First use of the rain gear this morning. We toured the Te Whakarewarewa Geothermal Valley. Remember talking about how the WH letter combination is pronounced as F, well it turns out this is the start of the fun with letters. Leave aside that Whakarewarewa is the shortened version of this place, the A is pronounced more like a U so phonetically this place is pronounced Fukarewarewa. As in where the fuk are we? Anyway, we are assured by Alex that there will be even more fun with letters to come as we head south.
This place is run by the Maori and combines geysers, super hot mud pools and other geothermal vents with some lessons in indigenous wildlife and Maori art. Wood carvers, jewelry artists carving native jade and weavers making clothing by taking flax leaves, stripping off the green outer leaf and using the remaining pith as thread and combining them with pheasant feathers. We stopped by the house containing a pair of Kiwis, the national bird and symbol of NZ but they would not come out and play. Alex says that these flightless birds, the symbol of the NZ Air Force, usually sleep 19 hours a day.
The geyser fired off shortly after we arrived and went on for about a half hour shooting a good 30 meters, Alex says it was the best he had ever seen.
After getting a steam and shower from Te Whakarewarewa we headed out of town to view the Blue and Green lakes, the volcano that wiped out a lot of the area in 1886 and then back to gorgeous downtown Rotorua for lunch, sorry no food photos today.
After lunch we hiked around a Redwood forest. This forest was started in 1901 with seedlings from California with the vision that they would someday provide the area with another tourist destination. We can attest that in 2018 it looks like that plan is going to work out. Lots of visitors, amazing huge trees and a lovely experience.
The final event in the day was to attend a Hangi. This is described as similar to a Hawaiian Luau. A Maori family business recreates cultural dances such as the Haka, shows off their canoeing chops, a little dancing & singing then a dinner cooked with steaming hot rocks in an earthen pit. Well we made it through the Hakah and then Joel started getting an allergic reaction to the smoke coming off of the “village” campfires, couldn’t stop sneezing had a hard time breathing, so we had to leave. Never had that happen before, must be a sign of aging. Here is our only photographic contribution from the Hangi and I’ll ask you the readers to chime in on the question, “warrior body” or no?
That is a prize winning comment. Possum fur object on it’s way.
warrior fringe for sure.