We set off for Waitomo to go and see the caves and the glow-worms. When we arrived we had some time before our tour started so we went for some lunch in the café - which was full of soap-dodging douchebags who had just been on the “super awesome black water rafting YEAH!”. We sat quietly amongst them and ate our lunch before Jen turned to Chris and said “I don’t really like people”.
Soon it was time for our tour so we donned our pack-a-macs for the first time this trip (we looked awesome) and got onto a little mini-bus to go down to the caves. Luckily not with any of the douchebags, just a few geeks and an old American couple who had their socks pulled up really high. Firstly we went down to Ruakuri cave which was really cool with loads of stalagmites and stalagtites and stories of wild dogs and people being buried under rubble. We also saw some glow-worms but the man told us they are not worms they are actually maggots and they glow because they are pooing. Nice.
After the boat trip we left Waitomo to drive to Rotorua to set up camp. We had been warned about the eggy smell in Rotorua due to all the sulphur from the geothermic activity but Jen thinks they layed on extra egg for our arrival. Our campsite was just outside Rotorua near Lake Tikitapu (Blue Lake).which was ridiculously beautiful. We set up the tent without any shouting from Jen and pumped up the air mattress before leaving the campsite to go to the supermarket.
As mentioned in earlier blogs we are determined not to waste all our money on eating out so we thought we would be really good and buy food from the supermarket to cook for dinner that night and make lunch for the next day. But it seems the food gods are still against us and even in somewhere called “Pak & Save” the food was still expensive - paying $3.50 for two slices of ham from the deli nearly tipped Jen over the edge. We headed back to the campsite and cooked up a delicious feast of sausages, onion & baked beans all using one tiny pan that we paid about £9,000 for. After some sausages and a beer we felt better and went to bed.
The next day we got up nice and early to go to Wai-O-Tapu Thermal Wonderland as there is a geyser there that erupts every morning at 10:15 - we thought this seemed like a very exact time for a geyser but when we got there we realised that it’s because a man from the park chucks a bar of biodegradable soap in there every day at that time which causes the eruption. It was still very cool and the water was around 20 metres high which meant we got a bit wet!
Walking round the thermal wonderland took a few hours and was really interesting and we saw loads of geothermic activity like bubbling mud pools, acid lakes and holes in the ground with steam coming out of them. We stopped to eat our sandwiches (containing $3.50 of ham) at a bench amongst some trees looking out over an amazing view of Wai-O-Tapu and felt very pleased. An old lady walking past said “that’s a good idea” and it was.
That evening we went to Mitai Maori Village for a Maori cultural experience and meal. We absolutely loved it. A nice man called Manuel picked us up in a mini-bus full of middle-aged English people some of whom were really posh and some who were a bit rough. The posh ones kept saying things like “oh yah, no it was super but the weather was bloody awful and I thought remind me why we‘re here again?” and the rough ones said things like “oh yeah we done the tranz-alpine. You gotta do it”.
When we arrived at the Mitai Maori Village we sat in a big marquee with about 100 other people and our guide Uncle Ben introduced himself.
Chris: his name was Cousin Ben, not Uncle Ben - he’s the bloke that makes the rice
Jen: I prefer Uncle Ben.
Uncle Ben explained to us that one of our group would have to be chosen as chief and would later give a speech to the Maori chief. An old American bloke from Colorado put his hand straight up in the air - his name was Bill. Jen is a little bit obsessed with old people and so instantly fell in love with Chief Bill.
Chris: he looked like skeletor in golfing gear.
Then Uncle Ben took us outside to see where they were cooking our food in the traditional way in a big pit called a Hangi - loads of lamb, chicken, roast potatoes and roast sweet potatoes. It smelt bloody lovely.
After he said a quick prayer we went down to the river where the Maori men arrived on a canoe and then we followed them up to the auditorium where we watched them do a brilliant show including traditional dancing, singing, fighting, a haka, and then the Maori chief gave a speech. After which Chief Bill had to do his speech. He said something about us all being very honoured to be there and how we had come to learn their traditions, their culture and their “ways”. Jen loved it, almost cried, and said to Chris in her usual understated fashion “I love Chief Bill. This is the best thing in my life ever.” Chris really liked how many times they used the word “chief”.
This is Chief Bill giving his speech! That's Uncle Ben on the right! (Jen chose this photo)
After the show we went back to the marquee to enjoy the traditional meal which was accompanied by other traditional Maori food such as tuna pasta salad, coleslaw and garlic bread…? It was all delicious and for pudding there was trifle and chocolate log. More traditional Maori fare.
Jen really wanted to tell Chief Bill how much she loved him and his speech but she chickened out and instead settled for standing next to him when we went on the walk after the meal to see the glow worms in the bush. Yes, more glow worms. They’re everywhere.
Chris: When I was in the toilet I heard Chief Bill do a massive fart
Jen: I don’t care I still love him.
The following day we had another early start to pack up the tent as we were leaving Rotorua. Whilst we were packing up the tent a massive cicada fell from the tree and landed near to Chris and he freaked out. Jen laughed a lot. She wasn’t laughing later on when the same thing happened to her but this time the cicada fell on her head. There was much squealing and flicking of hair.
Chris packing up the tent.
Before leaving Rotorua we stopped in at Rainbow Springs Wildlife Park and Kiwi Conservation Centre. The wildlife park was ok but the kiwi conservation centre was brilliant. Our tour guide Murray told us it was the biggest kiwi conservation centre in New Zealand so we were hoping to see some cool stuff and we weren’t disappointed. He showed us some eggs in the incubators which were getting ready to hatch in the next few days, then we watched a quick video of a kiwi hatching before going through to look at the nursery where we saw a 2-week-old kiwi bird being fed by one of the women who worked there. She sat it on her lap and fed it little bits of meat - it was very cute.
Then we went into the nocturnal house where they had 3 kiwis - one was 2 months, one was 4 months and the other was over 50! He said she had been living at Rainbow Springs since before the conservation centre was there and she didn’t want to leave. It was awesome to see them running around and snuffling for insects.
We weren't allowed to take any photos of the kiwis so instead, here are some photos of us titting about in front of a big picture of a kiwi:
We’re leaving Rotorua now and driving down to Hastings to see Chris’s cousin Amanda who lives there and hopefully Alan & Pam again, who are visiting her for the weekend.
