More Rotorua Experiences

We've had a busy past two days! We started out Wednesday morning by visiting some geothermal activity (boiling mud pools) in a park in Rotorua (see pictures via the link in the previous post). After taking a few pictures we decided we'd had enough of the fragrant fumes and headed over to Waitomo to visit the glow worm caves. What an awesome experience!!! Although the boat trip through the caves was a bit short, the pure splendor of the caves made up for the short trip.

After caving we stopped for lunch at a local dairy and then headed back to Rotorua for a purely New Zealand cultural experience. We took a tour through Te Puia Maori Cultural Center (Centre, for the NZ readers). By this time it was about 4:30pm and starting to get a bit chilly, but we warmed our rear ends up on some geothermally heated rocks while we waited for a geyser to erupt. The Pohuta Geyser is the second largest in the world next to Old Faithful. Continuing the tour we visited the Maori carving and weaving schools. The last part of the evening was participation in a Maori ceremony and hangi (feast). Shawn was chosen/volunteered as our "chief". As Chief he was reponsible for representing our group. Our group consisted of the four of us, and a couple from Scotland. The welcome ceremony was hiliarious, although we were instructed not to laugh. I have some good video of the ceremony, which decides whether we come in war or peace. After it was determined we came in peace, we were invited into the meeting house for a formal ceremony and song and dance. During the presentation we were invited up on stage to use the pois (can't think of a good description so just google it) and later the men were invited up on stage to learn the Haka. Once again, I have great video so ask for it when we get back!!! We concluded the evening with a wonderful meal with way too much food. At this point Austin was so tired he was asking to go to bed!

After a great night's sleep we woke up and headed for the kiwifruit (not kiwi for the USA readers...this is a bird) growing fields near Mt. Maunganui. We were provided a tour of the orchards and packing facilities. This was really interesting and we watched while they sorted and packed the fruit. Hayley loves kiwifruit and picked up a few of the discarded fruit from the ground to take with us.

After leaving Mt. Maunganui we headed for the Coromandel Peninsula. We took a bit of a wrong turn (my fault) and we didn't quite end up where we had hoped to be tonight. However, it has worked out quite well. We have stopped for the night in Thames in an all inclusive, self-contained unit (kitchen included). Tomorrow we hope to visit a goldmine area and possibly Hot Water Beach. After that we will head to my aunt's house in Clarke's Beach, south of Auckland.

Check out the pictures we have so far (link available at previous post).

One more item to note that we forgot to write down in previous posts...we saw a sign on the side of a building that said, "If Hilary wins, Monica gets her job back." Unfortunately, we drove by it faster than I could get my camera out. We just about died laughing. NZ'ers seem very interested in American politics, and from what we have seen, most seem to be rooting for Obama. And with that, I will end this post.