We left the hostel for the drive to Rotorua today. En route we stopped at Waitomo Walkway. Must give the Kiwi Experience a mention from time to time. It’s so good to be looked after by them and the bus has become such a familiar sight.
Anyway, the Waitomo Walkway was a nice little wake up before our journey ahead. I was particularly taken by the pattern and shapes of the foliage.
We passed through a small town with various New Zealand items hanging artistically along the street with a summer theme, including jandals, pavolova, ice cream, etc.
Our lunch break was to be in Putaruru. This town has a long history of timber industry.
Here I bought myself the most delicious spring roll which had been freshly made, and some strawberries. It is now the strawberry season and they are huge, juicy and plentiful so quite cheap to buy at $3 a punnet, sometimes buy one get one free.
There is plenty of attractive artwork in the form of hangings, statues and mosaics just to decorate the pavements and shopping areas around New Zealand. This fish mosaic was just on the pavement outside a cafe in Putaruru.
Buzz, our driver then talked about the many pointed hills all around us as we approached Rotorua, which are a legacy to the extreme volcanic activity in the past in this area.
I had been in Rotorua a few weeks previously with Leigh, who was attending a conference at the new Energy Centre so was familiar with that part of town. However, we arrived in from the east and Buzz took us along a part of the Lake which I hadn’t seen before. It was quite scenic with lots of water activity going on.
After checking in at the YHA and dumping our stuff, a group of us were picked up to go to the Gondolas and Luge. This involved going up to the top of a mountain in a gondola. I have to say the panoramic views of the city and mountains beyond from up there were stunning.
I’d never been down on one of thse go-kart toboggan type things before and it was a whole lot of fun. There were three tracks down the mountain, scenic, intermediate and advanced. Needless to say, I did all three!
Buzz, our driver is a great character and loved to join in with our activities when he could.
This evening a group of us planned to go to the Maori Village just out of town to experience some of the Maori culture. The bus collected us at 7pm and we had to appoint a chief and attend a welcoming ceremony before going into the village.
Simon made an excellent chief and we were duly allowed to enter after some rather demonstrative and scarey displays from the Maoris and their chief.
We followed the chiefs into a wooded area where there were small wooden houses in a group. It was beginning to get dark by this time and log fires were burning outside each house.
The women demonstrated how flax was used to make almost everything they needed in the way of tools, clothing and materials to built their homes.
Some of the men demonstrated how their young people were taught to be warriors and needed to be agile on their feet by stepping between sticks laid on the ground. Some of us had a go at this. Then we were shown some activity games using wooden poles which we tried, rather like musical poles.
By this time we could smell dinner cooking. We were taken over to see how this is done. All their food is steamed below the ground and covered with earth and sacking to keep the heat in.
But before dinner, the Maoris had more to offer. We were led into their theatre where we were entertained to what can only be described as a short musical performance. This was followed by the Haka which the All Blacks perform before each rugby game.
At last we were led to the dining room where we enjoyed a sumptuous feast of beef, chicken, fish, green-lipped mussels, sweet potatoes, huge tasty carrots, various salads and stuffing. To follow, pavlova and/or steamed pudding with custard and/or cream. I had a little of everything, my eyes being bigger than my stomach again….. well I had been living on noodles all week!
There was more entertainment to come with the family joining together to sing to us after dinner. A mic was shoved under my nose at one point as I was encouraged to sing a line from one of the songs – good thing I remembered the words!
We finally left the village passing by the now dying embers of the little bonfires and chatted merrily on the bus on the way back to the hostel.
But all was not over yet as my young friends encouraged me to join them in the bar. I was passed as ok and duly crossed on the wrist by a huge bouncer on the door and thought heck what am I in for now.
But we recounted our great evening together… always difficult to talk in these places as the music is turned up so high… must be getting old – nah!!
I shared in a shot with them before bed and some of us left together to go back to the peace of the YHA. Phew, what a great day!