Leaving Clive on SH2, we set off on our way north to Rotorua. Just north of Napier, we left SH2 and joined the Thermal Explorer Highway, SH5 cutting inland towards Taupo. The weather was overcast but bright, but as we started to climb up through the Esk Forest, so the rain came – not heavy but persistent and we ended up in low cloud with very poor visibility.
Once we’d passed the highest point, the sun started to shine on us again and we stopped to take photos at the Haipunga Falls. Although we’ve been through what seems like a lot of rain while we’ve been here, the land is obviously parched, and nearly all the waterways are very low. The falls were pretty but must look much better with a bit more water in them.
As we dropped down to flatter land, round Rangitaiki, we saw a tremendous amount of reforestation going on. Dead trees are being cleared and a huge number of new trees, mostly pines of some sort, are being planted. We passed many logging lorries, laden with huge trunks going off to one of the enormous sawmills we’ve seen. The roads round here are flat and straight for miles, so Tom could have a rest from the bends and ups and downs of the hills. As you approach Taupo, the landscape is dominated by the huge bulk of Tauhara, a mountain that looks like a dormant volcanic peak covered in forest now.
Taupo itself is a fairly typical tourist town. Motels and holiday flats everywhere. We stopped for a coffee and a visit to the Information centre, but really wanted to get on to Rotorua and get settled into our next motel. The sun was blazing down by then.
We’d decided to take SH1 from Taupo as, although SH5 also goes to Rotorua, SH1 is a less bendy road and through flatter land. Leaving Taupo, we passed lots of attraction signs - Craters of the Moon, Huka Falls (where you can go on a Jetboat up to the falls), various hot pool sites and the inevitable Historic Site signs. We’ve followed some of these signs and most of the time, it’s hardly worth the effort as the destination is just a site where something happened or a building was and is no longer! No doubt, if you are an historian or simply very keen on historical facts, these places would be important, but for us “tourists” who are simply skimming the surface of the country, they don’t hold much attraction.
About halfway between Taupo and Rotorua, SH30 joins SH1 and over to the west is a small mountain that looks a bit like the mountain in the film “Close Encounters”. It just rears up out of the flat land surrounding it. This is Whakamaru Peak, 795m or approx. 2600ft high.
Then we wound our way northeast up and down to Rotorua. As we were about to turn onto SH5 to get to the town, Te Puia was just on our right so we made a stop.
Te Puia is a Maori run complex showing the arts of weaving and carving, telling the history of the tribes that still occupy the area, and introducing us to the hot springs, mud pools and geysers. The sulphur smell is all around, but I didn’t find it offensive as I have read in some books – Tom could hardly smell it at all. It is NZ$50 per person to get in, but that includes a 30 minute Maori show, a guided tour and as long as you want to wandering round the site. There is an interactive display where you can follow parts of the tribe’s history, a Maori village with audio description in different languages of how life was, a walk through the bush (but on a proper path) – as far as Tom’s concerned, a walk in the bush means he’s fly fodder, so we didn’t attempt that! – there is a weaving school and a carving school here too, and you can watch demonstrations.
We were lucky enough to get the last 2 tickets for the concert. It was explained to us what we were going to see and one member of the audience was chosen as our chief, Nigel from Australia, for the occasion. He had to accept the challenge from the Maori warrior
and lead us into the Marae (meeting house) for the concert. We all had to remove our shoes, hats and sunglasses before entering, as a mark of respect. The Marae is everything to the Maori – a meeting place, a forum to discuss problems and make decisions for the tribe, a sleeping place when families get together, really the hub of the community. (Kandi, our guide, is the youngest in her family of 9; her mother is one of 16 and her father is one of 10, so their family is huge – there are over 100 grandchildren.)
The concert was wonderful, exciting and moving (I have to admit to a few tears at the end!) Never mind that we didn’t understand the words, the sounds were enough. The warriors did a Haka and showed off their skills with long wooden sticks and shorter ones, which they passed from hand to hand in time to the music. The girls danced and sang and did a display with wooden balls on the end of strings (poi) – I know it sounds peculiar, but it was great.
They ended with a love story – a famous song which many performers have recorded over the years, including Kiri Te Kanawa and Hayley Westenra, (Pokarekare Ana). We came out to continue with a guided tour starting with the history of Te Puia and what the structure at the entrance means.
Then it was off to the kiwi house, where they have a female kiwi and her baby, so we saw a kiwi for the first time. As kiwis are nocturnal, the kiwi house has been “time shifted” so that the birds believe day is night and vice versa. You go in to the dark and have to allow a few moments to get your eyes used to it then you get the chance to see them. Unfortunately, the baby is still very shy and didn’t appear, but we saw the mum running around. We hope this isn’t our only viewing of a kiwi.
The lack of water is affecting the mudpools, so they weren’t quite as active as they could be and some had dried out into mini volcanic shapes.
You could hear it bubbling under the crust. We arrived at the geysers as they started to put on their display
– not an artificially induced spouting as some are – but our guide, Kandi, could see the first signs and knew that the full flow would be about 10mins away. It is very impressive and I found it almost disturbing that we were standing on top of such an awesome display of nature’s power.
We took some great photos and film. We then spent an hour wandering till the complex was closing.
Our motel is very basic but perfectly clean and not expensive, within walking distance of the town. I had an urge for fish and chips for dinner, so we walked for a couple of miles, passing all kinds of eating establishments and finally asking where there was a fish shop. Having been given directions, we walked about another half a mile, only to find it was closed! So we decided to walk back to the main food area and on the way come across a …..fish and chip shop……. We stood and waited while it was cooked freshly for us and, as we were now almost back at the motel, walked home to eat it. As we got to the motel, Tom noticed that , if we’d turned right instead of left when we walked into town, we’d have seen the fish and chip shop NEXT DOOR to the motel!!!! Oh well, such is life and we’ve definitely walked our 10,000 paces today! The fish and chips we did have were very nice anyway. I was too tired to do the blog before bed, so left Tom to fiddle with his gadgets and wrote this up this morning. We’re just about to set off for the afternoon and hope to find somewhere with wireless access so Tom can post the last 2 blogs for you to read. Bye for now.
Once we’d passed the highest point, the sun started to shine on us again and we stopped to take photos at the Haipunga Falls. Although we’ve been through what seems like a lot of rain while we’ve been here, the land is obviously parched, and nearly all the waterways are very low. The falls were pretty but must look much better with a bit more water in them. As we dropped down to flatter land, round Rangitaiki, we saw a tremendous amount of reforestation going on. Dead trees are being cleared and a huge number of new trees, mostly pines of some sort, are being planted. We passed many logging lorries, laden with huge trunks going off to one of the enormous sawmills we’ve seen. The roads round here are flat and straight for miles, so Tom could have a rest from the bends and ups and downs of the hills. As you approach Taupo, the landscape is dominated by the huge bulk of Tauhara, a mountain that looks like a dormant volcanic peak covered in forest now.Taupo itself is a fairly typical tourist town. Motels and holiday flats everywhere. We stopped for a coffee and a visit to the Information centre, but really wanted to get on to Rotorua and get settled into our next motel. The sun was blazing down by then.
We’d decided to take SH1 from Taupo as, although SH5 also goes to Rotorua, SH1 is a less bendy road and through flatter land. Leaving Taupo, we passed lots of attraction signs - Craters of the Moon, Huka Falls (where you can go on a Jetboat up to the falls), various hot pool sites and the inevitable Historic Site signs. We’ve followed some of these signs and most of the time, it’s hardly worth the effort as the destination is just a site where something happened or a building was and is no longer! No doubt, if you are an historian or simply very keen on historical facts, these places would be important, but for us “tourists” who are simply skimming the surface of the country, they don’t hold much attraction.
About halfway between Taupo and Rotorua, SH30 joins SH1 and over to the west is a small mountain that looks a bit like the mountain in the film “Close Encounters”. It just rears up out of the flat land surrounding it. This is Whakamaru Peak, 795m or approx. 2600ft high.
Then we wound our way northeast up and down to Rotorua. As we were about to turn onto SH5 to get to the town, Te Puia was just on our right so we made a stop. Te Puia is a Maori run complex showing the arts of weaving and carving, telling the history of the tribes that still occupy the area, and introducing us to the hot springs, mud pools and geysers. The sulphur smell is all around, but I didn’t find it offensive as I have read in some books – Tom could hardly smell it at all. It is NZ$50 per person to get in, but that includes a 30 minute Maori show, a guided tour and as long as you want to wandering round the site. There is an interactive display where you can follow parts of the tribe’s history, a Maori village with audio description in different languages of how life was, a walk through the bush (but on a proper path) – as far as Tom’s concerned, a walk in the bush means he’s fly fodder, so we didn’t attempt that! – there is a weaving school and a carving school here too, and you can watch demonstrations.We were lucky enough to get the last 2 tickets for the concert. It was explained to us what we were going to see and one member of the audience was chosen as our chief, Nigel from Australia, for the occasion. He had to accept the challenge from the Maori warrior
and lead us into the Marae (meeting house) for the concert. We all had to remove our shoes, hats and sunglasses before entering, as a mark of respect. The Marae is everything to the Maori – a meeting place, a forum to discuss problems and make decisions for the tribe, a sleeping place when families get together, really the hub of the community. (Kandi, our guide, is the youngest in her family of 9; her mother is one of 16 and her father is one of 10, so their family is huge – there are over 100 grandchildren.)The concert was wonderful, exciting and moving (I have to admit to a few tears at the end!) Never mind that we didn’t understand the words, the sounds were enough. The warriors did a Haka and showed off their skills with long wooden sticks and shorter ones, which they passed from hand to hand in time to the music. The girls danced and sang and did a display with wooden balls on the end of strings (poi) – I know it sounds peculiar, but it was great.
They ended with a love story – a famous song which many performers have recorded over the years, including Kiri Te Kanawa and Hayley Westenra, (Pokarekare Ana). We came out to continue with a guided tour starting with the history of Te Puia and what the structure at the entrance means.Then it was off to the kiwi house, where they have a female kiwi and her baby, so we saw a kiwi for the first time. As kiwis are nocturnal, the kiwi house has been “time shifted” so that the birds believe day is night and vice versa. You go in to the dark and have to allow a few moments to get your eyes used to it then you get the chance to see them. Unfortunately, the baby is still very shy and didn’t appear, but we saw the mum running around. We hope this isn’t our only viewing of a kiwi.
The lack of water is affecting the mudpools, so they weren’t quite as active as they could be and some had dried out into mini volcanic shapes.
You could hear it bubbling under the crust. We arrived at the geysers as they started to put on their display – not an artificially induced spouting as some are – but our guide, Kandi, could see the first signs and knew that the full flow would be about 10mins away. It is very impressive and I found it almost disturbing that we were standing on top of such an awesome display of nature’s power. We took some great photos and film. We then spent an hour wandering till the complex was closing.Our motel is very basic but perfectly clean and not expensive, within walking distance of the town. I had an urge for fish and chips for dinner, so we walked for a couple of miles, passing all kinds of eating establishments and finally asking where there was a fish shop. Having been given directions, we walked about another half a mile, only to find it was closed! So we decided to walk back to the main food area and on the way come across a …..fish and chip shop……. We stood and waited while it was cooked freshly for us and, as we were now almost back at the motel, walked home to eat it. As we got to the motel, Tom noticed that , if we’d turned right instead of left when we walked into town, we’d have seen the fish and chip shop NEXT DOOR to the motel!!!! Oh well, such is life and we’ve definitely walked our 10,000 paces today! The fish and chips we did have were very nice anyway. I was too tired to do the blog before bed, so left Tom to fiddle with his gadgets and wrote this up this morning. We’re just about to set off for the afternoon and hope to find somewhere with wireless access so Tom can post the last 2 blogs for you to read. Bye for now.
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