Blogs from Rotorua, North Island, New Zealand, Oceania

It was finally time for my first taste of what New Zealand is famous for: Adventure sports. Todays activity was to be White Water Rafting. Having been kitted up with helmits, wetsuits, windvests and life jackets we made our way down to the river. One of our instructors explained that until recently this river was considered a Tapu (sacred place) by the Maori people and was therefore out of bounds. They considered it sacred because it is the resting place for many tribe members. It was only after their bones were excivated a few years ago that the river was allowed to be used. Although he did add, cheerfully, that the bones of one cheif still rest in the seven metre water-fall, 'so its one giant grave!'. The guy explained that their rafting company was the ... read more

Our Maori cultural exprience began with the election of a 'chief' (a Dutch fellow backpacker volunteered for the role) for our 'tribe' while we were on the bus to the Tamaki village. We waited nervously (having been told we would offend them if we laughed at what was about to happen) at the gates of the village. Our first sighting was a large Maori man standing about the gate. He was singing. Despite the words being in Maori this was clearly more of a warning then a welcoming song. One by one he was joined by other men clothed in reed skirts, furs and all bearing maori tattoos (some real, some not so real!) They all carried weapons and half danced, half faught a warning to us the 'new tribe'. It was genuinally scary! But the ... read more

Rotorua After the cave tour we headed off in the direction of Rotorua, about two hours drive from Waitomo. Rotorua is a large enough town in the middle of a thermal playground. The draws here are hot mud pools, geysers but definitely not the smell. The place literally stinks. It is like driving into Killybegs on a really bad day but you can’t drive past it, it lingers. The smell is of course from the sulphur in the air from all the active thermal activity in and around the town. We did a quick shop for dinner before heading to our remote campsite next to a beautiful lake a few kilometres from the town. When we found it (the directions were wrong, I swear), it didn’t disappoint and we set up the camper and John made ... read more

Sun 25 Mar ------------ Off to Rotorua today, which is a hive of volcanic activity. on the way we stopped off to see an old gold mining town called Waihi. The trip down the mine wasn't running on Sunday so we caught a little train which went to another little place called Waikino, about 30 mins ride away. We travelled in an open wagon. When we arrived at this quaint little station, we had a short walk past an old Victoria Battery which also had its own little tram to take people on a tour but we didn't have time for that as we wanted to go back on the train 45 mins later. Victoria Battery was where they pounded the rock and processed it to extract the gold. It was a lovely ride on the ... read more

20.03.2012 Nachdem wir noch einmal in Taupo übernachteten fuhren wir heute weiter nach Rotorua. Hier in Rotorua brodelts und stinkts überall. Allerdings liegt es wunderschön am Lake Rotorua.... read more

We started the day by walking to some local geothermic ponds. Fascinating to see the steam coming out from all sorts of weird places, culverts, man hole covers and back yards of houses, in the afternoon we visited a village that had been buried by a quake very atomspheric and an exhilerating climb to see a waterfall. This evening we have had a most entertaining trip to a Maori settlement with a Haka and Hangi (feast) cooked the traditional way! (fire pit to be built in the garden)... read more

Februar - Schule beginnt wieder. Zumindest Grund genug fuer mich zum Jubeln! Linus beginnt seine 7. Klasse auf der Mittelschule und Tim geht nun schon in die 5. Klasse. Seit Monaten erzaehlt Linus schon von seinen Dreadlocks oder Rastalocken und jetzt, so hat er entschieden, ist es soweit. Am letzten Wochenende vor Schulbeginn soll ich ihm die Locken zaubern. Wir haben uns also mal wieder ein Wochenende lang nichts vorgenommen, zahllose Videos ausgeliehen und Utensilien fuer seine Haare besorgt. Ich plane so einen Tag bis ich fertig bin mit dem dreaden. Die Jungs sind guter Dinge, solange Linus still sitzen muss, heisst dass, sie "muessen" Computer spielen oder TV gucken. Samstag Morgen geht's los, ein letztes Foto mit glatten Haaren und es geht an's Haare einteilen. Nach einer Stunde (!) beginne ich mit dem dreaden. Nach ... read more