My Cousin Balin Will Give Us A Royal Welcome!!!

I will start this blog from where I left off in my previous one.

Rotorua. One of the most active geothermal and volcanic areas on Planet Earth! The crust here is only 3km thick, which actually isn’t very thick. In fact it is quite thin. The ground is warm when you touch it. During the summer it can reach 60C in the area. Also tea tree is a native plant to the area. That’s where tea tree oil comes from. Here the plant is called “Manuka”.

On Sunday, March 11th we went to Wai-O-Tapu. It is a very popular thermal reserve in the Rotorua region for its geysers, and geothermal lakes. The first thing on the tour was The Lady Knox Geyser. This was the first geyser I’ve ever been to and boy oh boy was it cool. Lady Knox was physically very small. (maybe chest height, and also kinda thin). But with 30,000 litres of water underneath her and pressure constantly building, the spectacle she gave was astounding!!! I thought while sitting there that ok maybe it will go up like 15ft for like 30-40 seconds. It was more like 45 feet at first then down to 25 after 10 minutes. She continued to go off for a full hour. Yeah, 25ft geyser for an hour. 

After Lady Knox we went into the park and walked around for 3 hours covering the whole area. It was cool to see the silica everywhere. Also there was lots of sulphur stains on the rocks and hot pool and lakes above boiling temperatures. Seeing the different colours in the water was really cool. Different chemicals produced different colours. There were oranges, purples, reds, yellows, whites, and greens. One lake was called “The Artists Palette”. In this lake all the colours are present. I enjoyed looking at it. SIDENOTE: A lot of the caves and lakes are named after the Devil. Example: The highlight for me was “ The Devil’s Bath”. This arsenic lake was the craziest colour of green you’ll ever see. I took pictures of it, but still it didn’t capture what I was seeing. I found out that the amount of cloud cover and sunlight actually changes the tone of green and yellow in the lake. So if you come to NZ you MUST come to this place.

On Monday we visited “tewhakarewarewatangaoteopetauaawahiao”. A small village just outside Rotorua where Maori people still live today. Our tour guide showed us how the people there still live like they did 300 years ago when the village came to be. They use the hot pools and steam vents to cook food, bath, wash clothes. There are little ovens over the vents and the meat is wrapped in leaves and placed into the ovens at noon. They temperature of the oven is 250 C. By 6pm or so a full chicken or chunk of lamb will be fully cooked. Sweet corn is then placed in a fishnet bag with a rope tied to the end. They throw that into a hot pool with a temperature of 150C. It takes 15 minutes for it to cook and doesn’t require any season because of all the natural salts in the pool.  

It was really cool to see how the people of tewhakarewarewatangaoteopetauaawahiao are living today with modernization going on around them. Yes they do have some modern technologies but they use them as least as possible. Our guide said that dishes are unnecessary and they do not use them, and that Maori time is the only time they follow. From what I saw it was a very relaxed way of life.

Now time for Steve’s “Things I’ve noticed” section.

1. Cemeteries are located on hills and people are not buried underground.
2. Rugby fields everywhere...DUH
3. Everyone walks around in bare feet
4. Hedges in front yards are 30ft tall No Jokes!. They want privacy
5. All the kids still ride scooters
6. Aquarius is a popular word
7. The KFC Double Down is a copy of a NZ Chicken Ham and cheese savorie (Nz is probably healthier too)
8. McDonalds has free wifi and a combo called the Mac and Cheese- Big mac, Fries, Drink, Sundae, and double cheese burger for 11.90 NZD. Thats equal to 8 CDN. There is also one called The Mac Attack..Take a guess at what’s in that.
9. They have “Aged Persons” Caution Signs...WTF??

Back to my trip.

Today, Tuesday we went ZORBing. Holy F. That was sooo much fun!!!!! I knew while I was ZORBing that I had the second biggest smile on my face ever. (First biggest smile was on 17/FEB/2012. But that my friends is another story). We went for a walk around the city and through the parks. In the city parks they have natural hot pools set up for people to sit in. We did, it was enjoyable. After lunch we went to the information center and got a special deal for ZORB. 

At the hill I was really excited, and not to nervous. At the top they asked what track   I wanted to try out. I asked which one was the wildest and most people say is the best. It was the Zig-Zag track. I jumped into the ZORB, the gentleman filled it with a little hot water and locked me inside. He said stand up, run, and push. I was able to stand for about 5 seconds then gravity took over and I was tossed around with water splashing everywhere. I’ll leave it at that because everyone should experience this for themselves. After the run I quickly jumped back into the van and got a ride to the top (even though I didn’t pay for another ride). It wasn’t very busy and they didn’t seem to mind. (The people in NZ are really welcoming, nice, and friendly). I laughed and smiled so much. Awesome day. This is like the perfect roller coaster for pacemaker patients lol. At the end I figured I had so much fun that I would support the company and bought a ZORB shirt.

  

A traditional Maori dinner is called a Hangi. On Tuesday night I decided to go to a Maori Hangi and culture show at Mitai village. (A few of us were waiting outside the hostel and we started chatting. It turns out I met and had dinner with Henrik and Daniel Sedins Cousin. His name is also Henrik). It was a really cool experience. You could taste the difference in the potatoes that were cooked in the steam, and the chicken and lamb was so succulent and juicy. It’s a lot different from a Canadian meal and the way it is cooked. It almost tasted better. The performance by the tribe included a view of their Waka along the river, traditional dance and song. (the song was beautiful, their voices were so nice), and a Haka. The Haka that was performed was really intense the warriors were sweating from putting all their effort into it. Their chest were super red because during the Haka the warriors slap their chests and yeah you could tell they were giving it their all. The Haka is a sacred thing for the Maori and it was nice to see that even though they probably do it every night, that every time they give it their all. Before we go back on the bus the tribe let us walk through the forest to see the glow worms. It was a spectacular walk. We got to see a Silver Fern that was actually silver in colour, weta bugs, the glow worms, and even a blind eel. Again the weather was perfect and the stars truly a sight to see from within the forest.

HOBBITON!!!! (I am actually speechless). It was a jaw dropper to say the least. The full sets are build permanently now because of The Hobbit movie coming out and at the end of the year the Green Dragon pub will be turned into a bar for visitors to have a drink a for the premiere. It was just so amazing! Our guide asked, “Who’s hobbit hole is this?” and me being a huge LOTR nerd answer instantly. For that he gave me a piece of the set. It’s just a leave from the tree a top Bag End, but still. (I also took a stone from the front walk of Bag End). The gardens in the Hobbiton set are real, so naturally I ate some fresh mint. The strawberries were already gone and I didn’t want to eat a tomato or a whole cabbage.  

Rotorua and Matamata (Hobbtion) are a must see for anyone passing through NZ. There is a lot of history and culture here, as well as amazing activities, and beautiful scenery. My next goal is to get to National Park and walk the Tongariro National Crossing. It is suppose to be one of the best walks in NZ and it is also where Mordor was filmed.

Now that I have been to Hobbiton (where Frodo first got the ring), I am off to Mordor where it was destroyed in the fires of Mt Doom!!!