Ancient Maori carvings…well…maybe…

Taupo City sits right on, you guessed it, Lake Taupo, a huge natural reservoir formed squillions of years ago from volcanic explosions, and is famous for being full of trout. By the bucket load. And I can see why, it’s crystal clear! You can see the bottom as you’re sailing over it, amazing!

There are some maori carvings on the side of a cliff half way around the lake, so we took the Ernest Kemp, a replica steam boat out onto the lake to go take a look…

they looked really good and we were wondering how they managed to get out here to carve this face so well, and there were other carvings that were just as good here too…

We thought these were really tribal and very historical, right up until we were told that they were actually carved in 1978! Well I guess they’re going to be ancient one day!

We then sailed back over the lake in the evening sunshine, lovely :)

Tomorrow we should be off to the Tongariro National Park for some stunning mountains, including Mount Doom! Sauron beware, the ring man-bag bearer is near!

Geezer!

About 20 mins outside of where we stayed in Rotorua last night is Wai-O-Tapu, home of a particular geyser that apparently goes off at 10.15 every day, and this same park has some great thermal lakes / mud pools / smells, so how could we resist making fart gags all day long?

Apparently this geyser, the Lady Knox, was actually first discovered by convicts clearing scrubland around the area, when they went to wash their clothes in the warm spring. The soap caused the density of a large underground lake of cold water to change, allowing a vast reserve of warm water underneath to force its way to the surface. A jet of water went skyward, and the convicts ran for their lives!

They do the same again today artificially, but the effect is still the same…

that is to say, both Suz and I get soaked in eggy smelling water!

The rest of the park was brilliant too, with loads of weird pools of thermal water, boiling mud and oddities of geology. The champagne pool is amazing, 74 degrees C at the surface, and it’s edges brightly coloured arsenic ridges…

and the well named ‘Devils Bath’, where this sulphurous water mixes with minerals to form this…

I promise you, it really is that colour!

Next up – Lake Taupo!

Kia Ora

Wheeee! That was fun! Can’t quite make up my mind if it was a bit too ‘touristy’, but what the heck! Te Po is a big place set up on ancient maori grounds by the only two thermal geysers in N.Z. and happens to be just a couple of hundred metres up the road from our motel! Handy!

They started by giving the customary greeting ‘Kia Ora’ and whilst the rest of the tourist crowd muttered ‘Kia Ora’ back in a pretty muted response, muggins here shouted it out loud (well it was what you were meant to do!)

We were then taken to the maori grounds to be challenged by a fierce warrior…

before being taken inside for lots of maori chanting, singing, poi twirling and the ubiquitous haka.

Which they then wanted some men to join in with on the stage. Well I couldn’t resist that now, could I!

After that  we were taken for the traditional ground cooked meal, follwed by the ‘traditional’ puddings. Not sure where the trifle came into that equation, but I’m not arguing! After an initial attempt at trying to make conversation with the other guests at our table, I gave up and tried to make Suz laugh instead, with my world famous fingermouse impressions using shrimp heads.

After everyone finished eating though they loosened up (‘cept for the Germans, who didn’t) and we got chatting with a French pair and an Aussie couple. Really nice, so we all swapped stories and recommendations of nice places.

After dinner, we then went on to see the geysers in action, and they were great! The spray kept drifting my way, and trying to ruin a good photo, so these probably aren’t the best…

but add a rotten egg or two to that photo, and you get the general idea!

Our guide then pointed out the southern cross to us, which we then had to point out to the french couple who couldn’t seem to understand why it didn’t actually look like the Great Bear or Polaris, so we settled on it being interesting due to it being on the flag, and left it at that.

So more hot action tomorrow, as we’re going to Wai-O-Taupo to check out the bubbling mud pools and ‘champagne lake’ (I’m already getting prepared for the disappointment that this isn’t actually going to be what I think it is going to be), before heading on to Lake Taupo proper for all sorts of fun!

Mmmm, stinky!

The trip from Tauranga to Rotorua was nice enough, not a patch on some of the other scenery, but it had the added advantage of the promise of actually seeing a real live honest to goodness, cute and fluffy Kiwis!

The aptly named ‘Kiwi Experience’ rears the cute little blighters in a safe environment, and then returns them to the wild, as apparently less than 5% of wild eggs reach beyond 6 months due to pesky introduced pests like stoats, cats and dogs.

Suz and I got to see some of the eggs they currently have being turned and candled and then got to see a really fluffy little thing that was only two days old. Soooo cute! Trouble is, we weren’t allowed to take photos, so in time honoured tradition, here’s one I stole earlier…

these things are HUGE when they are born, apparently the egg takes up 25% of the female’s body when it’s laid. Ouch!

Anyway, we then went outside to see three that were captive bred while they rootled around for grubs, they are brilliant! If you ever get a chance to see a kiwi (of the fluffy variety, not the haka shouting loonies) do so, they won’t disappoint.

We then drove up to Lake Tarawera via the Blue Lake and the Green Lake, with the whole place smelling of sulpher…

and again with the scenery!

This place is the site of a massive explosion that occurred in 1886 burying an entire village with a massive loss of live. Before that the people here used to take tourists like me to see beautiful cascades of sulpher. When Mount Tarawera blew, it buried the lot.

So tonight, we’re off to Te Po, a traditional evening with the native maori for lots of yelling, chanting and dining! Should be fun if I can get Suz up to join in!

Coromandel Peninsula

We hadn’t really planned anything for today, all that we knew was that we wanted to end the day somewhere near Rotorua, and had mapped out Tauranga as a likely spot.

Having chatted to the owner of the Bavaria Lodge where we stayed last night though, we decided to head down to Thames, and then cruise around the Coromandel peninsula, as apparently ‘it’s quite nice’

This place was stunning! We drove from Auckland to Thames, and it was nice enough, the town itself was really quaint, with loads of those shops that have cool frontages in, just like from the wild west, so we stopped and had a coffee, then drove on up route 25 along the Thames Coast Road.

Seriously good fun, and stunning scenery! When they mark corners as ‘25 kph’ they really mean it, those things were hairpin! Brilliant fun! If only I was on my bike, as that would have been both amazingly scary, and utterly brilliant.

So we thought that was nice driving along the coast, and then the land started to rise a bit. I say a bit…

Like those magnificent men, we went up-diddly-up-up, then came down-diddly-down-down, ‘cept the down bits were, like, really scary! Harpin bends, on a fast down (slalom!) with cyclists in the opposing lane and people trying to overtake them on corners! Eeek!

We got to Coromandel around lunch time, so stopped for a wander around the town (possum wool clothing anyone?) before heading on towards the eastern side of the peninsula at Kuaotunu, then down the Pacific Highway (still route 25) to dabble our dainty white feet in the Pacific in Mercury Bay

Could I be any more English? Perhaps a knotted hanky?!

The Coromandel forest has been massively replanted with loads of trees (duh) and loads of tree ferns, such a pre-historic landscape, very cool.

We then hot-footed it (or rather cool footed it now) over towards the ‘Hot Water Beach’ where a geo-thermal river rises to the surface of a beach, and apparently makes for great bathing. But only at low tide. Guess when we got there. Still, nice beach (and bad drivers!)

  Suz balancing an island on her head.

Tomorrow we’re off to the geothermal mud pools at Rotorua, so we’re preparing for that lovely stench of sulphur. Mmmmmm :)

Stratosphere? Pah! Sky Tower is where it’s at!

So downtown Auckland was very nice, we took a bus ride in, marvelling at all the strange and exotic sights (love the very colonial style of buildings everywhere) before doing the whole tourist thing…going up the Sky Tower!

That thing is BIG! The elevator (or if you prefer the english ‘lift’) was quick and made my ears pop, but once up there the views were stunning, especially in the sun, you can pretty much see all of the surroundings, and can really see that Auckland is a series of strung out extinct volcanoes (good job, that!)

Everything was going so well until I looked down. Who’s stupid idea was it to install glass floors?

waaaaaay scary! And then some mad people went outside for a walk around the ‘Sky Path’! No thank you! But the REALLY mad ones? Well they sneer at walking, and prefer diving…

 

 

Well I guess it beats taking the elevator back down again!

DUH!

So how disappointed am I? Apparently the International Date Line isn’t somewhere to hook up with a Russian bride, but rather somewhere where you can have a day disappear on you without trace!

Add to that the fact that apparently Kia Ora isn’t actually a yummy orange squash drink, but rather a catch all greeting here and I’m officially confused.

Still made it here eventually in one piece (boy is that a looooooong journey) and it’s a bright and beautiful sunny day in lovely Auckland

So Suz and I have found our lodgings for tonight, are going to shower and generally refresh before going into town to see what Auckland has to offer.

Heathrow-up

So started out well today….nearly denied entry to the plane in the first place – apparently Australia didn’t like the look of me, so I set about panicking for a while at the ticketing desk.

Got through that (*phew*) then went through customs, security, boredom and out through the other side to gate 48. Waited a bit. Watched a cleanup crew arrive to the aircraft, then a paramedic on a bicycle, then an ambulance. Didn’t really think that that boded well…..

“bing-bong, ladies and gentlemen, we’re sorry to announce that a member of the crew has fallen sick, so we will be issuing refreshment vouchers and there will be an approx. 2 hr delay. Thank you for flying Air New Zealand…”