Blogs from Rotorua, North Island, New Zealand, Oceania - page 99

We’ve recently returned from the first half of our Christmas holiday - four days in Rotorua, the thermal capital of NZ. We’ve had a full-on few days - here’s a sample! We left Auckland at the crack of noon on Boxing Day, heading first for the airport to collect our hire car. We were pleasantly surprised that the cheap car we had booked was actually pretty new and shiny - bonus! Graeme took the wheel and we headed south for Rotorua. We arrived at about tea time, and after checking into our hostel (we were meant to be camping, but after lots of rain the previous week, decided to opt for the comfort of a roof and a bed) quickly found a nice pub in which to eat dinner. We had a relatively quiet evening - ... read more

Kia Ora (a general greeting of good will & a diluting soft drink found in th UK) A visit to a Maori Marae (village/meeting place) started with a short bus journey, the Maori guide entertained us with songs and chants along the way and even taught me how to say a few things in Maori. Our bus was now known as a waka and we elected a chief from the waka to accept a piece offering from the Maori warrior that met us at the entrance to the Marae - following me so far? After the lecture about not laughing at or imitating the warrior's dance we were allowed out of the waka, where we stifled our giggles and watched the dance which resembled something like a chicken on a hot tin roof doing gymnastics while ... read more

After a few quiet evenings on the east of the North Island I decided that I needed to meet some people again. Rotorua is nicknamed Roto-Vegas by some of the locals due the huge amount of tourism that goes on there. Having been to Las Vegas the nickname is a little oversized. Although tourist oriented, see the mud pools, smell the sulphur, the scale and size of the city is along the lines of a small town back home. The Funky Green Voyager is where I chose to stay. Run by Gerard an eclectic verbally active host with a brusque but friendly style. Must find a really big word for Gerard. I spent my first day in Rotorua at the Wai-O-Tapu - Thermal Wonder World, a collection of smelly coloured and bubbling pools, and the Lady ... read more

Valene's 1964 Los Angeles Geographical Society tour to the South Pacific began with a Pan American flight from Los Angeles to Nadi, Fiji, with a stop in Honolulu. Nadi was the gateway to New Zealand, as Auckland did not yet have an airport that could handle Boeing 707 aircraft. Valene and her mother, Lucy, came in from San Francisco via Qantas and joined up with the rest of us in Nadi. From there, we took a connecting Pan American DC-7C to Auckland's Whenuapai airport. North Island sightseeing included Auckland itself and its coastal landscape, the Auckland War Memorial Museum (the national museum of New Zealand), the Waitomo Glowworm Caves, the Rotorua and Wairākei thermal areas and the Whakarewarewa Maori village. At Waitomo Caves, visitors take a boat through the grotto. Periodically, the guide turns off the ... read more