Rotorua Marae

The holiday park adjoined Rotorua's marae, through which we walked the short distance to the centre ville, the centro storico, et cetera.

Fences of split fern tree trunk

Tiny cove and raft

Thus

Assortment of buildings

And structures

Anglican church; sort of Gothic/Tudor/Maori Revival,
we thought; possibly designed by a succession of committees

Traditional hall

Thus

Rotorua Camp

Cyclone Lusi missed the North Island, leaving some minor wind damage and not enough rain to help with the drought going on here. Even a little wind and rain can be unpleasant in a tent, however, especially a 2-personne backapacka tent such as ours, for two days. So we did well to hole-up at Juno Hall. Plus, I had another chance to steam some greenies and have a fully satisfying mussel experience.

When we visited the North Island in 2008, we skipped Rotorua, NZ's thermal capital. After living in Montana for thirteen years,we'd seen Yellowstone in every season and plenty of other thermal stuff too. E.g., Thermopolis, Wyoming. The charm of Rotorua, such as it is, is that it is a town built right on top of the thermal area, and, while the thermal stuff is not nearly so spectacular as Yellowstone's, it is nonetheless of interest. One of the holiday parks there advertised "heated tent sites," plus its own thermal pools and hot tubs, so we headed there. Of course, everything in Rotorua is "heated" to some extent.

Our "heated" tent site at Rotorua; just beyond the little fence was a narrow
canal that smoked, bubbled, and hissed, um, ominously

Thus; sulfur fumes pervade Rotorua

And, a hundred feet beyond that, Lake Rotorua

With its gaggles of black swans

And its own thermal phenomena

The holiday park had its own bird population, the pukeko, or swamp hens;
harmless but very curious and fearless

Plus, a hangi, sort of a Maori-style cooking steamer; most of New Zealand's Maori
live on the North Island--wisely, IMHO--and Rotorua is one of their population
centers

Well, a traditional hangi would be an underground oven, but this has much the
same effect

We had steaks and corn on the cob that evening, and Vicki cooked the corn in the
hangi; a couple from New Plymouth sat down next to us sporting an entire dinner
they had prepared in the hangi

New Zealand Out-Takes, 3

And now, kids, it's time for another episode of "New Zealand Out-Takes"...

Sand fly fashion

It's still a bit of a male culture...

Another one of stick-man's bad days

The Good Life

Longest place-name in Maori...they were not into the whole
brevity thing

The contagion knows no bounds

Is it heart-friendly?

One sees rather fewer Wicked Campers these days, but
they are still wicked

Here, they are called jandals, and this is a jandal fence at a
bach, west coast, North Island

Oxymoron?

Top this, UK of GB! At the Pizza Hut in
Rotorua

Ruakiri Caves And Glow Worms

Another visit in the Waitomo Caves area was Ruatiri, a limestone canyon, full of caves and cave features plus the usual, interesting bush. Later that night--the cyclone was running late--we drove back to see the glow worms on the canyon and cave walls. Glow worms really don't photograph that well, but I did get one or two decent shots. We had seen plenty more during our 2008 visit to the North Island.

Glow worms, I surmise, are an acquired taste...

Te Kuiti

While staying at Waitomo Caves and the hostel there, we also visited Te Kuiti, "The Shearing Capital of the World;" and also the marae (Maori community) there.

Juno Hall, the AYH hostel at Waitomo Caves

Perhaps it was just a slow day for the PM, or maybe he was a really big fan of
glow worms...

We missed the Shearing World Cup by only a few weeks...

Gigantic Monument to the Unknown Shearer

All the shearing world records; most held by Kiwis, of course

The marae community hall

Interior

Porch carvings

And ceiling