Kia Ora!

Kie and Lappin got up extra early to watch England play Ireland in the Six Nations. Sophie rose later and, once we'd all got ourselves ready, we hit the road to Rotorua. On the way we picked up a hitchhiker headed for Tauranga, an old guy dressed in an orange, corduroy suit! He swiftly proceeded to tell us that he'd written a 500 page document to the Maori's to help them in getting their freedom. Although he said he didn't know what he'd written as he was under the instruction of God. Whilst writing his book, he had lived in isolation 20 miles from the nearest shop, surviving on only fruit and water for three months (apparently). After dropping our strange but amusing companion off at the Tauranga turn we continued our journey to Rotorua.

Our destination: Te Puia, a Maori cultural attraction in the area of 'Te Whakarewarewatanga o te Ope Taua a Wahiao' meaning 'The Gathering Together of the War Party of Wahiao' - its principal purpose is as a Maori Arts and Crafts Institute. We arrived at Te Puia by midday and just in time for the 12.15pm cultural performance where we watched a Maori group act out a welcoming ceremony and sing some traditional Maori songs, including a performance of the Haka. Although the performance was good, we were all somewhat disappointed after seeing so many amazing performances at Polyfest the previous day.

We were then given a tour around Te Puia through the carving and weaving schools, the Kiwi house where we got our first glimpse of a live Kiwi bird which was a lot bigger than we'd expected and onto the mud pools and geysers. The most famous spring is known as 'Pohutu' meaning 'Big Splash' or 'Explosion' which erupts with boiling water up to twenty times a day. Our tour guide was great and told us so much about the area and about the Maori traditions which made it really interesting, despite it being a long tour at 90 minutes. Once our tour was over we got ourselves some lunch and ate beside Lake Rotorua and drove back to Hamilton.

Lots of love, Sophie and Kie xx