New Zealand Day 13 (12 April 2018)

April 12, 2018

We started the morning a lot warmer than the previous day! As we packed up the car and headed out, we saw a brand new colt with its mama!

We made our way down to the Rotorua area. Somehow they managed to build up an amazing area where there are a lot of things to do. It’s surrounded by a lake and has a huge mountain biking community here too. The first thing I noticed was the temperature. It was quite a bit colder in this part of New Zealand. One of the shop keepers told me it had snowed the day before, and it felt like it! However, the day was gloriously sunny.

Our first stop was the Redwoods Treewalk. Some California Redwoods were brought over and planted in 1901. The prime growing conditions are 35 - 45 degrees latitude from the equator. Who knew? It is a walk that you take around the trees from suspended bridges above the forest floor. It really felt like an Ewok Village!

As you walked on each bridge, it kind of felt like you were walking on a trampoline. Or, if you can imagine walking on the top of the waves, that’s how it seemed to feel. It was an interesting experience!

Each platform had an educational sign talking about the forest in some way. There are over 70 types of ferns that grow in Mee Zealand! It now makes sense why they have fern trees! They also use the fern as a symbol for their country, along with the kiwi bird. In the late 1800s, the government figured out they would run out of timber, so they offered incentives for people who would bring trees from other countries and create tree farms to increase the number of trees on New Zealand. Pretty cool plan!

The bridges are held up by moveable straps that protest the trees. Even the platforms between the bridges are moveable.

We purchased a combo ticket to be able to go both on a daytime and an evening walk around the raised platforms. It was a unique and interesting experience. If you squinted just right, it felt like there were Ewoks zipping around below you. 😊

We then headed over to Te Puia, a Māori Arts and Crafts Center. It was an experience unlike anything else I’ve been to here. If you are of Māori decent, you can apply for a scholarship to study in the ways of their culture. You are trained for a 2-3 year period in bone cutting, carving, weaving, etc. It’s a tremendous way for them to preserve their culture. Once you’ve been selected, the cost is free, since the admission tickets pay for the scholarship money!

The men are the only ones allowed to carve. Their culture separated the dead from the living experiences. Since women can give life, they don’t work with the dead materials to carve. Both men and women can weave. Speaking of weaving, how they strip the plant material from the insides, is by using a muscle shell!

We learned that Kia Ora means ‘hello, hi, welcome, thanks, and bye.’ It’s nice to have such a useful phrase! We took a guided tour, where we were able to learn all kinds of wonderful information. I also learned that the Māori language was only oral for quite a long time. They also use (a really long) one word to convey a whole sentence of meaning. They name their lands by significant events that have happened on the land.

I asked our guide about the tattoos. She said she received her first tattoo at age 14, and it’s not uncommon to be that young. The tattoos are usually based on their tribes (so they really are tribal tattoos). When asked about facial tattoos, she said she would be receiving her chin tattoo in two weeks. It shows a sign of maturity, which is why some receive them. Though tattoos are common, they are not compulsory. There are traditional parts that are tattooed in different countries. The under forearm is usually Hawaiian, for example.

We walked over to the Whakarewarewa geyser, that erupts at least once an hour, sometimes twice.

This part felt a lot like Yellowstone! It was beautiful! They also had some mud pools that were bubbling too.

We walked through a kiwi enclosure! The kiwi bird is a flightless bird that is endangered. Our guide shared that five years ago, there were 12 million birds, and now there are only 58,000. They have a lot of natural predators. At any rate, they are a nocturnal animal, and are really shy. So, we walked through a dimly lit enclosure, and saw two kiwis! They are kind of shaped like a pear, with a long beak. The females have a longer beak than the males. Their eggs are about the size of two hands put together. For the female, it fills about 20% of their body. It would be like a human birthing a 4 or 5 year old child. The gestation period is 90 days, so a female can lay six eggs in one year. The male kiwi incubate the eggs. Also, females are larger than males, and have a better life span. There are no photographing the kiwis, but they were really cute!

We also were able to see a cultural show! It was kind of frustrating to have a lot of Asian tourists push their way in front, but the celebration was fantastic!

It was a surprise gem! I thought we were just going to see a cool geyser. So, to be able to see the preservation of the Māori culture and kiwis...total win!

We then headed to a grocery store to get supplies for breakfast. It is always interesting to see the different things you can buy in other countries, like lime and banana milk next to the chocolate milk.

After dinner at a yummy Indian restaurant, where I had the best butter chicken I’ve ever eaten, we went back to the Redwoods Treewalk for the night experience. It felt magical with lights on as you walked through bouncing walkways through the trees!