Geysers and Yet another Lake

Moving on fairly early today, although we don't have a great deal of distance to cover.  The intention was to visit some thermal hot springs. Trying to decide which one to go and see, or should we frequent all three that were on our route to Taupo (pronounced toe paw)? Our hosts had told us that the geyser in one was 'forced' so that it erupted while tourists were there - so we ruled that one out. Another one he mentioned as being very natural, where you pay at a kiosk, park the car and then take a ferry to the thermal area.  However, we were put off this one as alledgedly they ask you for more money before you can catch the ferry back to the car park!  The decision was made, it would be Te Puia, which was only a few miles outside Rotorua.  More decisions - a day ticket or one that included a Maori ceremony? We opted for the former, but it did include a complimentary tour, which just happened to start as we entered.

We thought the name for the Arts and Crafts Institute here would give LlanfairPG a run for its money.

The guide was keen to play down the possibility of us seeing the geyser in its full glory (we wondered if this was going to be a no show just like the Kiwi walk). After an introduction to the Maori customs, a description of what was real and what was re-enactment, and a look at the start of the Welcome Ceremony...

The Haka was not quite as scary as when the All Blacks do it.

... we made our way to the geyser site. 

This time we were in luck, the steam was shooting about 15m into the air. It may have been higher if the local wind conditions had been slightly less dramatic. 

There are three geysers in the same place, the main one is Pohuta but one of the others is called the Prince of Wales Feathers. There is a pool behind the geyser that the guide said was a good temperature for bathing in, but getting to it would be very dangerous as the rocks are about 90deg C.  There were some warm rock steps to sit on to give you a feel for it.

Eric tests the warm steps out - nice. 

The lady in the B&B last night told us that they have at least 10 children a week admitted to the hospital with burns. Also that a child of a friend of their's had been 'taken' as a hole opened up and swallowed her.  A rather sobering thought regarding living in a geothermally active area.

The Blue Pool.

Eric watches steam rising from the fumurole - the smell was giving his sensitive nose a bit of trouble.

There is a coating of sulphur crystals on the rocks near the geyser.

Next, onto the mud pools, or to be more accurate the clay pools, as they are kaolin (but not suitable for making china). They call the big pool 'The Frog Pool' as the bubbling clay looks like lots of frogs hopping about.  And it did. There's a video to accompany this but you'll have to wait until we get home. 

Eric is fascinated by the 'jumping frogs'

There were a large number of swallows around, and we also saw this Fantail.

There was also a canoe made out of the trunk of one tree.

Eric admiring the workmanship on the canoe.

And some carvings set around the bush walk.

Who looks the most fierce?

Eric examining a deep bubbling fumarole...

...and some hot springs (you can cook food in these - er - no thanks).

And an old style Maori house.

Further attractions at the site included a weaving school and a carving school.  It's an institute of art and design for people of Maori descent to encourage a revitalisation of old crafts. The carving is a three year course, and the weaving a two year one.  They only take 3 people a year on the carving one, and about 15 on the weaving. They have to apply and go through a selection process.  Money from the entry fee helps fund their places. The guide told us that the Maori language is doing well as it is taught in schools, but that the old culture was being lost and that this school was a way of improving that position.

There was also a Kiwi house! We were warned that Kiwi spend most of their time sleeping, and that we may only see them on camera - sleeping.  Our luck was in again, both Kiwi were wandering about feeding - it might not be in the wild, but at least we have seen some in the flesh so to speak. No photos allowed. 

On to Lake Taupo, stopping for a picnic along the way.

On our arrival, it was such a lovely day we had a stroll along the lakeshore with a view of Mount Doom out of Lord of the Rings in the background (or at least the mountain they used for the filming). 

Eric photobombs another picture. 

The active volcanoes at the other end of Lake Taupo are in the background.  There is a ski resort there as well.

A stop at the Toursit Information place was in order, to find where our B&B was located, as Flossie could not find the address.  Booked in and then out for another perambulation around the town.  Gently walking along the river, contemplating a more strenuous evening hike to Huka Falls, we came across a sailing boat that did evening cruises to see some Maori rock carvings. We opted to go on board. The boat was called The Barbary and was built in 1926.

Eric sits back and enoys the ride.

It was a little choppy on the way out.

Eric gets thrown about the beanbags.

We reach the Maori carvings - which were only done in 1985!

Sunset on our return. The water was calmer on the way back as the wind was behind us.

Dinner was in a waterside restaurant

And as we return to the car - there is a fish that lights up. 

An excellent day.

Rotorua, Lots of Lakes and the Buried Village

After a very comfortable night's sleep we awoke to it still being rather grey outside, and if anything, even windier than yesterday.  A complimentary washing machine load was passed to our hosts. It was decided that following breakfast we would head into town and pay a visit to the museum.  

The beautiful museum building. 

This was a good decision as it had several interesting exhibitions on varying historical aspects of Rotorua.  

There was also an outside viewing platform on top of the roof, which was open when we arrived. But before we could actually make it to the top - it was closed - wind and rain made it too dangerous. The displays on the local Maori iwi (tribe) were particularly informative, describing how they came to colonise Aotearoa (New Zealand) around about 1200AD from the Polynesian Islands - historically called Hawaiki in their culture. A number of the Islands share the Hawaiki name, and it is thought it may be a general name for several Islands such as Tahiti, Hawaii, and the Cook Islands.  Also about their contact with the missionaries and the Pakeha (Europeans), growth of tourism - people had been coming here for thermal baths since the 1800s, and stories of warring tribes (both against each other and against the Europeans). 

As the viewing terrace was shut we made a tour of the basement mud baths instead. As mentioned above, people have been coming here to partake of the healing power of the thermal pools for a long time - mud, mud, glorious mud - they still sell it as gifts in the shop, packaged as a beauty product. We managed to avoid buying any of that, but did spot some rather good earrings. 

Braved the outdoors again as it had stopped raining.  Next on the itinerary was the Blue Lake, the Green Lake, a lookout between them and the site of the Buried Village near the lake and mountain at Tarawera. 

Eric gazes at the Blue Lake from the look-out...

...and then turns the other way to gaze at the Green Lake.

A Devonshire cream tea was in order when we reached the tea rooms at the site of the buried village - a delicious scone but they really should pick up some tips from Devon/Cornwall on using clotted cream, not the whipped variety.  A debate took place on whether to pay the quite high entry fee for a tour of the Buried Village and the non-Scrooge in us won out.  Another excellent decision.  As it had been raining heavily earlier we were advised that the waterfall in the grounds was looking very good, and as the sun was out for the moment we headed off in that direction.  One hundred and fifty steps later we reached the falls.  

Now back to the top to join a guided tour and have a look around the museum.  

A lovely mountainside full of tree ferns on the way back from the falls.

Although the bit of the tour we had was informative, by this time the gusting wind had blown trees down in the grounds and they closed off the rest of the park, including many of the buildings that had been excavated by the archaeologists, deeming it too dangerous.  We had had a brief look at them on our way to the waterfall, so not a complete wash-out.  

The area had been a very important tourist area in the 1800s, with people coming to sit in the hot pools on the 'Pink Terraces' and the 'White Terraces'.  The guide said they were considered the eighth wonder of the world, and that people would travel from Britain to bathe in the pools, but only stay two days (a bit like us then!).  

This village, plus several others in the vicinity, were buried by mud caused by a thermoclastic explosion as Mount Tarawera was blown apart on June 10th 1886.  It was an unexpected eruption.  The 8km rift that opened up poured molten basaltic rock into another thermal lake causing the mud to be thrown into the air. Some of the villages close to the lake were covered by 20m of mud and over a 100 people died.  The volcano is still active, but we haven't seen any ghost war canoes today so hopefully it wil be alright. 

Exiting from this attraction merited further investigation of the area, including Lake Tarawera.  Even though the sun was out again it was looking pretty flipping rough out there.  

There was a woman on the lookout point who was waiting for husband to come across the lake in a boat as he'd gone across to the other side on Friday - she looked a little concerned. 

Next on the list was the Long Mile and the giant Redwoods - except if you've seen the ones in California then these are not so giant.  

Eric bravely scaling one of the Redwoods.

They are not native here either. Interesting though, as the tree ferns are growing underneath them making a nice contrast.  Sign on the start of the walking tracks "High Winds - Enter Forest with Caution", so after a rather quick stroll around and a visit to the gift shop we left.  

We had bought provisions for picnic on the side of one of not-so-smelly lakes but wind chill factor came into play so we retreated to the B&B and ate it in the communal kitchen there. Still managed to visit Lake Rotoiti  which is further along the road from where our accommodation is, passing the Hell's Gate thermal pools on the way.  

Stopping at a convenient layby we spot some more of those New Zealand Scaup, a Black Swan with seven cygnets, and some 'dabchick' - Weweia (or lots of other local Maori names) - these are considered to be vulnerable.

"Who d'You Think. You're Looking At"

Sun is setting so it's time to return and collect the washing ready for a re-pack.  Tomorrow is Taupo. 

Rotorua Here We Come

Greeted at breakfast by Mr Darcy - OK, it's a Spoodle not Colin Firth.  He's gorgeous and very friendly, apparently doesn't shed any hair or cause any allergic reactions, and his hair is so soft. He even has his own Facebook page. 

A good selection of cheeses, breads, fruit, yogurt and muesli today.  Only one of us opted for an additional cooked option of muffin with poached egg, cheese and Champagne ham. We needed Flossie's help to exit Auckland, and managed to only go wrong once, involving another tour around the block to ensure we were in the right lane this time - she had warned us to keep left, but we didn't keep left enough initially.

Decided we would take a more scenic route than just the SH1 freeway. As always we like to see the sea, so headed off towards the Coramandel peninsula area, with the intention of turning south along the Bay of Plenty once we hit the coast. We stopped briefly in Ngatea and saw a whole stream of vintage cars, from around the 1950's, passing by.  Lots were like American trucks but there was also a. Vauxhall Wyverne - the first car I remember us having when I was little.

A steady drive brought us to Waihi, stopping alongside dunes and a beach we went for a short stroll. Lovely. The sun had made an appearance but it was still windy and cold. 

Can you spot Eric contemplating the eroding foredune cliff.

A wide selection of shells were noted. 

Lots of goldfinch, swallows and skylarks about. 

A 4km detour along the Minden Road took us to a lookout point with views over The Bay of Plenty. 

Captain Cook apparently named it the Bay of Plenty because of the plentiful fruits that were found there. Its Maori name is Te Moana-a-Toi. The area is still famous for it's fruit, with large areas taken over by Kiwi fruit farms.  These have very very tall screening hedges of what appear to be Leylandii trees - about 50 or 60ft high but only about 1ft in depth.  I guess they are there for shelter, and perhaps to make a sort of walled garden with its own micro-climate.

On to Mount Maunganui, an extinct volcano (the big sticky up bit as seen from the lookout in photo above) - it's a geographical formation known as a Tombolo - and to some more dunes behind the beach.  

Eric looks approvingly at the structure of the foredunes here. 

Some of the plants found further back in the dunes.

After a walk around the beaches surrounding Mount Maunganui, followed by coffee and a (shared) cake, we strolled back to the car along the wooden promenade.  

We passed another Tsunami Evacuation advice notice. It says that after an earthquake you are likely to have 50min to reach higher ground before a Tsunami could hit.  Having looked at Mount Maunganui I'm not sure I'd make it to the top of it in that time.

Some views of the beaches. 

Having wrapped up warm because of the wind, we now had to take layers off, as out of the wind the sun was very hot. A delightful time was had by all.  Dragging ourselves away from the sun-drenched sands we headed on to Rotorua and our next stop for the night.

The B&B is a little way out of the city, but in a very pretty setting, with cherry trees lining the roads and the driveway.  There's a view over to Rotorua Lake as well.  This time our hosts have a dog, but it is a Golden Retriever, who decided to relieve himself (or make his mark) against the car bumper - we were on his territory after all! 

After another cup of tea and a introduction to the Rotorua area by our hosts, we headed into the city...and the smell.  Although we had been warned about the sulphurous fumes, we had forgotten.  A walk along the waterfront was not too pungent, 

and we also saw some new ducks - New Zealand Scaup, also known as Black Teal. 

Gulls and Black Swans were also abundant.

Luckily our dinner venue did not seem to suffer too much from noxious fumes.  A drive through Government Gardens brought further views of the lake and steaming rocks, plus that unmistakable odour.  

We may attempt the walkway amongst the volcanic rocks tomorrow, when we have a hankie to press to our noses.

Bay of Islands to Auckland

Time to head back south where our first stop should be Auckland. We did however have to call at the Avis car rental depot in Whangarei to clear up an issue related to where and when we had to return the hire car. The documentation said we had to return it to Auckland airport on 31st October, when in fact we will need to return it 2 days later and about 700 miles south on the other Island. Minor issue really -and all resolved satisfactorily.

The breakfast pie ( a kind of egg, bacon, cheese and tomato Welington, though one was missing the bacon) and plenty of tea and toast set us up for the couple of hours drive down to Auckland, through some very changeable weather. Our only other stop was back at the same cafe we had called at on the northern journey, in Owera, for lunch.

Flossie directed us to the next B&B for a reasonably early check-in.  Our breakfast table this morning had been shared with some people who were from Auckland, and they recommended that we walk up to the summit of Mt Eden in Auckland, as it gives 360 degree panoramic views over the town of Auckland and is a extinct volcanic crater. So after dropping off our luggage that was exactly what we did.  It was about a 45min walk from the accommodation - uphill nearly all of the way.  Finally arrived at the top and true enough the views were amazing, and the crater was very volcanic crater like (but with grass growing in it). 

There were views of Eden Park Rugby ground, which is at the end of the road where our B&B is.

As well as downtown skyline views - well it makes a change from the airport ones.

The other interesting thing was that all the very variable weather conditions were visible all at once.  We were nearly blown away as the wind was incredibly strong.  Hence the panoramas are a bit fuzzy - too difficult to hold the phone still. 

And Eric had to be rescued after being blown away in the wind.

The descent was much easier than going up, and luckily we had packed our waterproofs as the rain caught up with us again, requiring both trousers and jacket.  With a wind like that it wasn't long before it had blown over and our outerwear dried out. Back to B&B for a cup of tea before setting off to an Irish pub for dinner. Pork sausages with whiskey sauce!!  And a 'little' plate of potato skins, cheese, sour cream and tomato salsa - this came in a dish that had about an 8in diameter bowl and was certainly not 'little'. 

Time for bed now before our next adventuring to Rotorua tomorrow. It's very cold here - may have to get the thermals out.