Mud, Geysers & Maoris

This is the final part of our circuit of New Zealand - the North Island. We'd planned to spend less time here than the south island, so after getting hopelessely lost when we got off the ferry in Wellington, we headed straight to the main attraction - a strange place called Rotorua. This is actually the main town in an area of geo-thermal activity, and is also the centre of Maori-culture.

We visited several different sites, each of which was more spectacular and weird than the previous one. Neither of us had seen anything like it before. Amazing! We watched 'Lady Knox' geyser, which spouts 20m into the air every morning. We saw pools of bubbling mud, streams of yellow, red and white minerals running through rocky landscapes, creating 'artists palettes'. There were pools of various colours including the 'Champagne Pool' which was steaming and bubbling, like Champagne and a particularly amazing bright yellow pool. The bubbling mud pools were pretty cool too! These other-worldly landscapes were always accompanied by an ever-present stench of sulphur, like rotten eggs.


Trying to pretend it doesn't stink



Amazing colours

Artists Pallete

Mud pools, where are the Hippos :)

Liz at Champagne Pools - shame it's not drinkable!

Lady Knox does her daily routine

Yellow/Green lake

Champagne Pool difficult to show how large it is!

We had a hot mud-bath using mud from the sulphur pools, at Hell's Gate, Wai Ora Spa. It good for the skin and circulation - so they tell us. All I can say (Liz) is that it wiped me out for the rest of the day! We luxuriated in the tub of mud like two pigs in a sty, followed by a cold shower washed the mud off, then it was into a hot pool for a soak in the open air until the heat became too much to bear. It was really good fun though.

Mud packs don't normally smell like this

It's a hard life!

All these geo-thermal places are really difficult to describe, so we'll let the photos speak for themselves.
As well as taking in the landscapes, we really wanted to learn something about the Maori people and their culture. We took a guided tour of an old village at the edge of Rotorua called Whakarewarewa (pronounced fukawakawera or something like that!), where 60 or so Maoris still live. Our guide, who's grandparents lived there and who still bathes in the natural hot sulphur baths there every day, showed us the meeting house, the baths and the 'kitchen'. This consists of several pits dug into the ground, and the food is place inside. Natural steam rises through the ground into the pits, cooking the food faster than a conventional oven. This type of cooking is called Hangi. That evening we would get to try Hangi food for ourselves...

Hangi Meal being cooked via natural steam from geothermals!

s

Village on geothermal area. Can you imagine living here :)

Marc and his new friend. Where's Wally?

Protector of the village

We spent that evening at another village. This one was a replica of the way Maoris lived before the Europeans arrived, created specially for tourists. It was carried out really imressively. Before we were allowed to enter the village we had to go through a traditional Maori 'welcome'. I (Marc) was elected chief of our 'tribe' (our coach party). As visiting chief I was welcomed by the host chiefs four best warriors, who performed Haka-like dances right in front of me, complete with spears, chants, and much tongue-waggling in an effort to intimidate me. (I have to say it was pretty intimidating, and also difficult not to smile or laugh, but we'd been told that would be disrespectful, so I kept my best poker-face on.) Once the haka was done, the host chief and I exchanged the traditional greeting of rubbing noses. He had very impressive facial tattoos covering most of his face, and the rest of the Maori's (men and women) had smaller ones befitting their status.

Chief Marc being welcomed with a traditional Hongi

Once I passed the test of 'friend' rather than 'foe' we were invited into the village. There were several Maori's demonstarting some of their traditional skills such as carving, canoe making and making clothes from animal hides. Then we were treated to a show of Maori song and dance, which was incredibly mesmerising and exhilerating!

Maori Poi Balls Dance

Finally it was time for our hangi meal. As chief of our tribe I was shown how to dig through the mound of earth covering the hangi pit, then uncover the many layers of cloth used to protect the food, which was in metal baskets on top of red hot rocks which had been heated earlier by a fire. Chicken, lamb, potatoes and veggies all came out of the same pit, all cooked to perfection and delicious.

The unveiling of the Hangi



The Hangi meal in all its glory! Yum Yum


 The whole evening was fun and not as cheesy as it probably sounds!

We were both sad to leave New Zealand. We could happily have spent much longer there. It has the amazing scenery and the friendliest people we've met, everything works and getting around is a doddle, other than our campervan hicups ;) And having the camper van meant we hadn't had to carry our backpacks the whole time we were there. After such luxuries, the next 11 weeks in South America seemed quite daunting...