Abe and Erin’s travels

We started off the day at 8am (I think Rashmi was up at 6am getting things ready to go).  After a trip to the local information center we spent a lot of money and planned the next 12 hours.

We started with a gondola ride up to a senic lookout area and had a very intense Luge competition. 

Here is a view from the gondola:   

We were able to take 2 rides down the mountain – I must grudgeingly admit that Rashmi beat me by a nose on the second run (I crushed her on the first run)!!!

After that we walked around the area and took some photos:

We then made our way to check out the Zorb and the Agradome.  We were considering doing the Zorb – it looks pretty cool, but we were looking forward to doing the bungy!   It looks like a short green on a ski hill.

We decided to go to the Agradome and smell some manure – it turned out to be really nice (not the manure but the attraction).

Rashmi was able to achieve her goal of holding a lamb .

So I held the smelly little beast too

The Agradome also had a wool loom thing and a very tasty chocholate factory:

We went to the shearing shack and Rashmi gave me a lamb style haircut.

We made our way back to the city and went to the meuseum.  The meuseum is surrounded by beautiful English gardens and the bowling club was out in force.

 The bowlers. 

 That’s the front of the meuseum.

   View from the top of the Meuseum.

The building for the meuseum used to be a resort that people used to go to be cured of diseases.  They would take baths in the natural spring water (high in sulfites and other minerals) for the “healing” benifits.  It was also common to electritute people in bath tubs to help cure them – odd.  We could’nt take pictures of the inside, but the building is beautiful.

Surrounding the meuseum are a number of thermal pools    you can’t get close to the pools because too many people have burnt themselves by putting their hands in the water.

     That’s as close as we got while others were watching

  Rashmi – BREAKIN the Law! Me sticking my finger in the water – it was the lake so it wasn’t hot, just bubbly.

Here is the entrance to the meuseum/garden:

After that we headed to the backpacker to get ready for the next adventure – a Maori show.

   here is the backpacker – really nice!

We piled into a bus and went to the Mietie (I’m guessing at the spelling) villiage.  There were about 100 people in the audience.  We all were seated in the dining tent where we met our host who greeted us and gave us a quick orientation of some Maori culture and customs.  We had to select a Chief to represent our “Tribe of Many Nations.”  I’m glad I didn’t volunteer – a guy from the US named Jeff was named our Chief! 

We then went out to check out our dinner that had been cooking in the ground for “3 hours” it smelled wonderful: Chicken, Kumura, potatos, and Lamb. 

We then went to the river to see the warriors arrive in the war boat.  It was really cool at night!  Unfortunatly we couldn’t get very good pictures…But we tried!

  the warriors on the boat

 This guy was hiding in the bushes (it was a really fun show)

We then made our way back and went to the stage where the Tribe performed.

The back of the stage was set with tradational style Maori buildings and big fires. 

Some other pictures:     

There was some fun audience participation:  The chief was given a peace offering and was greeted by the other Chief by touching noses (Hongai sp?).  Our Chief was scared shitless with major stage freight (I would have been too with 100+ people staring at me while a really intimidating warrior is swinging a weapon and shouting like he was ready to kill someone – way cool by the way).

The Chief took time to explain the Moko.  The performers/people of the tribe are not tattooed – they paint themselves for the shows. 

From what I remember the story he told went:  Moko hit his wife and she left him.  He searched for her and she kept evading him.  He found a man with tattoos on his body and decided that if he was tattooed then his wife would find him attractive again and have him back.  The tattooed man gave him the secret of tattooing.  Each part of the Moko corresponds to a specific part of nature.  On the face the Bat, parrot, and owl are represented (the gifts?).  The bat is placed on the forhead and represents status in the tribe.  The parrot is on the nose and represents one who is an acomplished orator (as they look down their nose the spirals look like the beak of a parrot).  The owl is on the chin and is also worn by women – it represents protection (women for their children and men for the women). 

On the legs are waves of the sea to help in safe voyages, and the spirals on the buttox represent the winds of change/speed/etc.

After the show we ate the meal, which was really good!  The lamb was very tasty!

After dinner we made our way to the sacred spring and saw some glow worms on the way (we couldn’t get a picture).

I really enjoyed the show.  It was so realistic (being at night) and I really felt like I was watching something from the past (very cool).

Off to Rotorua… Check out the sweet ride (I’m posing oh so nicely next to the car)

On the way north we passed this cookie plane:

Rashmi drove most of the way because I’m a crappy driver and I get scared easily:

It was striking to see the vocanoes (as usual the pics don’t do it justice).

We made the trip in 6 hours flat!  Even in the rain and at night – Rashmi was a champ! 

After checking into Treks we went to The Pig and Whisel.  I had a scrumptious lamb burger and one of their microbrews – not bad. 

We watched the Huricaines beat the Reds and headed to the backpacker to rest before seeing all we could in Rotorua in one day.