We stopped off at the Huka Falls - there are some serious rapids here - the river is the largest in NZ and they use the water to create energy providing about 25% of the North Islands electricity! The river starts wide, then shoots down this very narrow waterway picking up loads of speed and power, before it opens into a wider river again, before it becomes a man made lake controlled by a dam. The dam gates open every 2 hours (next opening at 12) for ½ an hour. We wanted to see the full sha-bang, as we were sure it was a sight not to be missed.
With some time to kill, we took a little walk along the river and then headed to the Craters of the Moon. Here you get to walk around the mud pools and see the geysers steaming – and it is supposed to look like the surface of the moon - but in the end we decided that the $5pp charge was really just paying money to smell sulphur – yuk!
We made the trip back to the Dam gates and just about made it to see the water gushing out and how incredibly quick the river below fills up with the water from the dam. This tricking stream became raging rapids within 5 minutes.
Above: Before
Below: After
We then made a stop off at the Glass Blowing Company, a woodwork shop (which was seriously overpriced) and the Honey Hive, here we bought a bottle of White Chocolate liquor and then due to all the excitement Evelyn got a little confused with the road markings and as she made the right turn onto the main road she ended up driving on the wrong side of the double yellow line - which in NZ is actually the markings for the middle of the road – unlike the yellow lines in the UK which are on the outside of the lane, added to Ev’s confusion was the slip roads on either side, the indicator blinking away, wind screen wipers going full speed, Ev putting the car in the wrong gear & Marc informing Evelyn about all the above mentioned in a loud and helpful manor ;( Lucky enough Ev managed to get back in control of things before the lorry came round the corner, and didn’t do much talking for the next 50km.
Next stop was Rotarua were we booked a Maori Cultural Experience and the Te Paiu Geyer Tour, along with this we got free entry to Hell’s Gate – this is where you can book mud baths - for an extra fee...
With some time to spare we booked into the Cosy Cottage Caravan Site and got a room there – we’ve resigned to the fact that we can’t really do any camping in NZ as it’s just too cold at night and we’re not sure our bodies can take anymore battering ;) A bonus at this place is that they have some hot water springs located by the lake and they feed it through to some tubs so we managed to have a little spa before heading off to Te Paiu.
At Te Paiu we managed to learn a little more about the Maori life and their meeting places. They also went into detail about the Haka dance that the men & women do. Another interesting thing was that when they were looking to find a symbol for their rugby team it, they decided against the Kiwi bird as they are very scarce and only come out at night – they needed a stronger symbol with a more stronger meaning, this is when they then decided to go with the silver fern that you find in NZ.
The story goes like this: When the warriors go to war they always manage to travel safely at night, without there enemies knowing where they go as they don’t carry light with them, the way they do this is by they leader turning a silver fern over and the silver reflects light and when the last warrior goes past the fern they turn it over again and no one knows that they’ve been there.
The longest Maori word
We also saw a big geyser here and more smelly sulphur holes & mud pools.
At 6pm we got our shuttle to the Mitai Village for our Maori Cultural Experience, here we had a closer look at the Moari way of life and had a Hangi (feast) prepared for us. The way they prepare this hangi is by digging a hole in the ground and putting heated river stones inside and laying the meat on top of the rocks, they then cover the feast with animal skins to keep the heat in and cook it all day.
Whilst inside the dining area we had one of the Maori guys introduce himself and say that we need a leader for our group, he asked where everyone was from and from this he gave us a name – “the army of 20 nations”?? After much debate we ended up having an English guy come forward to be our Chief – “Chief Dan from England” He was only about 25!
While the feast was being prepared they took us to their spiritual lake. We were led through a wooded area and every now and then there was a sound from the trees and when you looked around there was an angry Maori warrior staring back at you.
We lined up along the river and the Maori warriors arrived in their 4 month old Haka canoe made from a 300 year old tree, this was really amazing as while they paddled up the stream they were singing a warrior song and you could feel the tension in the air.
They then led us to the small replica village were they put on a show for us and Chief Dan had to introduce himself and his army of 20 nations to the Maori Chief (who was much scarier than our Chief :) This was a really moving night and we all learnt quite a bit about their culture and also discovered that poi’s are originally from the Maori’s as the women developed them to strengthen the men’s wrists as most of their weapons are small and heavy.
We then had our feast, which was fantastic, after dinner we went on a walk, which took us back by the sacred lake that they call Fairy Springs, the reason why they call it this is because there are so many glow worms which they believe are fairy people.
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