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Published: April 2nd 2009
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Waitomo
Preparing to meet the glowworms March 31st
Hello again everyone - it’s the gambolling granny again with more news of our exploits.
“Craters of the Moon” are just north of Lake Taupo and in the Geo-thermal area. It is so named because that is what it looks like, craters on the moon. There are hot springs all around, steaming up from the ground and bubbling mud pools going gloop, gloop. It’s a weird landscape, well worth seeing and wandering around.
From there we followed the Thermal Explorer route up to Rotorua. Of course everyone has heard of it and it is touristy, but it is an important centre to learn about Maori history and culture. We went to a Maori village set-up and attended a Maori culture show. We felt that it was one of the few times we’d had any information about the Maori since being in NZ. In the South Island there are very few Maori and they are not as assertive, so we were able to learn very little. Rotourua is the town with the largest population of Maori in NZ and they are proud of their history and heritage. David joined the warriors and learned some Haka dance moves- [not quite like
Craters of the moon
David gets so mad the steam just comes out of his ears! his Lindy-hop dance sessions!],a nd I joined the women and learned a dance with POI balls.
Te Puia, the village, is home to two active geysers which shoot up regularly all day, a couple of times an hour, as well as lots of geothermal pools and mud pools again. So we spent a good day looking at all of this. We wanted to go to have ‘hangi’ meal - cooked over hot stones in a pit but we haven’t managed that yet. We did manage to see a kiwi however. Not in the wild you understand- they are nocturnal, but there was a kiwi house with low lighting and after a while we saw the little thing moving about, prodding his long beak into the earth. One more on the tick list!
The whole area is based in a massive volcano which erupted and left a huge crater. It really makes all that geography come to life when you see it like this. Geography course work could include a trip to NZ in my opinion!
I luged, is there such a verb? I went on a luge down a mountain near Rotorua. David was keen; the best bit for me
was the chair lift back up afterwards, but my bungee jumping husband went on to do 3 more luges! They take photos of you halfway down and mine shows a terrified grin; we didn’t buy it!
On our way up to the Coromandel peninsula we stopped in Whangamatai for a coffee and found ourselves in the middle of a parade of old, 1950/60/70s cars and hot rods. Apparently there is a yearly gathering this weekend and local people can vote on their favourite car. The whole town was buzzing with it, playing Elvis music in the street, and there was to be a jive dance that evening. Of course there would be Lindy hopping - what a dilemma! Unfortunately for David , we had arranged to meet Andrew and Sarah up in Hahei that afternoon and couldn’t stay. It was a very funny atmosphere - maybe Top Gear should look into doing a programme there!
We also stopped at Katikiti, known as the mural town. There are about 40 different murals painted on the side of buildings by local artists. They are very well done and often depict the original usage of the buildings. We liked the grocer’s shop one,
Welcome ceremony
Maori welcome into the Marae with a Victorian grocer’s shop which was on the outside of a modern supermarket.
Near to Hahei is Hot Water Beach, a lovely sandy beach where at low tide you can dig a hole and hot geothermal springs fill it up with hot water. Some parts are so hot you can’t stand in them, but it’s a lovely experience lying on the beach in hot water, especially after a dip in the rather colder sea. We went out for a lovely meal with Andrew and Sarah in Hahei. The next morning we walked with them to Cathedral Cove, a stunning beach accessible only by a rather steep 45min walk. We left them there to be seen next in South Wales, as they fly home on Friday. It’s been great having contact with them out here; they have learned a lot about NZ ways and have pointed us in some lovely directions. Thank you to both of them and Good Luck to going home and finding work etc there.
We drove up the motorway through Auckland, not stopping as we will see it at the weekend. You get a good view of the city and harbour as the motorway is high
Maori dance
Inside the Marae up. We got caught with the new toll on that road as there are no toll booths and you are supposed to prepay at a service station before you go on the toll part of the road. We didn’t see the signs explaining this, and had to phone up and pay by credit card, which of course has an additional charge anyway!
We now get to Northland part of NZ and made for Paihia and the Bay of Islands.
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