and the sulphur. One drawback is that now, almost a week later, we haven’t managed to get rid of the sulphur smell out of our swimwear! Oh well, that’s a small price to pay for the experience and fun of what we had been doing.
Back in Rotorua, we decided to spend the hour before closing in the Rotorua Museum, a grand and very large building that used to house the town’s healing baths. A quick tour showed us some of the uses of the famed healing properties of the water in the area. One involved a bath of natural spa water in which a patient would sit and have electrical currents passed through them. God knows what it cured but I’ll stick to antibiotics thank you! The last 20 minutes of our time in the museum, before we were practically shooed out, were spent watching an interesting video on the 19th century eruption near Rotorua which killed many of the local Maori tribe and some European settlers. It seemed to be a normal film, showing how the area used to be and how the Europeans had settled there. Only for the eruption to happen on film and all the wooden benches we were sat on to suddenly start shaking violently! We, to coin a rather uncouth phrase, “crapped ourselves”!
On Thursday, we were in a small town called Taupo, an hour from Rotorua, and the beautiful New Zealand heavens decided to open, all
day! It was miserable, grey, wet and cold. And I had a sore throat. We started our days’ activities with a trip to the Honey Hive, where we spent an hour sampling different products made using the local honey, known as Manuka Honey. It is famed for its antibacterial qualities and is used to make mead, wine, various body and face creams, juices and fudge. Between us we tried them all and purchased a small pot of their finest Manuka Honey to put in a homemade honey and lemon drink to help soothe my poor throat!
We buzzed off (sorry) from the Honey Hive, to the Aratiatia dam to watch the floodgates being opened. Lake Taupo has two rivers leading into and out of it. The one we were looking at is used to generate hydroelectric power for many parts of New Zealand, and it was quite a spectacle to watch the water being released and rushing down the river. The water here is a very bright turquoise colour and despite the grey clouds and rain, it looked beautiful. The dam releases water for half an hour three times a day but after five minutes, we had kind of
got the drift and got some photos so we hopped back in the van. With the rain starting to ease slightly, we made the short trip to Huka Falls, to watch the beautiful aquamarine water cascading from the ten foot falls into a frothy white maelstrom at the bottom of the falls before continuing its journey to the sea. It was no Niagra but had its own appeal and charm anyway.
From water to fire, as we took in the Volcanic Activity Centre and learnt a bit more about the turbulent and violent past of the area. The crater which now makes up Lake Taupo was the result of the largest volcanic eruption on earth in the last 5000 years. It completely changed the landscape of the area and the ash generated caused the sky to be dark over places as far away as Rome and China for three days afterwards. It made Krakatoa, the famous eruption from the 1800’s look like a bubble bursting! Continuing the volcanic theme, we dropped into the Lava Glass Factory where there was a glassblowing workshop and a showcase of the artists work. Lynden Over is his name and the pieces of work
he made were gorgeous, although a little out a backpackers price range!
Despite the pouring rain, we had a little jaunt into the centre of Taupo to see what it was all about, and I had a go at the Taupo Hole In One Challenge. And failed! The aim of the game was to get the ball into one of three holes on a small floating island in the lake 100 yards from the shore. If you got one of the 18 balls into the smallest hole, you would win NZ$10,000. Yeah, fat chance! The other two holes were bigger and were worth a prize of a free skydive/bungee jump /jetboat trip etc etc. Needless to say I didn’t get one on the island let alone in the holes, but I was better than I thought, in that I actually hit the ball every time!
Back to the problems with the van. Now if you are getting sick of hearing about the van and its problems then one, so are we, and two there is more to come! We received a phone call after we had the sink unblocked to ask if we wanted to swap vans which we
did, so it was arranged that we would meet a driver at 6pm at our campsite to change to a new van. We did so (well he was an hour late) in torrential rain and settled down for the night in the third van of our nine days in New Zealand so far.
At last there was some sunshine on Friday morning and we took the opportunity to do a lovely little cruise on Lake Taupo. It’s a beautiful setting, with three volcanic mountains as a backdrop. As the captain said, “Welcome to Paradise”. We spent just over an hour and half on the cruise and it included a visit to the Maori rock carvings at a cave on the shore only accessible by boat. They were commissioned by the New Zealand Arts Council 30 years ago and took three summers to complete. The size of them were impressive, and it was easy to see why they had taken so long to do.
Once we were back on dry land, it was time for the long and arduous trek through gorgeous mountain scenery, rolling hills and lush green fields on our way through Lord Of The Rings country
and down to Wellington, our last stop on the North Island. That’s it on this blog for me, we had a fantastic few days in the heart of New Zealand and it’s fascinating Maori culture. We’re just glad the whole country doesn’t smell of farts like Rotorua did!
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Matt
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Steaming cliffs
Your steaming cliffs video is almost identical to one I took in 1993! Good to see the old place hasn't changed in nearly 20 years! The only difference was the one I shot was bathed in beautiful sunshine as we were there in December.