Te Puia Maori centre

Our last day in Rotorua we went to Te Puia - this you must book in advance for, it is very popular.
We had intended to do an evening show, but this was fully booked so we went the next day for a day time pass and a ticket to the cultural show.

We started with a quick walk around the major geysers and steaming pools.

Our cultural Maori show started at 10 am, with a display of warrior skills, and the meeting with our representative chief. The lead warrior displays his skill with a weapon before laying down a green branch as an offer of friendship, and this is picked up by our "chief" before they greet each other with the Hongi or pressing of noses and handshake.

Going inside their meeting hut - this one is a display version, and therefore allows for taking of photographs - there was a display of weapon slicks as well as dancing and singing.

Here the Maori women are twirling something that has a white padded ball on one end and is held by a red fluffy thing - it does have a name, which I can't recall...

After this experience we visited the national carving centre, where students learn to become master carvers and then return to their regions to teach others the carving methods.

This group of carvers are working on a world war one memorial to Maori soldiers who were killed at the battle of Gallipoli.

Next to the carving school is the weaving school, where women are taught the skills of weaving flax into cloaks for ceremonial occasions, and into baskets, and other adornments.

Here is another Maori warrior displaying his skills and then laying down the leaf of friendship.

Carol took heaps more photos of boiling mud and geysers and here is just one of these.

Rotorua geo-thermal wonders

The Wai - O - Tapu geo-thermal area is about 20 minutes drive south of Rotorua, with a daily eruption of the Lady Knox guyser at 1030am, induced by chucking in some washing powder to break the surface tension of the cold water seal.

Once the washing powder has started the reaction, the jet of steam and cold water initially bubbles and then gushes about 20 metres into the air.

After we made our way back to the entrance to the park, we embarked on a two hour walk around all the hot lakes and bubbling mud pools. This large hot lake is "the artist's palette" with green from sulphur and ferrous salts, orange from antimony, purple from manganese oxide, white from silica, and black from sulphur and carbon.

The bright orange at the edge of this pool is from trentepohlia, a bright orange algae which thrives on the warm edges over lichens.

This is boiling mud.

In the evening we went for a swim in the hot waters of the rivers upstream, at a place called "the secret spot", which is not very secret, but is free and as good as a spa, or better.

Hawkes Bay Wine tour

We had a walking tour of Napier, the art deco capital of the world, before a wine tasting experience of new world wines, at the New Zealand Wine Centre, first checking our sense of smell with the aroma centre for the 53 distinct aromas that are to be found in wines.

We were all better at the bad odours that can be found in spoilt wines...like cork, or mouldy earth.

 The buildings in Napier are all art deco, after the rebuilding mode following the earthquake.

 After lunch at Clifton, we returned to wine tasting; this time at Elephant Hill.

We tasted several wines before buying a few bottles.

After wine tasting at Elephant Hill, we went on to Craggy Range Wineries, where there are some really large bull and cow sculptures.

The viewpoint from Te Mata peak.

Napier, north island

We are spending Waitangi weekend with Hugh and Linda, old friends from medical school.

Hugh is going to eventually retire from medical work and concentrate on his fruit orchards - his kiwi fruit had to be replanted after an outbreak of PSA in his first crop, and is two years off the first harvest, but showing some early immature fruiting. He is a great inspiration for me to keep a long term perspective on future plans.

We spent the afternoon at a Zimbabwe sculpture park in New Zealand - this felt somehow very appropriate given our present company.

The apple orchard with old ladders.

James with Linda and Hugh

Kiwis B & B, near Picton

I have to say a few words about this very luxurious B&B overlooking the deep waters of Mahau sound. It is a few km from Havelock on the scenic road towards Picton, and well signposted with a red kiwi bird and the white swiss cross superimposed.

It is run by Swiss born Conny and her Kiwi husband, Mike. They do everything to the highest standard, and we had a lovely dinner with them, and chatted long into the evening about Mike's travels in Africa, from Kenya to Cape Town.

They have a wild Wiki bird that comes in the evening to peck around their decking area, and we thought we saw a pod of Orca whales jumping around in the sea near some yachts at anchor.

I would recommend anyone coming to use the ferry at Picton, or wishing to explore this region, to come and stay with Conny and Mike. You won't be disappointed - they do things in style!

Swiss born Conny and Kiwi husband, Mike

James and Carol seated at their outdoor table for dinner.

The day time version of the kiwi bird, a Wiki

Table spread for breakfast.

A welcome mug of personalised coffee

The delightful view over the sound from their hillside home B&B

Golden Bay, and Abel Tasman park, new Zealand

Golden Bay region is a long bay protected by a beak-like spit of forest - in fact the whole region looks very like a kiwi bird with its long curved beak. This gives the bay a calm protected sea, and there are fine golden sandy beaches, separated by rocks, and safe swimming. We were lucky here to have four days of fine weather to enjoy it all.

There is much to explore in this region, from the Abel Tasman national park at the base of golden bay, to the top with forever spit, amazing views and the stunningly wild Whaririki beach. The hiking in Abel Tasman is beyond beautiful and under-populated; there are so many lovely walks and so much nature to see, that a week would be a better time here.

On our walk on the beach at Abel Tasman, we walked for an hour to the point, and one needs low tide to be able to do this, there are some challenging rocks to clamber over, we encountered a few folk who had rented sea kayaks to do the same exploring. These two needed a hand to get their kayak launched off the shore again.

Whataroa, and the White Heron Sanctuary

Leaving Lake Hawea yesterday with dramatic low clouds drifting down the hills.

The fantail falls are on the way from Lake Hawea to the west coast.

Today we drove from Whataroa across the bridge, to the foot of the Franz Josef Glacier and walked to Peter's Pool for the view of the glacier, and the reflection, and then to the river bed where the forest ends, for a view of the glacier.

The view of the glacier from the car park where people start their 2 hour walk to the foot of the glacier, or to Peter's pool.

This is the lovely view from Peter's pool. The glacier reached to the pool around 100 years ago, and has been retreating further up the mountain since.

Today the glacier is quite a way from the parking area.

We needed to be back at Whataroa at 3pm for the tour to the Heron Sanctuary.

The tour started with a bus journey to the jetty, and then a jet boat ride of 20 minutes down the Waitangitaona river to the hide where the nesting herons can be seen. There are around forty nesting birds, with nesting cormorants or shags below them, and the occasional spoonbill above.

One has to walk around ten minutes through a forest of ferns.

Here is the only colony of nesting white herons, or Kotuku, in New Zealand, in the Waitangiroto Nature Reserve. One can only reach this nesting colony by jet boat, which can navigate the shallow waters of the river. We saw around twenty nests with young chicks and often, an attending adult.

Many of the birds seen here are adolescents, aged around three years. The fully mature adults have a more finely traced feathery plumage.

This is a shag, or little cormorant. They nest just above the water level, and below the white herons.

A white heron in graceful flight.

Here is a parent white heron with two chicks in the nest.

Carol with our jet boat driver and guide.

An adult or adolescent fishing in the clear waters.

The hide has a supply of binoculars and a large monocular lens.

This is a Royal Spoonbill; a different shaped bill to the white heron; otherwise they look similar.

The mature adult has a finely feathered plumage.

You can see this plumage projects further than the rest of the feathers.

Arriving back at our start on the jet boat.