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Published: November 1st 2008
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Off to Rotorua today - about 3 1/2 hours from Auckland. Big farming region and hobbit like small green hills. First stop was Te Puia, which was an area just outside Rotorua which has volcanic activity. Plenty of thermal springs, small geysers, hot mud pools and the smell of rotten eggs everywhere - but a nice area and a good insight to the thermal activity of the region.
We then decided to treat ourselves to a helicopter trip over the area and out to White Island and Mount Tarawera. Very expensive, but well worth the money. The company we used was Helipro and they had a very small, 4 person helicopter - including the pilot !
After take off we travelled over the Bay of Plenty area (all lakes, forest and green hills) and out over the sea for about 45 minutes to White Island. This is a very active volcano which is continually monitored and has daily changes in the landscape due to the volcanic activity. On landing we were given hard hats and oxygen masks and a briefing not to go off the path taken by the pilot ! There is volcanic activity everywhere, with steam vents,
eruptions, hot streams, sulphur deposits (yellow & green) and bubbling mud. Very surreal and the noise of the vents steaming out just adds to the errieness of the landscape. We walked through this for about 30 mins, getting rained on by sulphuric steam and needing to use the oxygen masks occasionally as the smell in the air was so intense. We then arrived at the active rim of the volcano - looking down into a boiling mass of bluey-green water the size of a football pitch - awesome and like nothing we have ever seen before 😊
We then made our way back towards the helicopter by a different route, going very close to a steam vent - we even had to go off the path as this particular spot had changed over the last few days. What an experience and made up in part for missing some of the things we were scheduled to do.
Back onto the helicopter and headed towards our next stop - Mt Tarawera - a dormant volcano which last erupted about 140 years ago killing 150 people. We landed at about 1000 metres and walked up to the summit at 1111 metres
- bloody cold and very windy - brrrrr. There are 9 craters in this volcano running along the pacific rim fault line. Great history and superb views from the summit. A great second stop 😊
Booked into our hostel (a novelty for Bill) and straight out again for our cultural evening with the Mitai Maori Tribe. This is a family run event and to start with it was very cheesy and touristy and we thought we had made a mistake. There was a warm up man who chose a visitor chief (with the help of a loud American lady), then a look at our Hangi dinner being cooked (hot rocks in a pit, with steam heating the food for 3 hours) and a very staged, warriors in a canoe paddling up a small stream for photos and then backwards for more photos and up again just in case you missed your photo shot - well it was a cheesy start 😞
After this things got much better - the culture bit, with formal challenge from the Mitai Chief to the visitor chief, welcome speeches, followed by dance, story telling and demos of warrior training. Sue especially liked the
Chief's bare bum which was tattooed all over ! This element of the evening closed with the tribe's Haka, which is different from the one used by the All Blacks. It was a great demo. We then had dinner - lamb, chicken, normal potatoes and sweet potatoes, plus lots of trimmimgs, smokey and very tasty - and we were sat on a table with chinese people so the conversation was limited -nil !
After dinner it was bush walk time - a nice walk through a short forest path - looking at native trees and seeing New Zealand's Silver Fern properly for the first time. We also saw glow worms in the dark - neon blue pin points - and a couple of fresh water eels about 1 metre long and blind. Back on the coach we got dropped off and Bill insisted on a beer in Rotorua so we found a local bar in what was by 10.00 a ghost town. Off to bed exhausted after a long but very enjoyable day and one which will stay in our memories for a long time 😊
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karen
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hiya
Thanks for the blogs we were getting worried, hadnt heard from you all week. We are glad bill is on the mend he is such an attention seeker. Not surprise sue was looking at their bums, faces werent much to look at. So glad that your trip is back on track. love to you both and a big kiss each karen