Around The World – Rotorua, New Zealand
After our adventure at Hobbiton, the ladies and I drove for about an hour to Rotorua and a campsite called Cosy Cottage. Since I don’t need power or water my fee was only $23 for two days. They backed their big van in and hooked up to power and I pulled into a spot next door. I converted my camper to my sleeping chamber and I have to say the van is quite good. The bed is large and soft and each window has an opaque cloth screen that snaps shut at the bottom, keeping the light out nicely. Opening the rear hatch gives access to the small fridge, sink with water supply, kitchenware and a propane cooker. I made two cheese sandwiches and lounged on my new bed.
The Rotorua area, like many other places in New Zealand, is very geothermally active so there are hot springs, hot mud ponds and geysers in the area. Cosy Cottage has three hot spring-fed hot tubs and we agreed to go down for a soak after dinner. I started a load of laundry while we slowly dipped into the 41C water. Later they invited me over for wine and cheese and we talked until 1AM. It was very cold, about 3C by this time, so I started up the motor to make some heat and read my book. When it was warm enough, I shut off the motor and went to sleep.
The next morning I had breakfast with the ladies in their camper.
We decided to go for a walk through town, so we headed out and came across multiple geothermal vents, bubbling creeks, steaming lakes and a strong sulfur smell everywhere. We walked through a park with nice paths and fencing around the active vents, and a big lake with plooping mud and steam.
Plooping mud holes: http://youtu.be/B0iXm2EOhsg
We walked through town and I hunted for a 12V DC to 240V AC inverter for the van so I could keep the laptop charged, no luck with several stores but everyone kept telling me to try JayCar so I’ll go there tomorrow. Jucy didn’t offer this as a rental option so I have to hunt one down.
We stopped at a meat store and a veggie store and got everything to make dinner. A later walk to a liquor store scored a lot of wine that I contributed to the fellowship to balance out how sweet they’ve been to me, cooking for me and including me in their plans.
We prepped everything for dinner and went to the campsite’s geothermal-fed slow-cooking steamer. Veggies in a plastic bag in one pan for me, meat in a plastic bag in another pan for them.
We went into the hot tub again while dinner cooked for 3 hours. The water was not as hot as yesterday so it was easier to get in. We met a couple from the North island who are travelling through the whole country. The ladies all did a local mud face mask treatment and I let them do it to me too. My skin never felt better!
Lots and lots of food, wine and discussion. They taught me a new card game called Yannis (?) where you try to have the least number of points. I was doing really well until I started taking chances and got hit with penalty points.
The next morning I woke up at 8 to be on the road by 9 to go to a large geothermal area called Wai-O-Tapu with a famous geyser. We bought our tickets and then had to go back to the van and drive about 10 minutes away to the main geyser. The geyser has a 2m high mini-volcanic-dome shape, covered in white silica from thousands of geyser eruptions. It’s scheduled to go off at 10:15 every day. The vent sits on 30,000 liters of water, with a very hot layer below and a cooler layer above. The docent poured in a small packet of environmentally-friendly surfactant to break the surface tension between the two layers, which causes the water to mix and an eruption to occur about 2 minutes later. It would go off on its own at random times so they manage it this way so the tourists can see it on a known schedule.
Eruption: http://youtu.be/Dc34ewiu6Zw
We drove back to the main lodge and walked down to a path that goes through amazing holes, pits, lakes and every other crack in the earth that goes deep underground. Brilliant colors from the various chemicals in the water, yellows, blues, greens, oranges, rusts, etc.
We came back into town and found the JayCar shop. I bought a 150W 12V auto inverter to keep the laptop powered up! As a bonus it also has a 2.1A USB charging port on the side which will keep the phone charged up too. Only cost $60. Very happy.
Denise really wanted to go to a place for lunch called Pita Pit, so I found it on Google and we headed over. I had a falafel wrap with great veggies and tzatziki sauce, really good. This set a precedent for me, I think I had about 6 more Pita Pits through New Zealand.
Back at the campsite we got a small shovel from the front desk and Kim, Jenny and I went to the nearby lake beach and dug into the sand, down only 6″ where we hit very warm water. It’s only 3′ from the very cold lake but the geothermal effect is so strong around here, there’s always heat just below the surface.
Got organized to go to a Maori cultural center and dinner called Tamaki Village. We were picked up in a converted school bus by driver Dennis The Menace. Dennis is Maori and gave us a great introduction to what will happen tonight and joked with the tourists, especially the Brits about Rugby. He taught us several words and phrases in Maori, the only one I remember is “Kia Ora”, which means Hello, Goodbye, Be Well and Be Healthy, you see it everywhere south of Auckland. He asked if there were any veggies, so I put up my hand. When we pulled into the payment office in downtown Rotorua, he told me to go inside and select my desired meal. I asked about onions and they said all 3 choices had no onions, so I chose pumpkin lasagne. Score one for no onions!
Back on the bus we went for the 30 minute ride to Tamaki. Dennis further briefed us that he needed a volunteer to be the leader of our boat (bus) and the leaders of all boats would be presented to the local chief and the chief would pick one to represent our visiting tribes. We were warned to maintain a neutral expression, not to laugh or make comments during the solemn welcoming ceremony. It was very impressive, the players performing a traditional haka and then the selection. We then entered the recreated village area and visited several huts where we learned about face tattoo history, making things from the forest’s bounty, men’s warrior training, women’s performance training and other aspects of Maori culture. It was quite cold so I was happy when we went into a heated building where they performed songs and dances, and demonstrations of weapon handling.
From there we walked to where they just finished the traditional cooking of our dinner, for about 100 people, in underground pits covered with dirt. Several meats and lots of veggies came out of racks in the pits. We then went inside and someone brought my lasagne over right away. I had two hot chocolates to thaw out.
After dinner, they performed some more songs and asked us to spread the word around the world about their culture so it’s not lost to history. I found that the Maori are quite unified in New Zealand, as opposed to the Aboriginies of Australia which are more independent.
We piled back into the bus and Dennis picked up right away, singing songs from each country participating in the rugby world cup. The passengers all joined in.
Back at the campsite, we discussed our plans for tomorrow. The ladies are going skydiving and it’s right along my path to Wellington, so I’ll follow them, watch the skydiving then drive down to Wellington to catch the ferry tomorrow. I’m a day behind schedule but I think I can make it up by making two short days into one longer day or keeping the van for another day.
I really enjoyed the Rotarua area, with the beautiful landscapes, the geothermal areas and the Maori culture.
