Profile
Blog
Photos
Videos
Day 137- We were unsure whether to pay for one of the Maori cultural shows on offer at the thermal villages, they are quite expensive and don't seem very authentic- more a tourist trap. So we didn't bother with the night cultural show which includes dinner and dances for crazy money and we just drove to the thermal village ourself. Once there we discovered anybody could walk in and look around and that a guided tour was only $18. So we signed up and met our guide whose name was about 30 letters long and she introduced us to the village and a small history of the area. The village is called Whakarewarewa (that's the shortened version of Te Whakarewarewatanga O Te Ope Taua A Wahiao, meaning The gathering place for the war parties of Wahiao) and is built upon a thermally active area with thermal pools, mud pools, steam vents and geysers. Our guide told us how the villagers use the geothermal activity to cook food and wash clothes etc. People still live in here in everyday life and still use traditional methods of cooking etc. We were shown various ways they use the thermal pools for bathing pools and cooking pots and taking to a traditional meeting house or 'Wharenui'. Finally we watched a cultural show where local village people performed a 'Haka' and performed traditional dances, played musical instruments and sang songs. It was brilliant and at a fifth of the price of the night-time shows where all we would have received extra was a meal. Even with this tour we were given a corn on the cob boiled in the thermal pools which was the best we had ever tasted! Brimming with culture we got the road driving towards Taupo. It took an hour or so and on the way we stopped off at Huka Honey which was a big honey store where I tried every type of honey possible for free and then Eve had a go at all the honey cosmetics. We felt that we deserved a coffee as all the driving was tiring work so Eve ordered 'The Buzzer', a coffee mixed with chocolate syrup and honey, while I chose an iced coffee blended with honey ice cream drizzled with extra honey. While we waited we popped over to see some bees in action at an observation window where bees were plying their trade making honeycomb. The drinks were gorgeous and we munched on some sandwiches made earlier. We drove into the centre from here and found a hostel easily on one of the main streets. The hostel was unusual and we were staying in a 16 bed dorm in the attic of this huge wooden lodge, had a very alpine feel to it and was nice. We went for a quick walk around a section of the mighty Lake Taupo (largest lake in New Zealand and is actually the crater of a super volcano with the last major eruption being around 2000 years ago and the ash clouds were noticed as far away as places in China and even Rome!) We had a look at a few shops and retreated to make tea and have a cheeky beer during happy hour where we ended up chatting to a lad from Middlesbrough.
- comments
mam i would have LOVED to see the haka.... i would be no good after... it's bad enough watching it on the tell... it move's me to tears xxxx