Sun 23rd Nov Mercury Bay to Rotorua
Good job I had an early night as it was another early start and there’s a real pressure not to be last on the bus. I think people are getting earlier and earlier and will soon be waiting for the bus an hour before it’s due to leave. Rich has started to notice that Kate is not the earliest of people and has specifically started to look out for it. This morning I had to go and hurry her up as we nearly left without her. Back on the road we passed Whangamata, a popular surfing town where some people decided to stick around for a couple of days. We got some supplies for a picnic lunch and made our way to the Karangahake Scenic Reserve to explore the stunning gorge there. It was a lovely walk which followed the river and then crossed it on swing bridges before making our way through the old mining railway tunnels on the other side. The tunnels were pitch black and so the familiar whirring of the wind up torch was heard as it was put into action. The walk was fairly slow, partly due to the amount of us trying to go along the narrow pathways but made worse by the fact I had a Japanese girl in front of me stopping to take pictures of every little thing along the way. She must have one huge memory card (and very patient family and friends when she gets home. I don’t think I’d like to be a fly on the wall for that slideshow).

Once we’d taken the obligatory pictures of the old mining carts (and us in the carts) it was time for lunch, which is when we met Sarah Jane and Gareth. They were a couple from the UK, Gareth was from Wales ad SJ from Royton (I KNEW I recognised those dulcet northern tones). They had already been to South East Asia and so were giving us tips on where to go. (It all seemed so long ago then!) Next stop after lunch was Paeroa famous for the L&P spring water soft drink popular in New Zealand (and only in NZ it seems). Rich the driver had warned us of small towns in New Zealand –once they become popular for one thing in particular, they tend to flog it to death. You’d have had to asleep not to notice all the proud town signs of L&P along with the gigantic statue of a bottle of it. Having said that, they should be proud of their spring water –it tastes delicious and they have a free fountain specifically for people to fill up their water bottles. Sales of Evian must be pretty slow in this town.

The Big Green Sex Machine carried on its journey passed the Hauraki Planes to the town of Matamata. We had a brief stop here to marvel at the town which was the filming location for Hobbiton in Lord of the Rings and didn’t we know it (NB see previous paragraph on flogging something to death). Our destination that evening was Rotorua and we made it in good time despite getting only slightly lost and trying to turn around in the smallest country lane I’ve ever seen. This was where we passed a lot of cows which were all either mostly all black or mostly all white. I was just thinking this was a bit strange when Rich announced that there was a scientific lab in the area and that these cows were special cows known as indicator cows. He told us how they had been genetically modified to be able to tell when they needed milking, i.e. all white or nearly all white was ready to be milked and black meant not ready. I pondered on this a while, thought nothing more of it and next thing I knew we had reached our destination.

Rotorua, also know as Sulphur City, Roto-vegas or Rotten-rua and its easy to smell why. There are boiling mud pools all over the town, geysers everywhere and steam coming from under the streets. And it stinks. Now I’m sure if you were from here you’d get used to it or not notice it after a while, but I couldn’t deal with it. What if you were used to it and went away for a while and then had to come back? And how about if your eggs were off? You’d never know and could get really sick. These were just a few thoughts that went through my mind (as well as a fleeting doubt as to whether indicator cows really were real). Anyway here comes the science bit, it’s the sulphur dioxide gas created by the geothermal activity that causes the smell. Hot springs occur when rainwater seeps through the earth’s crust and is heated by contact with the hot rocks and a geyser erupts when an underground pool of water boils and flashes into steam, expelling the water. We were warned of three risks, the first was don’t put your head under water in the hot springs for the risk of contacting amoebic meningitis and serious illness. The second was to stay away from taped off geysers in public gardens as you could fall in them and boil to death and the third was not to go out on your own at night in Rotorua as it wasn’t the safest of towns. It has one of the highest crime rates in NZ apparently. However, the town is an important one for both tourists (it’s the second most visited town in NZ) and for the Maori (who originally came here for the unique properties of the land) as it is here that they have clung onto their traditions more than anywhere else in New Zealand.

We arrived fairly early into Rotorua and our first stop was the Tamaki Maori Centre for an intro into the Maori culture and a chance to book for that evening’s traditional Maori evening. Once we learnt of all the delicious food on offer at the event how could we refuse?! So once that was all booked, we spent the rest of the afternoon at the skyline and luge. We took the cable car up the mountain and had fantastic views of the whole of this smelly town. Once at the top we paid for a couple of luge rides back down (and up and down again), which were brilliant fun. Pretty dangerous though as I soon discovered you can go pretty fast round some very tight corners and I’m quite sure the concrete track would hurt ever so slightly if you fell off. Luckily neither of us did but I lost Kate somewhere along the way and made my way back to the chairlift. Once there we made our way back up and had to entertain each other for what seemed like an eternity whilst the slowest chairlift in the world made its way back up to the top. Rich picked us up and took us back to the hostel where we had a quick change before the bus arrived to take us to the Maori Village. I couldn’t wait for the feast.

We had to choose a visiting chief on the bus and the criteria was a man who was strong/handsome/courageous and intelligent (it sounds like the lyrics to “I need a hero”). Unsurprisingly there was a lack of this type of male on the bus and none of the guys volunteered so the guide picked someone. We were slightly late getting to the ceremony as some of the others in the group who had been rafting in the afternoon weren’t back in time to get the bus to the Maori evening. We had arranged to meet them at a petrol station on the way there but we couldn’t wait any longer and due to a ‘communication error’ they got stranded at this petrol station for two hours in wet clothes and missed out on the whole evening. Not happy people.

The Tamaki Centre was just outside of Rotorua and it was recreated just as it would have been when the Maori’s lived there. The traditional welcome had already started with the Maori people in traditional dress singing and showing the rituals that would have been performed at this kind of ceremony. The people played the parts very well and I was a bit scared actually, they do this thing where they open their eyes so wide and it’s terrifying! The village is set within a 200 year old native forest village and it has been reconstructed really well with lots of traditional sculptures, wooden huts etc. I had my photo taken with the chief and cheekily asked for his number but he said he didn’t know what phones were. There was lots of traditional dancing including the Haka and Pui Dance as well as weaponry displays and singing. Once this was all over, we were all starving and ready for the buffet, which did not disappoint. It was a traditionally prepared hangi (meal steamed in the ground on hot rocks) with lots of beautifully cooked meats, fish and veggies. Dessert was just as good with passion fruit pavlova and ginger pudding with custard. I was ready to pop when we’d finished, it was an all you can eat buffet but there was nothing left! I selpt well that night.