New Zealand, Auckland- Day Trip part 2

Part 2 of our Day trip out of Auckland.

Next was the concert at the Maori meeting house.

The concert began with the guide selecting a male representative of the huge crowd present to represent us to the Maori chief. The Maori chief came forward with an olive branch (a silver fern). The back and forth was to determine if we came in peace. Here comes the Maori chief to check us out!

Our representative picked up the fern to show no ill intent. We were then allowed to enter the meeting house. The crowd was asked to remain completely silent. Our representative then personally introduced himself to each member of the Maori party with the Maori greeting of touching noses. Part of the group was very loud and even stepped in front of barriers to take selfies during the meeting of the "chiefs." Once inside, we had a concert of Maori music and skills. The singers had to ask people to be quiet at one point. They also asked the crowd to not stand except on the outside edges and people kept standing to take photos.

After the concert, we were treated to probably the best "tour" buffet lunch ever! It included a wide variety of international cuisines to provide something for everyone, but also a nice pavlova- a dessert said to have been invented in New Zealand. I have a recipe from a kiwi friend but haven't yet had the guts to try it. I think the humidity here would be an issue-meringue is involved.

Next we re-grouped with part of our entourage that had left us for the Hobbiton tour and we were off to Waitomo Cave. We stopped for a short break at a pretty spot.

More scenes along the way.

Proof of cows in New Zealand. New Zealand produces most of the powdered milk in the world in addition to great cheeses and other dairy products. We use butter from New Zealand.

With road construction delays, we arrived at the exact start of our tour: 4:00 pm. There was one chamber which is used for a variety of concerts due to its fabulous acoustics. From my perspective, the cave itself wasn't anything too special and the group was much too large for the tour.  But, I finally got to see another type of bio-luminescence aside from fireflies.

Glowworms! Yep, these are the carnivorous larva of a gnat that lives in some caves in New Zealand.  They create sticky hanging threads much like a spider web to help trap their victims. They also emit a blue bio-luminescence to draw in prey. While this may not sound very appealing, the whole effect is awesome!

In one small area of the cave our guide turned off the lights and we could barely see the famous glowworms.  The best part was the "ride" in a boat in total darkness to observe massive numbers of the glowworms. Our guide had to split the group in half. She asked the second half to wait and be absolutely silent so we could experience viewing of the glowworms without distraction. The other half was extremely noisy and was almost yelling. They began as we moved away. The guide pulls the boat silently through a section of the cave guided by a rope above. Our guide told the noisy group she wouldn't come back for them if they didn't stop it. They continued anyway.  The glowworms were still incredible. The ceiling and walls of the cave appeared to be stars in the sky. Gorgeous!

Absolutely no photos were permitted in the cave so I couldn't take photos myself. We did buy a postcard so I scanned that to include here.

I also found this photo on the Internet.

I also found this very short "tour" about the glowworms done by National Geographic. You can see a bunch of flashes going off as folks were taking the boat trip. (In some caves with glowworms photography is permitted.) Try to ignore the flashes.  I hope the video link works but if it isn't a live link for you, just copy the link and paste it into your browser. The tour is worth it!

https://youtu.be/QjqGlLVIAtg

Note : After this day trip, we ran into most of our group of 9 at different spots around Auckland. I guess we all had similar interests.

New Zealand, Auckland- Day Trip Part 1

This was a very long day. We were up at 4:45 am and picked up at the hotel at 6:20. We were down in the lobby well before this. We didn't return until nearly 8 pm.

There were 9 folks including us on the day trip to Rotorua.  The weather and skies were very interesting on this day.

Fascinated by the clouds!

At this point the clouds/mist appeared to be rolling down from the tops of the mountains. This was very difficult to photograph from a moving van.

  Proof that there are sheep in New Zealand.

Sheep tend to be found on steeper areas.

Our first stop was at Hobbiton (the shire they built in NZ for the Lord of the Rings movies.) It was built in the middle of an enormous sheep ranch so no one would know it was there and they established a no fly zone over it to keep everything hush hush.  Of course the local residents were aware. And in a nice gesture, the movie's director Jackson built a hobbit building in town that I believe  houses the visitor center. Many of our group left the group to do a tour of Hobbiton. Another pair left the group here and were transferred to another van to do something else.

We were able to grab a little snack here. We were pretty hungry by then!

Our next stop was at the Maori Cultural Center, Te Puia in the Whakarewewa Valley. The Valley is part o the Rotorua geothermal system and lies on the south edge of Rotorua Cauldera. It formed from a large volcanic eruption 240,000 yrs ago. Magma at great depths heats cool ground water. The hot water rises to the surface and creates geysers, mud pools, steam and gas vents and hot pools. There are roughly 500 pools and 65 geyser vents in the Valley. Water in deeper parts of the geothermal system is under great pressure and temps can reach 572F. Cooking pools used by the Maori contain boiling water which has moved to the surface. Cooking is done in baskets made of flax. It takes about 100 years for rain water to eventually emerge as hot spring water.

Kia Ora as it was explained to us means hello but also has quite a few other meanings.

Carvings such as this were placed at the entrances to fortified Maori villages. The carvings were usually of tribal ancestors or gods. This is the Gateway Whatitoka Waharoa.

We had a short tour that included a little bit about Maori culture, some cool geysers, a boiling mud pool. We also attended a Maori "concert."

This is the real Maori name for this place. It is incredibly difficult to say so the guide told us about the several modifications to get it down to 2 small syllables.

Here is a map showing the 6 geysers at this site. We had a difficult time figuring out which was which.

The different geysers erupt at different times even within an hour.  Pohutu is the largest geyser in the southern hemisphere. It erupts once or twice each hour and can reach 30 meters.

Our guide indicated that there is a show for a while and then no eruptions for a bit then it re-starts.

We've been around worse fumes (ex. in Hawaii) but you could smell the sulfur compounds here too. You could see the sulphur deposited on the ground.

Recognize anyone in the photo below (Hey, it is US!)

Koko Mud Pool 

This is one of the largest mud pools at Te Puia. It is 6-10 meters deep. Steam and gas released rises and condenses as water just under the ground and produces an acidic liquid. The acidic liquid breaks down the rock and forms a clay that mixes with surface water to produce a steam-heated mud pool. The bubbling mud can reach 203F. In rainy conditions the mud is more fluid. If it is a drier season, the mud is more sticky. The Maori used the thermal mud to treat cuts and burns plus arthritis, rheumatism and to cleanse the skin.

Continue with Day Trip part 2