27th April Sunday Rotorua to Waitimo Caves

Loads more beautiful country side to drive through.Stopped at Otorohanga where they had a small street market and bought some no-yeast bread and boysenberry jam.

Arrived at Waitomo and booked a cave tour with SpellBound.

A 15 minute drive took us to the glow worm cave. We walked the last 10 minutes down the hillside in the rain and were handed ours helmets and lights by Norm our guide.

Victoria (8 years old) led us into the cave. Norm told us to mind the "Oh Bugger" rock near the entrance.

A short while in, Norm got us to turn our lights off – it was pitch dark – we could not see our hands in front of our faces.

We walked on and found some glow worms (maggots really). We could see how they capture flying insects with thread about 6 inches long with little beads of sticky every couple if millimeters. I spotted a little moth get caught by one of the thread and then we watched as it was slowly winched up, millimeter by millimeter, by the glow worm.

We took a boat ride and saw more thousands more glow worms. It was like boating under the stars. It was actually quite bright just these tiny lights given out by these worms. We then turned the boat round before going over a waterfall. After the boat ride, we were told not to turn on our lights and navigate out of the cave using our senses and by holding on to the person in front. It was fun and it was dark too!

We were given refreshment and biscuits and then headed to the next cave. It was a traditional one with stalagmites and stalactites. There was no lighting in the cave. This was to ensure that there was no green algae' growing on the rock. It had a small cathedral, which was formed by 3 waterfalls coming through the sides of the wall.

We also found some old bones, sheep and a moa. The Moa was buried over 800 years old. These animals must have fallen down the hole, injured and starved to death.

26th April Saturday – Rotorua

The weather was misty, windy and it rained most of the day.  We drove a few miles to the Buried Village.

 

It was mostly covered by the 1886 eruption but partially excavated and now a tourist trail.

 

In 1886, one of the tourist guides, Sophia, noticed that the water in Lake Rotomahana stream was dry but then started to flow.  She also reported seeing, along with the tourists she as with a war waka being paddled on the lake without moving and then the people on it turning to dogs.  The local chief predicted a disaster. Sure enough…..

 

The tourists used to come and see the white and pink terraces and to bath in their waters.  The photos showed they were absolutely enormous. They were destroyed and are now covered by Lake Rotomahana.  

 

As a result of the eruption, the priest of the village was stuck in his hut for four days.  He was rescued, but, in hospital, the doctor insisted on cutting his hair.  The priest said "Do not cut my hair off or I will die".  True enough, he died after his hair was cut (short back and sides?).

 

The meeting house of thee village was sold to an English man for $NZ50.  It is now in Surrey.  The National Trust has taken that over.

 

We walked pass a nice stream stocked with big wild rainbow trout.  Richard did not want to leave the stream without giving a go.  He wished he had his rod.  The stream ended up into a big waterfall.  We had to walk down hill to get a good view.  But, we need to go up hill again to leave the waterfall.  It was hard work, as it was very steep.  Worth it!

 

Later we went for a short drive and Jo-Ann cooked bacon butties for lunch.  Back at the camp we cooked chicken korma for supper with fruits to follow.

 

The hot water heater seemed to be on the blink so we had to wash the dishes in cold water.

Pink and White Terraces

The famous Pink & White Terraces were also destroyed - they must have been totally awesome to see.

Pink Terraces
White Terraces

Waimangu Geyser

Waimangu geyser: the world’s largest The Waimangu (‘black water’) geyser was the largest geyser recorded anywhere in the world, erupting between 1900 and 1904. The dark plume contains mud and blocks of rock.

This photograph was taken in 1903.

Scientist Humphrey Haines witnessed the eruptions in January 1901, and his wife wrote the following account:

‘There was a small burst, followed by a gigantic explosion, far exceeding in magnitude anything previously witnessed. A vast column of black water was projected upwards, rising in an apparently solid body … Then for a moment it seemed to pause, but in another instant its apex burst outwards and a torrent of inky water streaked downwards to meet and lose itself in the snowy billows which rolled majestically upwards.’

The geyser’s life was brief and spectacular. Eruptions of muddy water and large rocks to heights of 150 metres were common, and there were occasional super-eruptions to the remarkable height of 460 metres. In comparison, the tallest currently-active geyser in the world (Steamboat geyser, in Yellowstone National Park in Wyoming) erupts to maximum heights of 100 metres. The top of Auckland’s Sky Tower is about 330 metres above street level.

Not surprisingly, a tourist industry sprang up around Waimangu geyser. Accommodation for tourists, overlooking the geyser basin, was built in the summer of 1902–3. Throughout 1903, the geyser increased in activity, and increasing numbers of visitors flocked to see the spectacle. However, a tragic event occurred that year: four tourists ventured closer to get a better view, but were swept away and killed by a sudden eruption.

The geyser began to wane in 1904, and by November of that year activity stopped as suddenly and inexplicably as it had started.

25th April Friday, Anzac Day – Rotorua

The morning of ANZAC day is when almost every business is closed as a sign of respect for the Australian and New Zealand armed forces. Anzac Day is commemorated by Australia and New Zealand on 25 April every year to honour members of the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps (ANZAC) who fought at Gallipoli in Turkey during World War I.

Luckily the Waimangu Volcanic Valley was open when we arrived. It’s a very interesting and well looked after site. The before and after photos in the small museum clearly show the complete and utter devastation after the eruptions – literally nothing remained.
Waimangu, Mount Tarawera and Lake Rotomahama exploded on the night of the 10th June 1886 killing 7 Europeans and more than 100 Maori villagers.

The three of us walked along a string of geographic features created by the Waimangu explosion, from Southern Crater to Echo Crater with its Frying Pan Lake and on to Inferno Crater.

Frying Pan Lake is so named because of the sound made by the hot springs & fumaroles around the lake. It’s the world’s largest hot spring with a volume of 200,000 cubic meters with an average temperature of 55° Celsius.

Inferno Crater contains a pale blue lake which fills and overflows and then sinks again over a period of 5 to 7 weeks. When full the water is 80° C!


We climbed the Mt. Haszard walking trail above Inferno Crater and alongside some other craters and then down to rejoin the main trail towards Lake Roromahama past Iodine Pool, the Buttresses and onto Warbrick Terrace.

By Frying Pan Lake was the site of the largest geyser in the world – it would erupt up to a height of 400m. It started in 1900 and stopped in 1904 – but not after killing a group of tourists who got too close.

In the evening we went to the Tamaki Maori Village. A coach (or rather a coach pretending to be a WAKA) named KEA collected us from the campsite and took us, via Rotorua town, to the village.

Our driver/navigator was Ngata (pronounced nutter) (he had a very, very long name which he only said once) and he was very funny with a joke at everyone’s expense – especially the Australians in the group.

At the village we were greeted (all four of the WAKA) according to Maori tradition
As there were 4 WAKA we had four chief to accept the greeting.

After the welcome, we all wandered around the village – people were hiding behind the buildings and jumping out to frighten the visitors. I took a photo of Mum with a Maori warrior twice her size .

We were treated to a song and dance and then to a HANGI meal (traditionally cooked – steamed- underground. All in all, excellent fun.

Ngata took us back to the camp, making the various nationalities sing songs (the best was from Chile). Every time we did something wrong, Ngata threatened to throw us out the canoe, Jo-Ann and Mum couldn’t sing a Singaporean song so they were nearly ejected!

Ngata was great with names & faces & nationalities, he remembered us all.

As we entered Rotorua, Ngata started singing “she’ll be coming round the mountain when she comes” as he drove round and round a roundabout about 10 times.

A Great Night!

24th April – Orewa to Rotorua

Left for Rotorua, driving along SH1 and SH5 via Cambridge.

The scenery was not as attractive as the Northland. Very flat in most places ‘till we got close to Rotorua.

We saw lots of lovely house along the way, mostly single storey dwellings (in the UK they would be called bungalows) with sprawling buildings.

I hope we are not going to be disappointed with Rotorua, so much has been said about it and it’s volcanic surrounds.

We decided to camp at the Blue Lake Top 10 campsite. The lake was indeed blue – beautiful with hills behind it. You can’t see the blue from the photos but it was blue – really.

The lake is really called Lake Tikitapu.

There is a green lake nearby to it (Lake Rotokakahi), but it’s Tapu (or sacred) to the Maori and there is no swimming, boating or fishing.

We went for a walk along the lake (blue). It should have taken about 1.5 hours covering some 5.5km.

¾ long the way we lost the track (wide track – but it was getting dark) and decided to walk back the way we came. A good work out.

My Mum was good and she sped up and overtook Richard & I.

The reason for the speed was that it was getting dark and it would have been full dark at about 6pm. For my Mum, it was not good to get lost in the forest as there were lots of spirits to lure you to your doom. I had to keep assuring her there was a track and we were not lost. She sighed with relief when we finally came out the forest.

It was dark as we emerged and the stars were out when we finally got back to camp.

We stayed at the camp site for 3 nights.

Dinner was tuna steak, Kumara and Gem Squash, very nice.

An early night tonight! The camp site was facing the lake and was full of people by 7pm.

23rd April Kerikeri to Orewa

Kerikeri is where we started; Orewa is where we ended the day.

But, before we left Kerikeri we stopped at Keriblue Ceramics and got a present for Mum. We also stopped at the Kauri Workshop where I got a lovely small wooden box made of Rimu wood, a small Kauri wood HEI-TIKI and a rounded two drawer box for Mei Mei (Yan Qi or Rachelle) as a thank you for allowing us to steal her bedroom again.

In between we visited the Waitangi Treaty Grounds where the British made, effectively, New Zealand independent.

If only the British had known how wonderful New Zealand is, they would have kept it for themselves. I know I would have.

There’s a huge Maori WAKA TAUA or war canoe in the Treaty Grounds. There has to be a minimum of 71 oarsmen to control the canoe and is a copy of the first waka to reach Aoteroa (New Zealand). It is made from two Kauri trees and is 35m long. To make it took 2 years including soaking it in water.

We stopped for lunch a little way down the coast at Pahia.

The drive was long. We got to Orewa along the SH1 highway and it seemed to take forever, finally arriving at about 6pm – we had been at the campsite before so it was easy to find things.
This time I managed to do perfect rice, so we had scallops vegetables & rice – not a bad meal.
No a great meal!
We also did some laundry tonight – lots to do it taking ½ hours to wash and 2 hours to dry.