Rotorua
Drive up
We left at 9:30 Friday morning…and immediately stopped for breakfast at MacDonalds. So at 10 we left for Rotorua. Our next stop was in “middle of nowhere” and we ate lunch at Subway. New Zealand truly is a small world because we ran into the teacher at N’s crèche…weird. Just as we were about to leave, a famous New Zealand motorcross racer (Darryl King) showed up. J and E got autographs on a poster and N got a sticker.
We got to see another type of NZ geography on the way up…it was kinda ugly. I think they call it alpine landscape. No hills…well as flat as New Zealand gets and these ugly yellow dry looking bushes everywhere. That’s when we started singing…I got to 58 bottles of beer on the wall. We did a couple of nice rounds…”One bottle of pop/my backyard/fish and chips and vinegar” and “Frere Jacque”. Crazy windy road..hairpin turns everywhere…we had to slow right down to 25km on the motorway.
We drove by huge Lake Taupo…which was pretty beautiful…too bad it rained from when we left until when we arrived. Talie and I saw some black swans. Taupo looks like a nice place to visit.
That’s when we entered the Geothermal Explorer Motorway. We could see the steam rising from hot pools on the sides of the road. It also started to stink. Rotten eggs. Yuck!
Rotorua
Finally, at 5:45 pm we arrived at Rotorua. The location is great because we are right downtown. There are lots of shops close by and we are right by a lake. The hotel room is also nice. We have a queen bed, two singles and a roll-away bed. Better than at home…we are on real beds rather than mattresses. For “tea” (supper), we went to Sizzlers. I had great steak. On the way there we stopped in a souvenir shop. Lots of sheep skin. After dinner we went booked a spa. It was nice and warm and bubbly and salty. Then we jumped in the pool for a bit.
The kids didn’t get to sleep until about 9:30pm. N tried to escape…he opened the balcony door and then slammed his fingers in the door, ouch! He had a red nail, which I figured would fall off…but didn’t.
Day 2
I woke up listening to E playing with his new MacDonalds character. He played quietly for ½ an hour. It was neat to listen to. We went for breakie at Fat Dog café. The atmosphere was neat but the food was just ok.
After breakfast we decided to go to Hell’s Gate, so named by George Bernard Shaw when he visited the area. It was pretty awesome. It was another world. Nat took some excellent pictures. The sulfur smell was particularly strong there. The smoke rising from the hot pools reminded me of one of the seven hells from Dante’s Inferno, which to be honest I started but never finished reading. In the parking lot there were some peacocks and at the gate there was a male peacock with all his beautiful and huge array of tail feathers. It made me think of how crazy it is that he evolved such an impressive mate attracting feature to the detriment of his ability to escape from predators.
On the way back we stopped to get some great sheep pictures. There were so many sheep on the drive up to Rotorua. It was amazing how they clung to the sides of the hills. The slopes were crazy steep. There were also cows on some of the hills which I thought was amazing. One expects that sheep are good at climbing steep hills but big bulky cows don’t look as sure-footed.
We went for lunch at KB chips. I tried Kumara (Sweet potato) chips, which were sweet and tasty. Apparently there are franchises in Canada too.
The afternoon was spent shopping. Talie bought a new outfit and we got some souvenirs for the kids. Tui is being doggy-sat so we bought some gifts for our friends the dog-sitters as well.
Before supper E and I went for a swim. J was both misbehaving so Talie stayed back with J and N. E is learning how to swim. He is doing a great job.
No one was really very hungry for supper. I think we’ve overloaded on restaurant food. We go out to a lot of restaurants when we are at home in Wellington too. We finally decided on going to Amazing Thai Restaurant. The menu looked nice but the service and food was far from amazing. It took them half an hour to get to our table to take our orders. Talie had Pad Thai which was pretty bland. The kids and I enjoyed our food (chicken satay and a nice soup, respectively).
After we got the kids all ready for bed and tucked them in, Talie went for a night cap and a dessert…I think mostly for a bit of alone time. The kids went to bed a little faster this evening. We had re-arranged the room so that N was not near the patio door…to protect his fingers and to prevent an escape.
Day 3
The kids let us sleep in until just before eight. N was coughing most of the night. He was sick before we left. To wake ourselves up nicely, we decided we would go for a refreshing swim before breakie. We had breakfast in the hotel, which was pretty good. I tried Vegemite for the first time. It was…well…gross, but I had to try.
After breakfast we went to Te Puia. This is a park dedicated to Maori culture and geothermal features. It was great. We saw bubbling mud pools, boiling water in which they could cook their food, and two geysers. The largest of the two, Pohutu, explodes up to 30 metres high. We saw a 10 meter explosion…which was pretty cool anyway. They had a number of Maori whares (wh = airy “f”) set up which the kids played in.
We finally saw kiwis (the bird not the fruit). They are nocturnal so the display was dark but when our eyes adjusted we saw two cute little kiwis. The waddle around on their skinny little legs supporting a fluffy body because they can’t fly…no wonder they are endangered. They had a poster which described some of the animal threat, which includes stoats, ferrets, possums, cats and dogs. There was also a story that I had heard before that a loose dog once killed off 500 kiwis, which was half the population of that area.
We also had an awesome Maori cultural experience. We met at the gates of the Wharenui, where we were greeted by a guide. She asked for a male volunteer and a man from India volunteered himself. He was to be our Chief and he represented us at the initial ceremony. We stood behind him while he was approached by a fearsome looking Maori warrior carrying a traditional weapon and sticking his tongue out. The tongue thing is demonstrating that he can and would like to eat you. A pretty scary sight! The warrior then presented a gift of a koru (fern) leaf to our chief. If our chief accepted the leaf, the maori warrior would consider us to be coming in peace…if not, I believe we were in for a butt whoopin’. Luckily our chief accepted the gift and we were welcomed into the wharenui. We had to take our shoes off out of respect before we entered. Inside the wharenui, they put on an excellent show with singing, the stick game (the one we learned at Te Papa Museum), string and ball (poi) twirling, and a Haka. The Haka is chant/dance that the Maori warriors used to psyche themselves up for war and to psyche out their opponents…a truly breathtaking display. I’d turn hide and run at that! I loved the whole experience.
We had a picnic lunch at a rugby tournament. We didn’t actually watch any rugby though…we arrived just as one game was ending and before the next one started. It was neat though…lots of people and Talie had bought some great snack type foods at the grocery store. It was interesting there because we were an obvious visual minority - the crowd was predominantly Maori.
For supper we went to a Hangi at the hotel. A hangi is a traditional Maori feast, where the food is cooked in the ground. Rocks are laid over a fire until they get white hot. They are then place in a hole in the ground. The food, which is in grass baskets, is placed in the hole and then covered with earth so that no steam escapes. The food is ready 3 hours later. The meal was pretty good but the entertainment after the food was even better. We had another Maori cultural experience…but this time we participated. I got to learn and perform a Haka and Talie and Julia performed a poi dance. E decided he was too shy. What a great experience.
Drive home
It was a beautiful drive home. We drove through that alpine landscape that I disliked on the way up. Turns out, due to the crummy weather, we didn’t notice these huge snow capped mountains that surrounded us on the drive up. Truly beautiful…I feel kinda silly that I talked badly of the area the first time we went through. We stopped at a café that is in an airplane on the way home. The kids had fun playing in the cockpit.
All in all a GREAT trip. This summer, probably over Christmas, we will be heading to the south island and I’m looking forward to it already.
We left at 9:30 Friday morning…and immediately stopped for breakfast at MacDonalds. So at 10 we left for Rotorua. Our next stop was in “middle of nowhere” and we ate lunch at Subway. New Zealand truly is a small world because we ran into the teacher at N’s crèche…weird. Just as we were about to leave, a famous New Zealand motorcross racer (Darryl King) showed up. J and E got autographs on a poster and N got a sticker.
We got to see another type of NZ geography on the way up…it was kinda ugly. I think they call it alpine landscape. No hills…well as flat as New Zealand gets and these ugly yellow dry looking bushes everywhere. That’s when we started singing…I got to 58 bottles of beer on the wall. We did a couple of nice rounds…”One bottle of pop/my backyard/fish and chips and vinegar” and “Frere Jacque”. Crazy windy road..hairpin turns everywhere…we had to slow right down to 25km on the motorway.
We drove by huge Lake Taupo…which was pretty beautiful…too bad it rained from when we left until when we arrived. Talie and I saw some black swans. Taupo looks like a nice place to visit.
That’s when we entered the Geothermal Explorer Motorway. We could see the steam rising from hot pools on the sides of the road. It also started to stink. Rotten eggs. Yuck!
Rotorua
Finally, at 5:45 pm we arrived at Rotorua. The location is great because we are right downtown. There are lots of shops close by and we are right by a lake. The hotel room is also nice. We have a queen bed, two singles and a roll-away bed. Better than at home…we are on real beds rather than mattresses. For “tea” (supper), we went to Sizzlers. I had great steak. On the way there we stopped in a souvenir shop. Lots of sheep skin. After dinner we went booked a spa. It was nice and warm and bubbly and salty. Then we jumped in the pool for a bit.
The kids didn’t get to sleep until about 9:30pm. N tried to escape…he opened the balcony door and then slammed his fingers in the door, ouch! He had a red nail, which I figured would fall off…but didn’t.
Day 2
I woke up listening to E playing with his new MacDonalds character. He played quietly for ½ an hour. It was neat to listen to. We went for breakie at Fat Dog café. The atmosphere was neat but the food was just ok.
After breakfast we decided to go to Hell’s Gate, so named by George Bernard Shaw when he visited the area. It was pretty awesome. It was another world. Nat took some excellent pictures. The sulfur smell was particularly strong there. The smoke rising from the hot pools reminded me of one of the seven hells from Dante’s Inferno, which to be honest I started but never finished reading. In the parking lot there were some peacocks and at the gate there was a male peacock with all his beautiful and huge array of tail feathers. It made me think of how crazy it is that he evolved such an impressive mate attracting feature to the detriment of his ability to escape from predators.
On the way back we stopped to get some great sheep pictures. There were so many sheep on the drive up to Rotorua. It was amazing how they clung to the sides of the hills. The slopes were crazy steep. There were also cows on some of the hills which I thought was amazing. One expects that sheep are good at climbing steep hills but big bulky cows don’t look as sure-footed.
We went for lunch at KB chips. I tried Kumara (Sweet potato) chips, which were sweet and tasty. Apparently there are franchises in Canada too.
The afternoon was spent shopping. Talie bought a new outfit and we got some souvenirs for the kids. Tui is being doggy-sat so we bought some gifts for our friends the dog-sitters as well.
Before supper E and I went for a swim. J was both misbehaving so Talie stayed back with J and N. E is learning how to swim. He is doing a great job.
No one was really very hungry for supper. I think we’ve overloaded on restaurant food. We go out to a lot of restaurants when we are at home in Wellington too. We finally decided on going to Amazing Thai Restaurant. The menu looked nice but the service and food was far from amazing. It took them half an hour to get to our table to take our orders. Talie had Pad Thai which was pretty bland. The kids and I enjoyed our food (chicken satay and a nice soup, respectively).
After we got the kids all ready for bed and tucked them in, Talie went for a night cap and a dessert…I think mostly for a bit of alone time. The kids went to bed a little faster this evening. We had re-arranged the room so that N was not near the patio door…to protect his fingers and to prevent an escape.
Day 3
The kids let us sleep in until just before eight. N was coughing most of the night. He was sick before we left. To wake ourselves up nicely, we decided we would go for a refreshing swim before breakie. We had breakfast in the hotel, which was pretty good. I tried Vegemite for the first time. It was…well…gross, but I had to try.
After breakfast we went to Te Puia. This is a park dedicated to Maori culture and geothermal features. It was great. We saw bubbling mud pools, boiling water in which they could cook their food, and two geysers. The largest of the two, Pohutu, explodes up to 30 metres high. We saw a 10 meter explosion…which was pretty cool anyway. They had a number of Maori whares (wh = airy “f”) set up which the kids played in.
We finally saw kiwis (the bird not the fruit). They are nocturnal so the display was dark but when our eyes adjusted we saw two cute little kiwis. The waddle around on their skinny little legs supporting a fluffy body because they can’t fly…no wonder they are endangered. They had a poster which described some of the animal threat, which includes stoats, ferrets, possums, cats and dogs. There was also a story that I had heard before that a loose dog once killed off 500 kiwis, which was half the population of that area.
We also had an awesome Maori cultural experience. We met at the gates of the Wharenui, where we were greeted by a guide. She asked for a male volunteer and a man from India volunteered himself. He was to be our Chief and he represented us at the initial ceremony. We stood behind him while he was approached by a fearsome looking Maori warrior carrying a traditional weapon and sticking his tongue out. The tongue thing is demonstrating that he can and would like to eat you. A pretty scary sight! The warrior then presented a gift of a koru (fern) leaf to our chief. If our chief accepted the leaf, the maori warrior would consider us to be coming in peace…if not, I believe we were in for a butt whoopin’. Luckily our chief accepted the gift and we were welcomed into the wharenui. We had to take our shoes off out of respect before we entered. Inside the wharenui, they put on an excellent show with singing, the stick game (the one we learned at Te Papa Museum), string and ball (poi) twirling, and a Haka. The Haka is chant/dance that the Maori warriors used to psyche themselves up for war and to psyche out their opponents…a truly breathtaking display. I’d turn hide and run at that! I loved the whole experience.
We had a picnic lunch at a rugby tournament. We didn’t actually watch any rugby though…we arrived just as one game was ending and before the next one started. It was neat though…lots of people and Talie had bought some great snack type foods at the grocery store. It was interesting there because we were an obvious visual minority - the crowd was predominantly Maori.
For supper we went to a Hangi at the hotel. A hangi is a traditional Maori feast, where the food is cooked in the ground. Rocks are laid over a fire until they get white hot. They are then place in a hole in the ground. The food, which is in grass baskets, is placed in the hole and then covered with earth so that no steam escapes. The food is ready 3 hours later. The meal was pretty good but the entertainment after the food was even better. We had another Maori cultural experience…but this time we participated. I got to learn and perform a Haka and Talie and Julia performed a poi dance. E decided he was too shy. What a great experience.
Drive home
It was a beautiful drive home. We drove through that alpine landscape that I disliked on the way up. Turns out, due to the crummy weather, we didn’t notice these huge snow capped mountains that surrounded us on the drive up. Truly beautiful…I feel kinda silly that I talked badly of the area the first time we went through. We stopped at a café that is in an airplane on the way home. The kids had fun playing in the cockpit.
All in all a GREAT trip. This summer, probably over Christmas, we will be heading to the south island and I’m looking forward to it already.
Comments
-erin