Buried Village, Rotorua
When Vesuvius buried Pompeii in burning lava, (79 AD), it also buried Herculaneum, but in mud. Similarly, this village was buried in mud by the 1886 eruption of Mt Tarawera.
The village now is sort of an outdoor museum. There are areas where you can see the foundations of buildings, and lots of recreated buildings. The mud that buried the place has dried almost like stone, and plenty of sites have not yet been excavated. A track leads between exhibits, and along a beautiful river. Finally, there was an optional track led down a million stairs to the bottom of an awesome waterfall.
One evening we went for a walk, and saw lots of steam rising from a spot in the bush. We tried to get closer to the “Burning Bush,” but weren’t able. It was even more interesting with the purple light illuminating a portion of it. There are many places in and around Rotorua that have geothermal activity going on – some complain that the smell of sulpher is too pervasive. We didn’t find it too strong… maybe we were usually upwind.
The next morning we had planned a tour of the Mauri Village near us… and it turned out that the steam we’d seen came from inside this village. Cherryl comments below in italics:
Whakarewarewa
That big name is the Māori village in Rotorua. We went on a guided tour, a nice presentation. The gentleman who was our guide said he lives here in his mother’s village. His father’s village is across the city, but he prefers the geothermal activity in this one because there isn’t a strong sulfur smell here! He is an older gentleman with strong opinions!
There are a lot of boiling hot pools. At one of them they cooked fresh corn in a net and put them on paper bowls for us to eat. It was really good and did not have a sulfur smell. The villagers use these pools, some for cooking and others for bathing. He listed a lot of benefits to breathing the steam and bathing in the pools. He said he never got a Covid shot and has not been sick in forever.
He also talked about how the Māori were the original owners and dwellers in this land. That the government had promised to give them this land – this exactly village – and reneged on the promise repeatedly. They are still in negotiations and it was looking like they would get the rights to the geothermal properties of the village.
I want to insert an aside here. I have been amazed at how “loud” the Māori culture is in New Zealand. The language is nearly equal to English, on signs, even on the bus and train everything is written in both languages. There are lots of museums and places to see and buy their crafts. Several birds are only known by their Māori names. They are endemic here, so no one else named them first, or even second! Kiwi, KaKa and Kea are a few. All brownish birds. Most of the endemic birds are not colorful. (End of second aside!) I feel like there is a strong respect for the Māori culture in the European community. More than I saw in Hawaii. There I felt like it was an interesting past thing. Here it is strong and loud and current.
There are lots of people living in this village. Many generations. Lots of cars and homes marked as private from the tons of tourists they bring through on tours. This is a big business here.
An event not long ago (I can’t find a date, but in the last year or so) changed the water level in these pools. It has dropped more than a foot and changed the beauty and usability of them. That is a really rough thing on a village that relies on tourism. And that uses the pools constantly. The guide said global warming, too many people, an act of God, but mostly the government using up the geothermal power not to far away caused this. I think an earthquake changed the pathways. (What do I know?!)
Our guide sang a song for us at the end. Other groups were singing, and talking close by. You can hear them at the end of the video below.
Coromandel
We headed up the coast towards Coromandel, where we hoped to see the Dotterel, a shorebird endemic to New Zealand. One place on our route was the Wharekawa Wildlife Refuge. It was supposedly reached by a short road, turning off Route 25 8½ km (5 miles) south of Tairua. I say supposedly, because we watched very carefully, but saw no trace of the road. When we got to Tairua, we’d obviously gone by the turnoff. We decided to ask a local about where it might be. We selected a bakery for our question, and the host knew nothing about it (but he made some tasty pastry!) We saw an RV park, (or Holiday Park as they are called down here,) and asked the owner. He gave us good info, and soon we were heading back south – and we finally found it. Instead of 8½ km south of town it was 24 km!
It was well worth the effort to get there (even if we had to eat a pastry) and we did manage to find the Red-breasted Dotterel. It was a great walk on a fine beach. We stayed quite a while, considering we still had a drive to our next stop, but it was too beautiful to leave!
In Coromandel we were forced to stay in a nice little room across the street from the ocean. So sad! It was slightly sad, because we’d gotten there fairly late in the evening, and had to leave somewhat early (for us) in the morning. We had planned to drive all the way past Auckland, and try for a night in the Bay of Islands, towards the north end of the north island. As we drove, we decided we’d done enough driving, and elected to lengthen our stay in Auckland by a day, and we forfeited our only scheduled day up north.
Auckland
Our hotel was happy to add a day to the beginning of our time in Auckland. It turns out we were on the 9th floor, and our rooms windows are the top left three windows in this picture.
We have been living out of the car for well over a month now, and somehow we’ve added a fair bit to our luggage! An ice chest for moving cold food, a bag for dirty laundry, a bag for shoes or whatever… lots of stuff! We’ll have to get it all back to normal by the end of the week.
Here are views from the 9th floor. We can even see the Sky Tower! And I’m showing you our charging center… seems we have more gadgets than luggage!
Here are some photos of Auckland. The biggest city in New Zealand, there is a great mix of ultra modern architecture and classic older buildings.
This church was just down the block from our hotel.
Interesting angles and shiny surfaces adorn modern buildings.
The old Ferry Building, right on the wharf, is still used for Ferry offices.
Tiritiri Matangi Island
Once again, we took a ferry to a conservation island. This trip took a bit over an hour, but the island isn’t that far out… we sailed up the coast a ways, then picked up a bunch of school kids, and then headed out about 4 km to the island.
A whole boatload of folks arrived at the island (obviously) and most all of us had opted for a guided walk. The school kids (about 70 of them!) had teachers and guides of their own, so we didn’t see much of them. The rest of the boatload was divided into groups of about 8 or so, and assigned guides. Our guide was great, and told us much about the wildlife and helped us identify birds by sound. She also found a Weta bug for us to see. It’s like the ugliest big bug you’re likely to need gazing at. I couldn’t get a good picture, but I’ve stolen one off the internet so you can enjoy it and look forward to finding one of your own:
As our boat left the Auckland harbour, we passed this magnificent sailing yacht. I’ve read up on her – she’s the Janice of Wyoming, a tad over 130 feet long, and absolutely gorgeous. She was built the same year as our boat was, but there the similarity ends!
Nice views from the island:
From the ferry back you can see Auckland’s skyline through the windshield.
And more nice yachts at the city’s marinas:
Finally it was time to go up the Sky Tower. Completed in 1997, it is now the second highest free standing tower in the southern hemisphere. It was the tallest until 2022 when the Autograph Tower in Jakarta, Indonesia was built. It is 65 feet taller than the Sydney Tower, but I’m told the Sydney Tower’s observation deck is a bit higher. Whatever… they’re both quite tall!
The windows in the tower are dramatically tinted, and I could only color correct them so far before getting tired of it, so here you go:
Glass panels let you stand a long ways above street level! You can also do a Sky Walk, around a sidewalk around the top. A sidewalk with no railings! True, you wear a special jumpsuit (bad choice of name?) and have two cables hooking you to overhead safety cables, but still…
If you are really adventurous, you could do a Sky Jump – 192 meters straight down! (that’s about 630 feet, or 63 stories.) There are guide wires to keep you from hitting the tower on your way down, just in case it’s windy. I contended myself with standing on the glass, INSIDE the tower.
So I’ll close with this sign I saw on a building in town. I may not base jump off tall towers, and I’m certainly not perfect… but I’m adventurous!
