New Zealand day 2: Waitomo, Agrodome, Te Puia, Whakarewarewatang, and Rotorua


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Oceania » New Zealand » North Island » Rotorua
September 6th 2012
Published: September 7th 2012
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What a day. I am sitting here trying to collect my thoughts, remembering everything that I did and thinking through how I am going to put this all into a blog posting.



Here goes. I was picked up by my transfer shuttle just before 7:00 am, so once again an early start so that I could shower and pack my things. There were about a dozen of us that boarded the bus and off we went. We drove down the main Southern Highway out of Auckland and through small rural townships with green rolling hills dotted with cows and sheep. Once we left the city it seemed that the rest of the island looked exactly like the Shire. Never did see a hobbit though.



The first stop was Waitomo, which is a cave tour that ends with a boat trip through a cavern filled with glow worms. The tour guide took us into the cave and gave us a brief history on the place. The most interesting takeaway I had was that in New Zealand if you own the land above a cave the cave is yours. So this cave was privately owned by a local Maori family. The original chief who explored the cave had know of its existence for generations. The Maori are a spiritual people who left the bones of dead by the cave entrance to speed them to the afterlife. It wasn’t until an English surveyor came along in 1887 to persuade the chief to explore it with him that anyone ever went inside. I can only image what they thought when they first went into the darkness and notice thousands of tiny blue lights on the ceiling of the cave, like stars shining on a moonless night. As we went through they asked for absolute silence and no photography. These glowworms use the same chemical reaction in their bodies as fireflies. They drop a sticky thread from their bodies and with the light they give off they attract flies, mosquitoes and other insects to these hanging threads where they then dine on their corpses. The silent boat ride was well worth it, even if the stupid Glowworm song was in my head the rest of the day. The only song my Dad I think knows is this song “Glow little glowworm. Glimmer. Glimmer. Shine little glowworm. Shimmer. Shimmer…” It was
Fiat TractorFiat TractorFiat Tractor

For all of my farm friends back home.
actually kind of fun.



The next stop of the day was at a working farm. Not too exciting for a kid from Nebraska who worked on farms growing up and both sets of grandparents owned farms. I approached it like everything else though, I was ready to learn. There was about an hour drive to Agrodome, when we arrived we piled out and combined with another tour van and all climbed onto seats being pulled behind a tractor. (I had no idea that Fiat made tractors by the way.) The tractor led us through the farm and introduced us to several different kinds of cows. All of which we have in the states, like Herford, Angus, and Holstein. It was kind of fun to watch how scared people got when they approached the tractor. City slickers. Next stop was the sheep. There are 40 million sheep in New Zealand and only 10 million people, just a little fun fact. As we stopped the sheep ran up to the tractor “baaahh”ing away. The guide gave us each a handful of food to feed to them and they were not shy about getting it. I saw one try to jump up and eat it out of an enclosed fist. I didn’t know this but sheep only have bottom teeth, no top teeth. Did you know that? Anyway, I picked up a lamb for a picture, it had been years since I have done this. (My first crush’s father had sheep on his farm and when I was young sometimes my mother would take me out there. So I have held a lamb before, but this was many years ago.) The rest of the tour was comprised of ostrich, miniature horses, various other farm animals, and a herding dog exhibition. The finally of the tour then was a sheep being shorn. The guide was in real workers clothes, through off his coat, pulled a sheep out and sheered him for us while describing what exactly he was doing. It was worth seeing. After the show they took us to a machine that was used to separate the wool after it was washed, then they showed us how they turned yard and explained how they would mix it with other fur types to get the desired results. This stop ended with a trip to the gift shop and then we were back on the road this time towards Rotorua.



Rotorua is famous for there geothermal activity and it smells as such. The bus stopped at Te Puia, which is a Maori arts and crafts institute as well as a thermal reserve park. The actual name is Te Whakarewarewatangaoteopetauaawahiao, which means “The gathering place for the war parties of Wahiao.” (It wasn’t until the English came along that the Maori people had written language, so all of their words had to tell the story.) Once inside we were greeted by a Maori woman dressed in a fur with traditional clothing on. She asked for us to select a representative, or chief of our group, some guy named Greg volunteered and then there was a challenge to enter the Marae, meeting hours, that he was coached through. We took off our shoes and entered a building with intricate carvings both inside and out. Inside we watched a traditional show of song accompanied by Poi, a ball on a string with a tassel that symbolizes a bird in flight as well as traditional stick dance.



After the show we put our shoes back on and were led through to the schools for woodcarving and weaving; the two main art forms of the Maori people. I spent the entire time watching the wood carvers and asking questions, it was like wood shop in high school minus all power tools. Virtually everything was done with chisels, these guys do serious work. To get into the school one has to be of Maori decent and they only accept five students a year, the classes are taught by two masters. Every pattern symbolized something different.



Next stop Pohutu geyser, a 100 ft geyser that erupts once or twice an hour. We were treated to the eruption while there. It was total foreign landscape, it really reminded me of Iceland and the geothermal reserve that I visited there, colorful silica deposits, pools of bright blue, boiling mud and steam rising everywhere. We went through the kiwi house on the way back to the entrance, where we saw two captive kiwis, the national bird of New Zealand. I knew from Zoobooks years ago that they laid huge eggs, like a third of their body size, I didn’t know how close to a mammal they were. They actually have whiskers, and their feathers look as much like a fur as a feather. The things you learn. On my way out I found a wood carving from the shop that I couldn’t live without so that will be joining my collection at home. The rest of the group was going back to Auckland, I was the lone passenger that got dropped off at a hotel in Rotorua, I booked a room at Sudima Hotel, Lake Rotorua. I made a friend on the bus so we exchanged emails and I said good bye to Eriena and the rest of the group, checked into my hotel and went to have a look around before dark.



One of my favorite experiences ever was the Blue Lagoon in Iceland, you can find the blog right on here. There was a geothermal hot springs right next door, the Polynesian Spa, I checked it out on my walk back and decided that was exactly what my body needed. Now I can’t say it compared to the Blue Lagoon, but it was nice, hot, relaxing and exactly what I needed. After a shower I headed back and had a beer at the bar in the lobby and chatted with the cute bartender there. She gave me some great input on what I should do that night. So after I went back to my room and freshened up I took a walk to the “Night Market.” Ashleigh, the bartender, had recommended it as it was several different food vendors and live music played in a street that was closed off. Think food trucks. There was all kinds of different food and vendors there selling wares. I elected on a lamb shank pie from a nice Kiwi. I ate while listening to the band sing tunes that I knew and doing a bit of people watching. There was a truck serving crepes, so I checked it out and yes, they had Nutella. I knew what I was having for dessert. There was a girl in line who started talking to me, her name was Emmy and she was from Wellington. She was here with a guy she was seeing who was friends with the band. Her mates had dropped her off as they passed through going surfing. We chatted for a bit and exchanged information. I had to promise that if I made it Wellington I had to let her know. I said if she made it to the States to do the same. I sat, ate my crepe, amazing btw, watched the band and packed up and started walking back to the hotel. I had intended to go out as I had a late start the next day, but I was tired, it was only nine o’clock and Ashleigh had let me know that people didn’t go out until 10:30. I wasn’t going to make it. That was fine, I had some writing to do. As I walked back I thought about how I don’t know if anyone could travel with me, who out there is willing to walk about six miles a day? Off to bed. Travel day tomorrow.


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