Auckland and Rotorua

Auckland and Rotorua Pics

New Zealand is very far away. It took me 24 hours of flying time to get there. Folks in my travel group who flew via California saved a couple of hours, but not much. And its 18 hours ahead of me. By the time I arrived into Auckland, two days of my life had passed (well not quite, but you know what I mean). I also realized that its so isolated on the map on earth. If it wasn’t for Australia, those poor things might very well have been lost to humanity! Perhaps that’s one reason why it’s so darned beautiful! So the plan was that I would spend a few days in North Island and then meet up with the NY hiking group I was traveling with in South Island. They were doing the Kepler track while I was in the north.

Auckland was humid and warm. Someone had warned me Auckland was just a city and not that exciting, well they were right. I am glad I only spent half a day. I was staying at Parnell Village, a rather upscale neighborhood. It had a main street with shops, boutiques and restaurants. I had lunch box at a sushi restaurant, much like; no, exactly like sushi back home. I jumped on a hop on hop off tour bus. Went to Victoria Park Market, bought a business card holder. Then got off at civic center and ate a cookie from Mrs Higgins. The bus normally goes to Mt Eden, a volcanic crater. But I missed the last service. So I walked upto Mission from Parnell and took bus 006 to Mt Eden shops and then walked up to the top of the crater. Its quite large and you can walk down to the center. But I was rather tired by then and chose to call it an early night. The one thing I noticed in Auckland was a lot of hearing centers. I wondered what was wrong with the kiwis.

The next morning I was to take a plane to Rotorua. The first thing I noticed was the lack of security, they didn’t scan my luggage and didn’t ask for my picture ID. I just checked in at a kiosk and boarded. How strange it is to be trusted like that, almost awkward. I felt like insisting they see my ID to be sure I was indeed me. The flight was interesting. The plane sat about 20 people, there were two pilots and no stewards. No overhead cabin space (I trust there were life jackets under the seat). A pilot boarded us, gave us instructions and got into the cabin with a wide open door. Every now and then he looked back to be sure we had not fallen out!

Rotorua

When I landed at Rotorua, there was this slight smell of sulphur. It is an active geothermal area and the sulphur is why people come here. NZ was meant to be an adventure trip and I was going to try things I had never done before. Staying at a hostel was one of them. So there I was chatting with the owner of the Backpackers lodge about what to do and things to see. Dinner that night was at a Maori village. Maori are the Polynesian immigrants who are the natives of NZ, the whites are called Pakeha. The Maori are very well blended in mainstream life and you see them as much as locals in cities (except Wellington, I didn’t see that many there). Ofcourse now there are tons of Asian (locals and tourists) and Indians (locals). Indian and Asian cuisine was as common as it is here in metro areas.

Gerry (the lodge owner) shared his life story (was married before, had lived in the US, wife ran off, met second wife in NZ, started business and recently had a second baby) and his opinions of the Maori with me. He was sorry I had already bought the dinner reservation, he could have saved me 20bucks, he said. He sponsors a kiwi (or maybe two) and one day they will be release into the wild with a Maori prayer. He seemed passionate about kiwi (near extinct bird, now being revived through careful planning and sponsorship programs). He has a hearing problem and when I told him about all the hearing centers I saw in Auckland, he explained his generation went to too many rock concerts and were paying the price. How strange!

At dinner, we were introduced to the Maori culture by a Maori hostess. They wear a lot of tattoos; not only on their bodies but interestingly on their faces and even lips. I believe at this village the face tattoos were paint but the body tattoos were real. They are known for the hangi (earth) oven cooking style. Dinner was chicken and beef and some sides (cauliflower in sesame paste, regular and sweet potatoes, stuffing, mint jelly chutney). It looked and tasted like a thanksgiving meal with chicken instead. Dessert was trifle and chocolate log. I wasn’t really impressed with the meal, I tried an NZ beer. I forget the name, but it was ok.

The cultural show started with a volunteer representing our group of about 50 people as chief who would then go and meet the Maori chief in a formal ceremony before the evening could proceed. The Maori seemed to be a very aggressive bunch, either that or they just choose to show that aspect of their culture to visitors (Gerry thought the westerners/tourists encourage that display and that the Maori use too much intimidation even in regular life). Facial and body expressions displayed anger and mistrust, wide open eyes, tongues rolling out. They used (fake) weapons in greeting. Their singing was a chorus and sounded like a war cry. Anyway, the two chiefs finally met and then the so far stern looking chief turned into an MC with smart ass comments and entertaining one liners. It was so commercial, really! He explained the use of their weapons and taught us some greetings and gestures (often used in rugby).

After dinner we were to go for a walk in Rainbow Springs and see some native fauna. We saw Tuatara and rainbow trout. Tautare are called living fossils because they’ve been around since the time of the dinosaurs! We walked upto the Rainbow springs, the water at dinner table was from this spring. There were glowworms, trout and then finally the highlight of the evening: the kiwi. Kiwis are nocturnal and don’t fly. We were asked to stay very quite, not use our camera flash and wait until the kiwis decided to show themselves. I did see a couple rummaging for food. They look cute, it was impossible to take a picture without a flash. It was raining hard by then so by consensus we cut the tour short and all went home.

The next day I left early morning to Wai-O-Tapu, they have a lot of color in the pools and craters. The claim to be NZ’s most colorful volcanic are and very well might be. The colors were indeed stunning. I forget the minerals that made the greens and reds and various other shades. There is a walk around the area that takes about 80 minutes and it was beautiful. They have mud pools that just look awesome, I think our guide said something about them being 170 deg C. No dipping here please! The smells would get intense near the pools. They have a Lady Knox geyser that erupts every morning @10:15am and goes upto 20 meters. In case you are wondering how it knows the time, a park employee triggers an eruption by putting soap detergent into the mouth which causes the normally separate chambers of very hot and cool water to come together releasing all that pressure. I guess if they left it alone it would erupt less frequently but go much higher. But then that would be an imposition on the tourists to wait around, wouldn’t it?

Back in town, I went to the Rotorua museum and learned that Dr.Wohlmann (whose brainchild the bath house was) meant for it to be a world famous thermal bath house. It was too for a while with Europeans visiting regularly for treatments, with stories of people who were cured of the arthritis, asthma and may other ailments. But tragically enough the building and materials kept collapsing due to the acidic air and they rebuilding. It was quite tragic really to read of his dreams come to nothing eventually (or not much). I went to Kuirua, a free thermal park with thermal spring that you can dip in. I debated visiting the Polynesian spa but just wasn’t interested and thought the spa treatments too expensive. I also saw a video on the story of the eruption of Mount Tarawera, it must have been scary to see a mountain just erupt (the seats of the theater shook to give you some real effects). I liked the museum very much.

It was chilly at nights and the morning though the days were sunny (temp range was 8-21 deg C). The next day I was torn between activities like Luge, Zorb or just lazing around. I knew my south island itinerary was packed and that would be tiring enough. I am not used to lazy vacations and it was hard to convince myself to do just that in Rotorua. Eventually I did, I went to redwood forest (yes the redwoods came from California long ago) with the intention of hiking. Instead I went to sleep on the grass in the sun (it was still chilly). Oh how wonderful that was! I went to Rotorua Lake and did the same, lay down and slept on the grass listening to songs of Lekin. Isn’t this what you are supposed to do on vacation? The answer is YES.