Rotorua

We have spent a good few days here in Rotorua, North Island's massive geothermal area. You can constantly smell the sulphur, rotten eggs, when in town but luckily we stayed in a DOC by a small lake 30 mins outside. The camp was actually a little flooded when we were there so they didn't charge to stay. Can't complain with 3 free nights camping!

We were camped near Tarawere, the infamous volcano that erupted in 1886. The village below was completely destroyed as well as most of its inhabitants. Unfortunately there were once beautiful pink and white terraces created at this site, but the eruption completely destroyed them. We went to visit Rotorua museum to see old photos of them, it's such a shame they were destroyed, I would have loved to take a dip!

The museum was first built as a spa, and has only recently been completed as a museum. It is such a strange building as it's in the English Tudor style! Very weird to see it here but apparently it was to appeal to the English in hope that they would come stay at the Spa.

We also experienced our first Maori culture by visiting Whakarewarewa. A thermal village where a tribe of Maori still live. 

 

Guides take you on a tour of the village, and show you the thermal pools where the village people bathe, their traditional meeting house and buildings, and the steam boxes built over the ground used to cook food. We tried some Hangi pie cooked in the box and some corn on the cob, very, very tasty!

There are also three active geysers on the site. We went out to the lookout and watched then blow, it was pretty cool.

The people in the village put on a cultural show twice daily, with traditional song and dance in Maori costume. I loved it! They even performed the Haka.

While there we also had a short lesson in the Maori language. They only have 13 letters! 12 of which are in the long full version of the village name above. She told us how to pronounce the vowels and little trip ups like when you see 'wh' it's actually pronounced as an 'f'. So at least now I can make a better attempt at pronouncing the places we are travelling through.