Rotorua, Whakatane, Te Wairoa and more kiwis

Bath House Building, Rotorua

From Hamilton we drove on to Rotorua, where we were greeted by the lovely aroma of rotten eggs. This is a geothermal area, so the smell of sulphur wafts everywhere and once you leave the town you are best advised to stick to the marked paths as you never know where a new spout of steam might appear.

Rotorua itself was OK. We tried going to the night market for food one evening, but apparently they have a different view of 'night' here as when we arrived at 8pm it was all over. At least they had a couple of decent places to eat in Eat Street, which just about stayed open long enough for us to eat in the evening rather than what felt like late afternoon!

New Zealand

But we weren't there for that, we were here for the geothermals, and we were most impressed with those. We went to four different sites, all of which were good in their own way, but we especially liked the last two. But I will cover those in the next two posts.

We didn't do a lot in town, as there wasn't much to do. We went to visit the museum, which was in the very impressive Bath House Building, but we weren't really in the mood for it, so got distracted by the café, and never actually got around to looking at the exhibits about the Maori culture. Oops.

We did pop over to Rainbow Springs, a very small wildlife park outside Rotorua that is involved in kiwi conservation and breeding. Most of the kiwi area is off limits, but there are some enclosures out in the park. If you go during the day, then you will only see the kiwis in the nocturnal house, but we went at dusk, so that we could see them outside.

You do have to be a bit patient, they can take a while to emerge. You also have to be very quiet, as kiwis are notoriously shy creatures. When they finally did come out, it was great to see them rooting around for food. The fence is very low - you are trusted to behave - so you can get a lovely close up view of them if and when they come along the edge of the enclosure.

New Zealand

Whakatane

One of our trips out of Rotorua was to the coastal town of Whakatane. On the drive out, there was some beautiful scenery - all rolling hills and the like. You could tell we were close to where they filmed the Lord of the Rings. Not that we actually visited Hobbiton; we were considering it, until we saw the price!

Whakatane

Whakatane

We had read that Whakatane was a place that we might be able to see the Blue Penguins, but that apparently turned out to be rubbish. There was a nice coastal walk, where we did spot a little Morepork owl, nestled in a tree.

Whakatane

Morepork owl, Whakatane

It was nice to see a different type of place, but it really was just a small town, with not that much to merit going there. It had one little treat in store though. We went into a charity shop for a poke around, and found the Jilted John LP called True Love Stories. I have always had an inexplicable liking for the song Jilted John, so as it was only 99 cents, we bought it. Of course I don't have a record player, so I haven't listened to it yet.

Te Wairoa

Our other visit was also sadly something of a disappointment, although to be fair, I suspect we had rather inflated expectations of what would be there.

Te Wairoa

The Buried Village of Te Wairoa, is the site of a small village that was established in 1848 as a model village, only to be destroyed less than forty years later, when Mount Tarawera erupted on 10 June 1886, killing around 153 people.

We had hoped that the village might be a little along the lines of a mini version of Pompeii, a small slice of history preserved by the volcano.

Unfortunately, there is really little more than a few archaeological remnants of the original buildings, and some replica homes to show what the village was like, and how it was left covered in 1.5 to 2 metres of volcanic mud.

mural of pink and white terraces

As well as the obvious disaster for the village and those who died or were bereaved, there was an additional loss of a geological feature that was touted as being the eighth wonder of the world.

On the shores of Lake Rotomahana were the famed pink and white terraces that had made the village a destination for tourists wanting to see them and bathe in their waters. Sadly the volcano destroyed them too.

Te Wairoa

Te Wairoa

Te Wairoa

Te Wairoa

Don't be put off from visiting or reading about Rotorua though, the next two posts should have lots of photos that will convince you that it is well worth a visit.

Te Wairoa

Hamilton, Cambridge, Glow worms and kiwis

Riff Raff, Hamilton

At the end of our stay in Auckland, we collected a hire car, because from here on in we were to be driving around New Zealand.

When I say we, I really mean I, as Nic doesn't drive. And with me having only done my test at the end of 2014, this was going to be a bit scary for me, as it would be the first time I had actually driven, other than in a dual controlled car with my instructor (or examiner) sat next to me. At least with starting in New Zealand , they drive on the left and there isn't too much traffic - except in Auckland of course!

We managed the drive to Hamilton without incident though, and I was lucky, because when we got there, the tiny hostel car park, which I was later to discover could be quite tricky to park in, was empty. It amused us here that the lady in our hostel said that she could was a bit anxious about visiting Auckland - Hamilton was about as big as she could cope with. Hamilton is about the same size as Peterborough.

Hamilton

Hamilton was not a bad town, with a few nice shops and bars. It's main claim to fame is probably that it calls itself the birthplace of the Rocky Horror Picture Show. Richard Smith moved to New Zealand from the UK with his parents, and it was here in Hamilton that he spent his late teens, cutting hair at Pat Osbornes hairdressers and going the the Embassy Theatre cinema next door to watch horror and sci-fi films.

ducklings

In 1964, at the age of 22, he left for London to become Richard O'Brien the actor, eventually writing, and starring as Riff Raff, in the Rocky Horror Picture Show. In 2004 they put up a Riff Raff statue at the site of the old Embassy Theatre to honour O'Brien, which became slightly ironic in 2010, when New Zealand refused him citizenship; they eventually decided to make an exception, and he became a citizen in 2011.

Cambridge, New Zealand

While we were here, we took a day trip out to the rather small town of Cambridge, which had about two main streets and a very villagey feel.  There was a very tiny farmers market on, where we met a lady who had emigrated from the UK and was helping out a friend on his meat stall. The sausages that we bought were excellent.

Ruakari Cave, Waitomo

Cambridge is a very small place, with a population of about 20,000 and inevitably, only a short history, so it amused me somewhat when a woman in a shop asked if it was just like the Cambridge in the UK. I couldn't lie, I had to tell her that it was nothing like it. She was quite disappointed, but consoled herself with the fact that the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge visited here.

Ruakari Cave, Waitomo

Our main trip out of Hamilton was to visit the caves at Waitomo. As it rained a lot, we decided to skip the third cave, Aranui, as it involved a forest walk which we didn't feel like getting wet for. We did the other two caves though, starting with Ruakari, Maori for den of dogs, supposedly named because the cave was found 400-500 years ago when a young Maori boy was hunting for birds and was attacked by wild dogs living in the old entrance.

Ruakari Cave, Waitomo

You enter the cave through a spiral slope and a tunnel, that feels a bit like you are entering the secret lair of a Bond villain, but once inside, it is a labyrinth of limestone wonders. To be fair, I have seen better stalactites and stalagmites, but these were still pretty impressive. In particular there was a nice variety of formations, including the drapery or curtain forms, which really look like they could blow around in a breeze.

Ruakari Cave, Waitomo

We also got our first glimpse of some of the main draw for the caves, the glowworms. The glowworms here are a different type to those found in other countries as they are a type of gnat, Arachnocampa luminosa. The adult gnat has no way of eating, so only lives for a few days to breed and lay the next round of eggs. The glowworm is the larval stage, which can last from six to twelve months, and this is a case where light really does shine out of a creature's backside.

The glow is to attract food such as midges and mosquitoes, so that they become ensnared in the many lengths of sticky silk, like that in a spider's web, that they drop from their nests.

But the best view of glowworms was in the main Waitomo cave, where we got into boats and floated through in silence - or at least as close as we could get when we had one of those idiots on board who couldn't grasp the concept of keeping his mouth shut, or that the idea of whispering is not to be heard by everyone else!

It wasn't a long boat ride, but it was genuinely a beautiful sight to be looking up, in complete darkness, at all those glowworms, twinkling above us like a starry sky. Sadly no photos were allowed, but I have borrowed a photo from their advertising to show you how lovely it is.

Ruakari Cave, Waitomo

Our other visit from Hamilton was to the tiny town of Otorohanga, or more specifically, to its Kiwi House. These birds are so much a part of this country that New Zealanders refer to themselves as Kiwis, but in fact they are under threat. Kiwis are flightless and relatively defenceless, for the simple reason that before man came here, they had no natural predators. With man came dogs, cats, ferrets and stoats, that decided kiwi was an easily caught and tasty meal. With only 70,000 kiwis left in the wild, and all species ranging from vulnerable to critically endangered, measures have had to be taken to protect them and as here, run breeding programmes.

Ruakari Cave, Waitomo

There are five main species, the North Island has just the one kind, the Brown Kiwi, while the Great Spotted, Little Spotted, Rowi and Tokoeka are all from the south. They belong to the Ratite family, which includes ostriches and emissions and they lay by far the largest egg of any bird in ratio to its own size. Kiwis have very poor eyesight, but their sense of smell is excellent, and despite looking pretty spindly, their powerful legs make up a third of its weight.

Ruakari Cave, Waitomo

You can't visit the breeding centre, but there are four kiwis that are kept separately in a nocturnal house. We were there at feeding time, but even then only one of the four emerged. Atu is a female Great Spotted Kiwi. We hadn't realised that they were such a bundle of fluff; we had thought of them as being feathery, but in fact they are covered in more of a fluffy down. They really look quite cute, but again no photos allowed sadly.

We were told that kiwi can be quite territorial, and Atu showed us just how true that is. When her keeper went in to plant food in her enclosure, Atu attacked her vigorously. The keeper was wearing long heavy boots, which protected her, but her thick waterproof trousers were ripped to shreds below the knees, where Atu would peck and pull at them with her beak. Atu would also hold on to the keeper's trousers with her beak and use that to support her while she used those powerful legs to kick her. She kept this up the entire time the keeper was in her enclosure.