Blog
29 - Rotorua
It
was hard to say goodbye to Queenstown this morning, but a new adventure awaited
us in the North Island. After 2 short
flights via Christchurch, we landed in Rotorua about noon.
New
Zealand lies at the junction of the massive Pacific and Australia tectonic
plates. Nowhere is this more evident
than Rotorua. Located among 16 crater
lakes and known as the geothermal capital of New Zealand, it is famous for its
sulfur-rich spas. There are more than
1200 geothermal features in this area, including the wildest geysers in the
southern hemisphere (like the Lady Know Geyser that goes erupts every day at
10:15 am), boiling mud pools, lime-green caldrons, smoking caves, steaming
vents, and the pungent odor of sulfur.
It is in this area that the Pacific “Ring of Fire” begins.
When
we stopped in town for lunch the first thing that hit you was the smell of
sulfur – that rotten egg smell from your high school chemistry lab. However the smell here was not quite as
pungent.
After
lunch, we proceeded to the Rainbow Springs, a Kiwi recovery center. The kiwi, New Zealand’s national bird, is an
endangered species. They are a
nocturnal, flightless bird that can easily fall prey to feral cats, possums,
and stoats. They also are not very good
parents and many of their eggs and chicks do not survive. The center’s purpose is to increase the
number of Kiwi in the wild by incubating their eggs and had raising the chicks
until they reach a weight that is sufficient to improve their chances of
survival. They are then relocated to
areas within New Zealand that have been deemed pest-free. It is not easy to spot a kiwi in the wild as
they only come out at night. But the
Kiwi Center has a nocturnal room where we were able to spot them and watch
their movements. There were two in the
room and they will soon be released into the wild. We were not allowed to take pictures as the
flash from the camera can damage their sensitive eyes.
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Kiwi Display
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Following
our visit, Lindsay had a special surprise for us. He had made arrangements with a Maori leader
of a Maori village in Rotorua to let us visit their Ohinemuru Village, have him speak to
us, and answer any questions we might have.
The village was small, consisting of about 10 homes, a beautifully
carved meeting house (built in 1853), an Anglican Church, and several thermal
hot pools. The leader was named Shiloh
Mitchel. Although he is Maori, he also
has Scottish and German blood through the intermarriages of some of his ancestors. He is proud of his Maori heritage and said
the next important event for him (outside his upcoming marriage to a Canadian)
is to have his body tattooed (but not his face). He said he has carefully designed the tattoos
that will be a record of his ancestors. In
the past, Maori men wore the Moko
(tattoo) on their face. It was a three
step process that involved chiseling out the skin with an abalone shell or bird
bone and then applying ink or dye to the hollowed out crevices. These facial tattoos – each tribe has their
own different design – are like a genealogy tree – you can trace the lineage of
each Maori by the design on his face.
Today, the modern tattoo process is used in lieu of chiseling, and many
of the Maori men still proudly wear the Moko. In fact, many women (especially those who
have given birth) have their chin and lips tattooed.
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| Shiloh greeting our group |
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| Inside the village |
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| Tama Te Kapua-Meeting House |
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| St. Faith's Anglican Church |
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| View of Lake Rotorua from Shiloh's house |
He
spoke of some of the Maori beliefs. The
essence of Maori is energy. When they
traveled to new lands, they brought a stone from their homelands and when they
found a place for their village they would bury the stone and it would bring
life’s energy to the new home.
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| Stone from their homeland |
He
showed us his bath house that is completely heated by the hot springs in the
area and is a separate building from his home.
The hot springs also heat the homes and provide heat for cooking. He had us feel the ground and it was quite
warm. He also showed us a wooden sculpture
of Queen Victoria, the oldest bust of her and one of only a few that portrayed
her as a younger woman.
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| Shiloh's bath house |
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| Wooden bust of Queen Victoria |
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| One of several thermal hot spots in the village |
It
was a very interesting look into the everyday lives of the Maori. They have a deep and profound respect for the
land and their ancestors. Our visit
ended with each of us doing the hongi (pressing of foreheads and noses together)
with Shiloh.
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| Bill and Shiloh doing the hongi |
We
then drove to our hotel, the Wai Ora (means “healing waters”) Spa and Resort,
located just outside the town on the shores of Lake Rotorua. This is a fairly new hotel for OAT as the one
they previously used had too many complaints about the sulfur smell. While you could still smell the sulfur at our
resort, it was not overpowering. But
what do you expect when you come to a geo-thermal area!
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| Sunset over Lake Rotorua |
The
next morning we headed out for walk through the Waimangu Volcanic Valley – the youngest
geo-thermal area in the world. Just 15
miles from Rotorua is Mount Tarawera whose surprise eruption on 10 June 1886
created the Waimangu Volcanic Valley. Mount
Tarawera was formed by volcanic eruptions back in the 14th century,
but it had lain dormant for so long that the earlier settlers and Maori did not
think it was active. At that time the
region was known for its Pink and White Terraces (pastel-colored cliffs on Lake
Rotomahana) that drew many travelers from Europe. But on 10 June all that changed when a seam
on the mountain ripped open and 13 craters blew at once. Craters became lakes, peaks became pools, and
forest glades became geyser beds. Included
in this area is the Inferno Crater, filled with brilliant turquoise water and
Frying Pan Lake, the world’s largest hot spring (with water too hot for
swimming). Today it remains a hotbed of
geothermal activity – early in the 20th century a single geyser shot
black water 1700 feet in the air for 4 straight days. And today, Lake Rotomahana, once only a pond,
is 20 times larger and has a depth of more than 370 feet. And those Pink and White Terraces are still
there today, only 200 feet below the surface – they had simply sunk and the
lake rose above them.
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| Waimangu Volcanic Valley |
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| Waimangu Volcanic Valley |
Our
walk, with a guide, included Echo Crater, Frying Pan Lake and the Inferno Crater. Although referred to as a lake, Inferno
Crater is actually the world’s largest crypto geyser (or hidden geyser that
does not spray water into the air). The
water in the Crater can reach 175 degrees F. He also pointed out the silver fern,one of New Zealand's most famous emblem (and one on the uniforms of all New Zealand's athletic teams and its airline New Zealand Air) and the oldest plant species on earth that still grows in the temperate rain forest of the Waimangu Volcanic Valley.
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| Echo Crater |
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| Frying Pan Lake |
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| Frying Pan Lake |
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| Infernal Crater |
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| Silver Fern |
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| Oldest living plant on earth |
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| Warbrick Terrace |
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| Warbrick Terrace |
After our walk, we took a cruise on Lake Rotomahana, today designated as
a wildlife preserve. Along the banks you
can see steam coming out of the many vents in the sandstone cliffs. The lake itself has no natural outlet, with
the water level varying about 3 feet in response to rainfall and evaporation. We
also saw one of the lake’s most frequent erupting geysers, the Angel Wings
Geyser, up close and personal. It
received its name from rocks that appear to be angel wings. We also stopped to see a pond of bubbling mud pots.
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| Steam vents on cliffs |
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| Steam Vents |
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| Erupting geyser |
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| Angel Wings Geyser |
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| Waiotapu Mud Pots |
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| Bubbling Mud Pot |
In
the afternoon, six of us accompanied Lindsay to the Polynesian Spa, a place
that has six mineral pools of varying temperatures. The coolest pool was 92 degrees while the hottest
was 105. It was so relaxing! We spent a wonderful 1½ hours lounging in the
pools, working our way up to the pool that was 105 degrees. My knees really loved it!
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| Relaxing in the Polynesian Spa |
That
evening we went to the Mitai Cultural Center to learn more about their culture
and heritage. Rotorua is known as the
center of the Maori culture – approximately 1/3rd of the Maori
population live in this area. It is
assumed that the Maori came to New Zealand about 1,000 years ago, and today
nearly 250,000 still maintain their unique lifestyle and culture. The thermal hot springs that abound in this
area are an integral part of Maori life.
Many of their villages were built over fields of active geothermal
activity. One English explorer wrote of
these villages “Bathing here seems to be second nature, and the women and girls
arrange afternoon bath-parties just as we might assemble our friends at
afternoon tea”. Villagers heated their
homes with the geothermal steam and warm patches of the earth served as ovens
for cooking.
Our
visit began with the arrival of a waka
taua (war canoe). Then there was the
welcoming ceremony. Bill had volunteered
to be our tribe’s Chief so he and I led our group into the meeting house. I have already explained the welcoming
ceremony in the Bay of Islands blog, so I will just briefly explain what
happened. A Maori warrior performed a
type of dance and then through down a silver fern sprig as a challenge. If the visiting tribe ignores it, it means
they came to do battle. Chief Bill then
walked up, picked up the fern, and slowly walked backwards, signifying that we
had come in peace. The Maori Chief then
welcomed us into his meeting room and Bill thanked him for showing us the Maori
culture. A performance, similar to the
one at the Waitangi Treaty Grounds, followed – the women’s poi dance, the warriors Haka or
war dance, stick games, and songs by the Maori.
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| War Canoe |
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| Maori Warrior |
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| Maori Chief and Chief Bill greeting one another |
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| Maori War Dance |
Then it was time
to enjoy the
hangi dinner – a luau-like
feast that is cooked in giant boxes over natural steam vents or earthen ovens.
However, instead of pig we had lamb.
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Hangi dinner being prepared in earthan
oven |
Following dinner,
a guide took our little OAT group on a night walk to see the glowworms. Known to the Maori as “titiwai” (water stars), they are not stars but maggots (but that
name does not attract tourists as well as glowworms) whose larvae glow a bluish
color to attract prey that become trapped in hanging threads of mucus-covered
silk. The hungriest glowworms are the
ones that shine the brightest.
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