We quickly warmed to the Kiwi sense of humour. Several men we met during the first few days were growing taches. After wondering why, it turns out that L&P (a soft drink) is running a 'Movember' charity programme, with some funny advertising!
With Dad and Clare having arrived in Auckland shortly after us, we followed them (I think the others on their coach thought we were stalkers when we kept appearing) down to the stinky tourist resort of Rotorua. Being the main geothermal area of the north island, there are loads of places around the town with steam coming out of them, golf courses, roadsides, next to the hospital, with life happily continuing in Rotorua amongst it all. The smell hits you immediately as you arrive into the town! New Zealand is really well set up for tourists, within half an hour of our bus arriving we had booked all our activities and transport for three days, plus I managed to get myself in a feature in the local newspaper! Hanging around the bus station looking shifty and stuffing my face with a pie seemed to attract the reporter, and there followed an interview about tourist views of the town. Having been there only ten minutes meant I struggled to answer a few questions such as how to improve the town, but managed to come up with the helpful comment that the pie shop could be a bit nearer the bus station! I suspect they may have used another interview in that edition.
One demolished pie later, and I was off Zorbing. Zorbing is one of the many bizarre adventure activities that the Kiwis dream up on those long winter nights. Essentially it involves getting in the large inflatable ball you can see opposite, and rolling down a hill! I went for the hydro zorb zig zag ride, which means the ball is filled with warm water and you get thrown from side to side as well as backwards and forwards. On the way up to the ride, the instructor informed me that Vania had requested extra cold water for my ride! She hadn't in fact, although thats exactly only as she didn't think of doing it! The cold water is apparently only reserved for Australians, or people taking the piss out of NZ sport (bit hard not to do that at the moment - NZ is in mourning, first the rugby (both codes), then the cricket and now they can't even win at netball despite the face that hardly anyone else plays it)! So I was very english and sticked to small talk about the weather to be on the safe side.
Click on the play icon below to see the video of my zorb:
That evening we met up for dinner with Dad and Clare. It turned out their coach had just passed the zorb place when I texted them to say I was doing it. I think their coach driver's words were something like "some people choose to spend their time here doing strange things like rolling down a hill like a hamster!"
The next day, we met up with them again at the Wai-O-Tapu thermal resort. Wai-O-Tapu is located right on the edge of the largest volcanic caldera (depression) within the active Taupo Volcanic Zone. The Indian – Australian plate rising and overlapping the Pacific Plate causes a fault line, and the ground beneath Wai-O-Tapu is a system of streams which are heated by magma left over from earlier eruptions. This is the North Island's most active geothermal centre and the home of the Lady Knox geyser. The geyser is set off each morning at 10.15, and to Dad and Clare's surprise we were on time for the third occasion in two days. Basically they shove a load of soap in the top, and after a few minutes of bubbling action the geyser blows up on cue for the tourist cameras.
One demolished pie later, and I was off Zorbing. Zorbing is one of the many bizarre adventure activities that the Kiwis dream up on those long winter nights. Essentially it involves getting in the large inflatable ball you can see opposite, and rolling down a hill! I went for the hydro zorb zig zag ride, which means the ball is filled with warm water and you get thrown from side to side as well as backwards and forwards. On the way up to the ride, the instructor informed me that Vania had requested extra cold water for my ride! She hadn't in fact, although thats exactly only as she didn't think of doing it! The cold water is apparently only reserved for Australians, or people taking the piss out of NZ sport (bit hard not to do that at the moment - NZ is in mourning, first the rugby (both codes), then the cricket and now they can't even win at netball despite the face that hardly anyone else plays it)! So I was very english and sticked to small talk about the weather to be on the safe side.Click on the play icon below to see the video of my zorb:
That evening we met up for dinner with Dad and Clare. It turned out their coach had just passed the zorb place when I texted them to say I was doing it. I think their coach driver's words were something like "some people choose to spend their time here doing strange things like rolling down a hill like a hamster!"
The next day, we met up with them again at the Wai-O-Tapu thermal resort. Wai-O-Tapu is located right on the edge of the largest volcanic caldera (depression) within the active Taupo Volcanic Zone. The Indian – Australian plate rising and overlapping the Pacific Plate causes a fault line, and the ground beneath Wai-O-Tapu is a system of streams which are heated by magma left over from earlier eruptions. This is the North Island's most active geothermal centre and the home of the Lady Knox geyser. The geyser is set off each morning at 10.15, and to Dad and Clare's surprise we were on time for the third occasion in two days. Basically they shove a load of soap in the top, and after a few minutes of bubbling action the geyser blows up on cue for the tourist cameras.
Then we walked round the area, the highlight being the champagne pool below. The colours provide a spectacular landscape with the bubbling mud and pools of water. The smell isn't quite so good!
After watching all this bubbling activity, we felt like another hot spa visit ourselves. We went to lay about in the Polynesian spas, with a great view of the lake. A lot of birds also nest by the lakeside, giving it a slightly eerie feel.
Rotorua's geothermal activity drew the Maoris to settle here. The proximity of the hot pools meant they could bathe, cook and build houses on hot ground so as to have a natural form of central heating. That evening, we went to a Maori cultural evening. Each group had to wait at the entrance to receive a traditional Maori welcome. I'm not sure what they said, but we arrived to find Dad and Clare (in background) being greeted by this bloke, who really didn't look happy!
Fortunately we were eventually let in, and once inside were taken on a tour of the village. Now it was Vania's turn to upset one of the Maori people by asking for a photo of the other two women but not him! It was the prettier clothes apparently. He managed to sneak in the photo and get his own back! We then watched them perform the Haka, followed by a hangi (food steam cooked in an underground oven covered with earth) which was very tasty.
With Dad and Clare's coach off down to Wellington, it was time for us to go back up north. On the way we made a stop at the Waitomo caves, as Vania was demanding Glow Worms and they have quite a few. Basically, the worms hang from the cave's ceiling and dangle a sticky thread (much like the spider's one) while producing a bright glow. The final effect of so many worms glowing together resembles the night sky, fooling other insects into flying upwards and getting entangled in their threads. The brighter the worm, the hungrier it is. Vania was very happy with the worms' display! No photos unfortunately, the Glow Worms in the caves don't react too well to flash lights. To my amusement, five coachloads of Japanese tourists had also turned up to see the Glow Worms, providing the rare spectacle of that many Japanese tourists and no photos! In fairness, they managed it, although several were unable to part from their cameras and the others looked distinctly lost without them.
We then made our way back to Auckland and onto the Bay of Islands.
More soon!
Tom
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