Day 14 - Thu 25 Oct

The champagne pool

... Cameron woke up this morning with a cold, and a nose that refused to stop all day. Damn! Still, that wouldn't stop us! Since it was Thermalday (Thursday), we were off to the Wai-O-Tapu Thermal Wonderland. That was about 25 km out of town so we drove there in our Thermal Camper Van along SH 5 (probably known as the Thermal Highway). We arrived just in time to see the Lady Knox Geyser perform its regularly scheduled 10:15 eruption.

Soap it up Geyser Time
Regularly scheduled 10:15 eruption you ask? Yes indeed ... performed on demand thanks to about 1 1/2 kg of soap powder they dump into the geyser at that time. Aparently this is sufficient to break the surface tension of the water building up pressure below the ground, which is all they need to trigger an eruption. The 1 1/2 kg size is the result of trial and error, less doesn't do the job, more just wastes soap. It does somehow reduce the dignity of this wonderful exhibition of natural power and fury when the first sign of an eruption is a bubbling of soapy water spilling over the top of the geyser mouth .. much like an overfilled washing machine.
A couple of geysers
In fact the effect was first discovered by prisoners in a local institute who thought they could wash their clothes in a geyser by throwing in the clothes and a bag of soap. I guess the plan was to pick up the clothes from the ground once they had been ejected. Or perhaps they were just bored ...

Wai-O-Tapu was great .. very thermal. We wandered a 75 minute track around the past volcanic craters, terraces, mud pools, sulphurous water falls, and a 60 m diameter cauldron of boiling water. The colours around the park were incredible, ranging from deep reds, oranges, yellows, lime green and every shade of blue. We used way too much thermal film taking photos of all the different thermal features.

Frog pond

Speaking of taking too many photos ... on the way out of the park we stopped in at some mud pools. These are fascinating to watch, and we again took lots of time and photos trying to capture that perfect thermal mud droplet photo. Thermal fun though ...

From there we drove back into town for thermal lunch and cold tablets. And thermal tissues .. lots of them.

[ Are you getting the idea that perhaps the word "Thermal" is slightly over used here?? ]

After lunch we headed to The New Zealand Maori Arts and Crafts Institute at the Te Whakarewarewa Thermal Valley. Whakarewarewa is actually pronounced fa-ka-re-wa-re-wa, and is actually an abbreviation of the full name Te Whakarewarewatanga o te Ope Taua a Wahiao, meaning "The Gathering Together of the War Party of Wahiao". It's commonly referred to as Whaka (usually not pronounced fa-ka). Whaka includes one large and a few smaller geysers, a mud pool ("Frog Pond"), a recreation of a traditional Maori village, as well as an Arts and Crafts school dedicated to preserving the traditions of Maori wood carving.

Wood Carving
Wood Carving is an elite craft amongst the Maori. To qualify for this school, a student must be of Maori descent, male, and within a certain age range. There will typically be 80 applicants for the three places each year. The course runs for three years, with specific pieces and forms that must be completed to progress each year.
Carving classes
Traditionally carving was used for several functions: for decoration, functionally for making weapons, musical instruments and other implements, and as a form of written language or record. The carvings could depict facets of current events, ancestors and spiritual life where the Maori had no other form of written language. The carver believed that he had to learn all of the other professions in order to be able to portray aspects of their life and traditions in the carvings. This was just one of many active and apparently effective efforts we saw to preserve the Maori culture.

Whaka also includes a Kiwi House. After our failed attempt to see a Kiwi in the wild, we were keen to see one "in person". Turns out this was a pretty good way and we learned many kiwi facts. Since the Kiwis are nocturnal, the Kiwi House keeps them in a state much like bright moonlight during our day, then "daylight" comes on at night. The older male of the two kiwis was asleep, but the younger (approx 2 1/2 years old) female was awake and quite active, and close to the front of the cage so we could get a good look at her. Very cute. The team running the Kiwi House are trying to pair up these two kiwis since the genetic analysis says that this would be a good match as far as the overall population and bloodlines go. The two kiwis are currently separated by a fence, but once the female has grown to full size (when she will outweigh the male by about 20%) they are hoping to take the fence down and let nature take its course. There are several Kiwi Houses around NZ and they work co-operatively, swapping kiwis as appropriate to ensure the most likely and beneficial matches are made. This is all part of the effort to save the kiwi which is officially endangered (there are only 50,000 total in the wild, split between six varieties, decreasing at 6% per annum). After a quick turn past the geysers, and a stop in for more tissues (:-( ), it was back to the park to prepare for our evening's entertainment - Tamaki Tours Hangi and Cultural Tour.

The evening began with a bus pickup from our holiday park and delivery to a central office where they looked after financials and made sure everyone was present. We were then loaded back onto the buses and our journey began. We were told to imagine that we were a Maori tribe journeying on our Waka (originally meaning Canoe, but now used by Maori for any form of transport) to visit the Tamaki Village. A chief was chosen from each Waka as our representative for the formalities to follow.

G'day mate

On arrival we were not able to enter the Marae (village) until a Powhiri (formal welcome) was performed. With our chiefs standing in front, the Tamaki tribe arrayed themselves behind the fortified enterance, all chanting and yelling, while one warrior strode to the front and performed Te Wero (The Challenge). The Maori were a fierce and warlike race, and meetings between tribes were usually wary until an agreement for a peaceful meeting was reached. This consisted of a series of intimidating moves, waving of Taiaha (spear), yelling and poking out his tongue (which we later heard has the meaning "your flesh looks delicious"). We were strictly instructed several times not to move, laugh, smile or immitate the warrior at this time since they are sharing their culture with us and expect it to be treated respectfully. He then laid a peace offering on the ground which one of the chiefs was nominated to accept. We then all moved into the recreated village to watch various displays of typical village life before we the Karanga (welcome call) was song by the village women to call us to the Wharenui (meeting house).

Maori karaoke

In the Wharenui we were (again under strict instructions of solemnity) welcomed officially through a Whaikorero (speech) delivered in Maori by one of the warriors then translated by another. The speech recognised the land and the gods, the ancestors, the Tangata Whenua (people of the land, i.e. the locals), the chiefs and the visitors. The chiefs as our representatives then performed the hongi (pressing of noses) with the Tangata Whenua to seal the bonds of friendship between the groups. From here they launched into a much less formal demonstration of various aspects of the Maori culture, including weaponry ("this piece can be driven through the temple then twisted to completely remove the top of your oponent's skull"), musical instruments, games, Waiata (songs) and dances (including of course the famous Haka).

We then moved to the Wharekai (food house) where dinner was served. After a Karakia (prayer or grace) we fell to the buffet. The food had all been cooked in the Hangi (earth oven) and included lamb, chicken, carrots, kumera and potatoes - all very tasty and not at all sulphurous. We shared our table with a couple from Hong Kong on thier honeymoon, as well as two older couples from California and a lady from Japan. After dinner we looked at an open Hangi pit, and explored the marketplace (the carvings in particular were much more reasonable than at Whaka earlier in the day and had the added benefit of an actual carver to explain the symbolism of each piece). The evening ended with a Poroporoaki (closing ceremony) with more waiata and whaikorero before a singalong bus trip home as different nationalities were asked to sing a song from their own culture. Luckily there were many Aussies to join in Waltzing Mathilda. The bus driver of course had to sing New Zealand's Favourite soppy Maori song, Pokarekare Ana , usually thought to refer to the story of Hinemoa who swum lake Rotorua at night to find her lover, Tutanekai.

The entire evening was very well done. The organisation of the entire process from pickup and delivery, to the feeding of over 400 people was very efficient. There was a good mix of entertainment, education and good food. We were expected to take the culture seriously, but at other times they laughed and joked along and our bus driver (Denis the Menace) in particular took great joy in paying out on Australians. But most impressive was the spirit in which it was done. These people obviously cared deeply about preserving their culture, and sharing it with others. We'd certainly recommend this evening to any others visiting Rotorua.