Hells Gate, Wai-O-Tapu & Tamaki Maori Village

Sunday, October 18, 2015
Rotorua, North Island, New Zealand
Arrived in Rotorua Saturday afternoon after big day in the Bay of Plenty, Top 10 Rotorua is a really nice park and we had a dip in the mineral pool @ 38 degrees and Kel cooked a hearty bolognese, yummy seconds :)

Up early Sunday to watch the All Blacks play France, about a dozen in the park TV room with healthy balance of French and 'us' Kiwis . Pretty exciting with lots of go go go and a few wee wee and no no no, very comfortable win in the end.  
Woohoo go All Blacks!

Headed off to Hells Gate in the afternoon, a geothermal park, lots of smelly rotton egg smells and grey spurting mud. I recalled the colorful Wai-O-Tapu another thermal wonderland from 10 years back so we headed off to research where the heck that was for the morning coz we had a date with some Chiefs! 

Tonight we travelled in style on the Tamaki Village Waka (Bus), our Korotiwaka (driver) was Dennis the Menace, he was very informative about the area, what we could expect, what we should and shouldn't do and then there was an opportunity for a lucky man on the bus to represent our group as Chief for the evening. Guess Who - yes that's right Terry christened by Dennis as "Barry the Mauri" and was the rep for our Waka Group.

Terry had to line up with the other chefs selected (four in total 2 x Aussies and 2 x Poms) to await the welcome ceremony, a traditional dance by the Tamaki Chief was performed, and an offering was placed on the ground and then a Chief of Chief's was selected to represent the visiting Tribe, yes guess who Barry the Mauri again . He had to pick up the offering and if he dropped it, it meant that Kelly would stay behind indefinitely. While he was very tempted to drop it luckily he didn't.

Terry took his role very seriously and followed the instructions, he was required to lead the Tribe through the village, he was taught how to do the Haka, he helped with the Hungi, and pretty much was front row and centre at all of the dance performances.

After a very tasty Hungi Dinner, all the Chiefs lined up and performed the Haka in front of the group - check out the video - Terry has some moves alright.

Sadly the night came to an end, we boarded our Waka for the trip home and that's when the fun began. Dennis the Menace informed Terry that as chief he had to sing the song Waltzing Matilda - lucky he knew the words - don't give up your day job Tezza! Lots of other songs followed, we got into the centre of town just as Dennis starting singing "She'll be coming around the Mountain when she come yeehaa" and then ........he drove the bus round and round and round and round and round the roundabout for the entire song....hilarious! Great Night definitely a must.

Monday morning we headed for Lake Taupo, but not before we found Wai-O-Tapu and the Lady Knox Geyser set to blow her stack at 10.15. The colors at the geothermal park are amazing, yellow is acid sulphate, orange is arsenic and grey is carbon, water temperatures reaching 100 degrees or more, wouldn't want to slip into the champagne pool or your goose would be cooked.

We all lined up to wait for the Geyser to Blow, our host advised us that the prisoners who was recruited long ago to clear the land washed their clothes in the surrounding hot spring only to be surprised and ran for their lives when the geyser blew, what we learnt was the geyser reacted with soap, it changes the PH levels and creates the reaction. So our guide placed some soap fakes into the geyser hole and we waited a few minutes as the reaction started. Water spurted some 30 meters into the air. Amazeballs!

Well its one week in, we have survived some pretty cool adventures and a barrel of laughs.
 
 
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Comments

Bel
2015-10-24

Glad to hear that Terry resisted dropping the offering bet the bad angle of his shoulder was egging him on something rotten hehehe

2025-02-14

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