Bloop, gurgle, sploosh

With all the volcanic activity around, what else could I call this blog entry? The north island is very geothermally active - we’ve been to quite a few places where steam just rises out of the ground which is a little unnerving. There’s also quite often a sulphury smell which again reminds you that there is stuff going on down there ….. We drove past one neighborhood in Rotorua where 2 houses had been torn down because geysers had erupted in them! A somewhat volatile environment …
March 7 - We had a wonderful breakfast today at a restaurant just outside Taupo that we had been told not to miss. It was quite a way out of Taupo (but close to our campground which was handy). It’s run by an artist and her husband - she does a lot of mosaics and the whole place is full of them plus an outdoor garden with mosaic chairs and tables. We decided not to stay in Taupo as it’s pretty touristy and packed with triathletes this weekend (not that I have anything against them, but there are a lot of them!) On the way out of Taupo, we went to the Craters of the Moon which is a very active geothermal area, full of bubbling mud and smoking vents. It didn’t smell nearly as bad as I thought it might. There’s a walking track that you follow VERY CAREFULLY so that you don’t fall in! We also stopped at the Huka Falls which is where the most incredible volume of water is funneled out of Lake Taupo down a narrow gulley to become the Waikato River. I should have written down their example of the volume but it was something ridiculous like filling 4 Olympic-sized swimming pools every minute. The water was pretty impressive and the most beautiful turquoise colour. Then on towards Rotorua. We stopped about 20 km short to jump into the Waikite Valley Thermal Pools which was well worth it! John has been whimpering about hot pools and when are we going to do some for a while, so he was happy! They were lovely open air pools fed by a boiling spring which they obviously have to cool down considerably before the clients can sit it the water. There was hardly anyone there which was nice - I was worried that it was a Sunday and the day following an international triathlon, so I imagined the place would be full of stiff athletes, but
no ….. There were a number of different pools at different temperatures and we usually had them to ourselves. Besides being nice and warm, there are all these wonderful therapeutic minerals in the water, so you feel really healthy and your skin is amazingly soft when you get out. We stayed about an hour, hopping from hot to warm to cool to hot, and then we drove on to Rotorua where we have found a very nice campground where there are thermal/mineral pools for campers.
March 8 - There is lots of Maori stuff for tourists to do here, so we’re doing it! We went to watch jade carvers (jewelry) this morning as John wants to buy me a jade pendant for my birthday. Jade is typically called pounamu or greenstone here, but it’s all the same thing. Lots of the pendants for sale were really BIG and the one we saw a guy carving was little (and I’m not a big pendant person) so I got John to ask him if we could buy that one - it‘s called a “twist“ and looks like a figure 8. So he is going to polish it up for me today and we’ll pick it up tomorrow. Then we went to Whakarewarewa (thankfully shortened to Whaka) which is a “living thermal village” i.e. people actually live there. And it certainly is thermal! We ate sweet corn which had been cooked in a pool of boiling water (they drop it in in a bag and pull it out about 2 minutes later - see picture) and saw how they use the steam to cook meat etc. in boxes and funnel the heated water into catchment pools for communal bathing. (We are going to a feast tomorrow night [a hangi] where all the food will have been cooked in these ovens). We were shown round the village by a very knowledgeable guide who actually lives there. She explained the significance of all the carvings and rituals. The geyser conveniently decided to blow just as we got to the viewing platform (see picture) but the sky was much the same colour as the steam, so it’s not easy to see here. It apparently blows 20-30 times a day; there are twin geysers and one, the Prince of Wales feathers, always blows before the main one. The Prince of Wales reaches 30 metres - can‘t remember how high the other one goes but it was much higher. We noticed that there were times when the steaming holes got much steamier and the boiling water got even more agitated - quite an alive place! There were also bubbling mud pools. Then there was a cultural show - 3 men and 4 women who sang and danced - the songs sounded very Hawaiian (not surprisingly, since they have common ancestors) accompanied by bulging eyes and sticking out tongues to intimidate us! It was actually very moving and we really enjoyed it. We came back to our campground and have been soaking in the thermal pools for about the past hour, chatting to a very varied group of people who are also staying here!
March 9 - My birthday! We went to pick up my jade pendant and the story turned out to have a bit of a twist (the shape of the necklace and also what happened!) I had understood that I would be buying a pendant carved by one of the main carvers which would be “finished off” by one of the much younger men. When I went to pick it up, I was met by Jacob, a very young man, who was extremely enthusiastic about the very first twist pendant that he had ever made, which was apparently the one I was buying! I’m not sure where the misunderstanding came in (I thought I was buying from the main carver) but as it turns out, I was thrilled with the one that Jacob had carved for me and maybe one day he will be a very famous pounamu carver and I will have an heirloom around my neck! It really does make it special that it was carved specially for me and not just bought off the shelf. So that turned out OK. We wandered around Rotorua in the afternoon - went to the museum (I really should count up how many we have been to!) and the government gardens where lots of very earnest people dressed in white were playing bowls (yes Freda, we took photos!) The highlight of the day was the hangi (Maori feast) that we went to in the evening. We were picked up from our camp ground and taken about 15 km from Rotorua to the Tamaki Village where we were taken on a historical journey along with warriors who challenged us with a war dance, to dancing maidens with bulging eyes (again!) and the most amazing meal - chicken, lamb, fish, lots of vegetables and then fruit salad and steamed pudding for dessert. There was also Pavlova which I imagine wasn‘t a typical Maori dish “back in the day“ but was very good! We also were able to walk around their “village” where they were doing everyday things like peeling potatoes with sharpened stone as they would have done “back in the day”. They were all very pleasant and put up with all the tourists having their photos taken with them!