Fly Me To The Moon

Catching up on the last three days now that we have reached decent WiFi again.

Today is Sunday in New Zealand. It’s still Saturday in the US so the Super Bowl has not happened yet. Kickoff will be 12:30 PM on Monday our time, when we will be hiking in Taranaki National Park. Go Birds!

On Friday we went to Waimangu. Rotorua, where we stayed, is in the midst of an active geothermal zone. You can tell because much of the town smells of sulfur. Waimangu Valley is the area around Mt Tarawera, which last erupted in 1886 (the blink of an eye in geologic time). We hiked down through the valley to the lake, took a boat ride, and then took a bus back up. There was a lot to see, and some of it looked like the moon.

Be glad those don’t come with Smell-o-Vision

We came back, showered, and went to dinner in Rotorua. Then we took a geyser tour at night. I didn’t get many picture because it was, well, dark.

Saturday we visited a living Māori village at Whakawerarera. No, I can’t pronounce it. This village took in the survivors of the 1886 eruption and the women of the village learned about guiding tourists from the women who started guiding before the eruption. The Māori still live in the village, cook in the steam box and hot pools, and bathe in the water that runs off from the cooking pool. 

Māori carved figure with a bowler hat. The melding of cultures is fascinating.

We took a break to eat lunch and then did part of the geothermal walk. It would have been warm enough without walking through clouds of sulfur steam. Even the geologist had enough after about half of the walk.

These are the geysers we saw the night before.

We cooked fresh fish and corn back the ranch (or farm), and got up this morning to pack and head south to New Plymouth. This was supposed to be a rest day after two fairly strenuous days. Well….there was this black sand beach…

And this other black sand beach with sea stacks called the Three Sisters…

And a two km round trip walk to a waterfall.

We landed in New Plymouth a little before five, started laundry, and walked a few block to a yummy dinner. After dinner we strolled along the waterfront. The view from the apartment does not suck.

Now settled in for more laundry and some well-deserved rest before tomorrow’s adventures!