New Zealand Discoverer
Day Twelve – 8 March 2012 – Day of the Long Drive
Weather: cloudy, dry, 18
Another solid night of sleep. Decongestants help a lot. I went to sleep with the sinuses starting to act up but the Dristan did its job. Others on the tour are struggling with a lot of coughing mostly.
I get ready quick and run down for my 30 minutes of free internet and get all of three minutes on it. I didn’t even get my gmail up before it tossed me out. So, I took out my smart phone and checked the mail.
Breakfast was the usual with dry scrambled eggs and the nice typical mini-sausages. The tea was delicious again. At 7:45, we were aboard with 2 new couples and off for Rotorua. I don’t know if it’s one of the new women or not, but someone is wearing a fair amount of perfume and my eyes are watering and my throat is closing up. So, let me take this time for a public service announcement: Please, people, when you’re going to be on a bus for 8 hours, DON’T wear perfume or cologne. You can make someone pretty sick with it. I turned on the vents above me but spend most of the morning fighting worsening sinuses, itchy throat and burning eyes.
Oh, another public service announcement – reclining seats. Seriously, on some TT buses, you don’t have a lot of room. Why recline? You get a small amount of recline at the pure discomfort of the person behind you. Right now, I’m typing on the bus but have to sit sideways cause I don’t have enough room to sit the computer on my lap and open it. On a plane, no problem – different thing altogether.
We were on the motorway pretty quick and all the traffic was going in the other direction, backed up pretty good. We motored! Before long, we were passing the dock and Nellie told us that there were four fault lines under Wellington and that two were active. She said one of them is under the motorway along the water and she said a quake would be pretty bad given the number of people who use the motorway.
Hey John! Speed up!
We drive for about an hour and pull into a town called Levin for a bathroom break and Coke purchase. Shortly after leaving, we pass through a community called Bulls and Nellie points out the names on the shops and how they use the word “bull” in their names and advertising. It’s incredibull, affordabull, liveabull, bankabull, indespensibull, sociabull.
It’s laughabull!!
Nellie puts on a movie for the next leg called Whale Rider. Excellent movie. Just before it ends, we pull into a town called Flat something or other for lunch. She recommended the vegetable soup again and it was good. Nice to have something hot. Outside, I notice a sign that says “get lost…the maze is open.” Nellie didn’t mention a maze.
For good reason probably.
We all beat Nellie and John back to the bus. Probably cause we wanted to see the end of the movie. Pretty good. Wasn’t sure if all the sniffling was from the colds or from the movie.
Not long after the movie ended, we come across a town called Taihape where they hold a gumboot festival every year to see who can throw it the farthest. Apparently, when the government ended the subsidies in 1985, the towns found there was a drop in the money farmers were spending, so they looked for ideas to bring people into the town to spend money. A comedian here had a popular song called the gumboot song and they ran with it and created the festival.
The record for throwing a gumboot isn’t held by a New Zealander. That honour belongs to a Finnish man who threw for 63 metres. The NZ record is 38.
And the town has a giant gumboot at the entrance to the town. Reminds me of the prairie towns that have huge things at the entrances of their towns – giant nickel, shovels, moose etc.
(Something a little town in Newfoundland hasn’t done – it’s called Dildo. Granted, it would bring in the tourists.)
As we left the gumboot town, we drove on the desert road. It’s the highest altitude we’ll be on at just over 1000m (unless you flew over Mount Cook…heh). The “desert” up here gets 40 inches of rain a year.
Guess in a country where areas can get over 6000 mm a year, getting 800 makes it a dry spot. It’s flat with lots of low bushes. And sheep.
Before long we arrive at Lake Taupo. It’s the second largest lake in the southern hemisphere and is the remnants of a volcano. When it erupted back in Roman times, the explosion was heard by the Romans. The volcano collapsed in on itself and formed this huge lake. It’s large enough to fit Singapore inside of it. So, in the south island, the lakes were created by areas carved out by glaciers while in the north, the lakes were formed by volcanoes.
Nellie tells us that Taupo is a town of 24,000 where farming, forestry, tourism and energy production are the key industries. There are hydro and geo-thermal areas around here. The town is also home to a triathalon and black swans.
We drove along the lake for awhile and I tried to finish off the movie I had started on the ferry. Then we pulled into Taupo for a half hour break. Nellie pointed out the toilets – the Superloo!
Wooloo!
Nellie said it costs to use it, but after two Coke, I would have paid $5 to use it. It cost me 50 cents and the place was immaculate. Then I went for a walk down to the lake shore for a couple pics on this windy day and checked out the shops.
Got my fridge magnets too and an ice cream. When I got back to the bus, I tried to see if it was a wifi hotspot and sure enough, I got my gmail up. Cool.
Ten minutes outside of Taupo, we stop at the river where the lake empties. There is a huge amount of water going through a narrow rocky corridor with a short but very powerful falls at the end.
I go down for my pics and a jet boat comes up doing its spin then it gets close to the falls. All cameras are waiting to see them get swamped. No such luck. I took some video of the boat sitting below the falls.
Back on the road, we pass a geo thermal plant with the huge steam ducts going into the plant and what looks a lot like a nuclear power plant cooling tower. Apparently, geo thermal uses them for the same reason.
Rotorua is a city of 70,000 and the name means Second Lake. It has the largest Maori population in New Zealand. It’s in the lake district which has 22 lakes, of which 15 have fish. Nellie said we might notice a sulphur smell, but that the locals are used to it.
We drive into the centre of town to our hotel, the Millenium. If it’s like the one in Queenstown, we’ll have 20 minutes/20 MB free internet in the lobby. At this rate, it’ll be a while before I get any photos up.
It’s a nice hotel though the room feels dated…from about 1973. The TV is a CRT and the stations are not clear on it. They have a bit of snow and no colour. But the room does have a safe.
And heated bathroom floor, which is great for drying laundry.
We have 40 minutes to freshen up before we leave for the Maori show and dinner. Nellie takes us down the street to a building where we’re met by a Maroi warrior and brought inside for a series of skits by a grandmother and her granddaughter as they discuss the importance of remembering their past. It takes about an hour and we’re treated to a piece of bread with different toppings that are a little like jam but aren’t quite. One had apple, one was caramelized onion and the third was a pepper thing that was too hot to try.
After the presentation, we boarded a bus for the 15 minute drive to the Maori village just outside Rotorua. We had to pick one person from the tour to be our chief and we nominated an English guy named Fred. When we arrived at the village, he was joined by three other nominated chiefs from the other buses and they stood in a small arena where they would be challenged by warriors who would do a dance then lay down a fern leaf.
Remember the guys from 300 years ago who didn’t have Google?
Well our chiefs knew they were supposed to pick up the fern so that they didn’t invite a mass butchering.
We all breathed a sign of relief when the chief picked up the fern.
I took some video of the ceremony in order here and here.
Then we followed them through three openings into the village where we went from one home to the next learning a different aspect of Maori life. One was the Haku dance (think I spelled that right) that was taught to the crowd. I took video of the lesson. At another home was the women and the rocks they used to attach to strings and swing around like batons (but they weren’t using rocks). I took video. The last was a game with sticks.
Two of the guys were real comedians.
Then we went into a large community building where we got a show with dancing and singing. Very well done. I took video of two segments here and here. You can really feel the energy of the performances.
Dinner was cooked in the traditional way with the hot rocks underground.
Our group got it’s own dining room where we had a buffet with veggies, lamb, chicken, fish and pavlova and pudding and all the fixings. Plus a free glass of wine. There was so much food, we barely made a dent. It was delicious. The meat had a distinctive smokey taste to it.
At 8:40 on the dot, our driver came back and invited us up to the main dining hall for the final farewell performance with some songs and a dance by the four chiefs (the tourists made chiefs, that is).
Yeah, they need practice.
Then we loaded up on the bus and our driver, Sunny, went through everyone’s nationality and asked that they sing a song from their own country. We were stumped as to what to sing and settled on O Canada.
To which our driver asked if we knew why Canadians like to say ‘eh?’
We said no.
And he said to spell out the name of the country …. C eh N eh D eh.
Eh?
We love our As, eh?
When we got to the Australians, the driver stopped and said he knows one just as he enters a traffic circle. He starts singing We’ll Be Coming ‘Round the Mountain….and he and the bus behind us start going round and round and round the traffic circle until everyone was in hysterics. Don’t think the cars waiting to enter the circle were as amused.
Sunny finally exited the circle and said he doesn’t recommend that we do that at home because it’s illegal and incredibly stupid.
But he suggests the Australians try it in the other direction.
Heh.
Sunny drops us off at our hotel and gives us a farewell in Maori. What a night!
The board says we’re up at 7 for a 7:15 departure for breakfast at the Skyline.
Which has a luge!
Go to Day Thirteen
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