Honey and Hangi: Waitomo and Rotorua

Wow.  It's been a busy two weeks.  Our friend, Patti Hughes, has been visiting from the U.S., and we have had a grand time showing her all of our haunts and introducing her to our friends here in NZ.  Since her arrival, she has eaten whitebait fritters, has learned how to order a flat white (coffee) and has ordered Malaysian food at the right degree of heat from Monsoon Poon.  We have walked through the Botanic Gardens and past the Beehive (Parliament) in nearly gale force winds and spent days in which, as the weather forecast had predicted, "rain, sun, and wind have all thrown their hats into the ring."  We've visited the Weta Cave, the Quaker meeting and markets, nature preserves, and museums and have shopped in all kinds of weather.  One of the highlights was a seal coast safari where we visited the wind turbines atop the ridge, then rode in a four-wheel drive down a winding path through a game farm where two ostriches protected an egg,  then finally down to a wild part of the coast, complete with a leaning lighthouse and a few seals hanging out, while most of their compadres were on the South Island for breeding season.  But probably the most exciting part of our time with Patti was our trip to Rotorua and the Waitomo Glow-worm Caves.

It was a long drive, but the scenery was spectacular.  Patti said the green hills reminded her of wrinkly Shar-peis, with a snow-capped volcano in the background.   We saw a prawn farm and watched blue-green water cascading down Huka Falls, and bought various honey-related products at the Honey Hive. We stopped on the way to take pictures of Lake Taupo, and were greeted by a peeping flock of seven black-striped ducklings, who followed us everywhere, finally distracting them to keep them from stowing away in our car.  Maybe they wanted to visit Rotorua.

Rotorua is home to a couple of Maori tribes and is a hotbed (literally) of geothermal activity.  It is famous for hot springs and geysers.  Steam rises from the lake, and hot pools bubble.  There is a pervasive scent of sulfur.  After dinner at a Middle Eastern restaurant called Abracadabra and a walk through the bubbling landscape, we went to bed, then headed out the next morning for the Waitomo Glow-worm Caves (wai=water, tomo=hole), arriving in time for our 10 o'clock tour of the Ruakuri Cave, named after a Maori chief's encounter with two dogs there.  We spiraled down and marveled at the beautiful rock formations, listening to the drip of water.  Others were tubing in the freezing black water below, and we occasionally got a chance to wave down at them or at least at their head lamps shining in the dark.  No doubt about it though, the glow-worms on the walls and ceiling of the innermost dark passages were the most spectacular part. Our guide explained that they are really larvae who suspend themselves by something like spider web and glow to attract food.  But, even so, the sight of them as we walked through Ruakuri, then glided silently through Waitomo in a boat, was like a starry sky.  Amazing.  Unfortunately, my picture-taking skills do not extend to recording glow-worms, so those of you who want to see them will have to check with Patti.

The next day we decided to check out the Thermal Village Tour, where representatives of two tribes of Maori still live and work.  Our guide, one in a long tradition of women who are charged with passing on the history of the people, walked us past bubbling pools,  answered questions about the community's meetinghouse and history, then waited patiently as we took pictures of erupting geysers before ushering us to a cultural performance with singing, dancing, and the teaching of a few Maori words.  Only after we returned to the Visitor Center did we begin to appreciate the honor and tradition of these women, who have guided such illustrious visitors as Eleanor Roosevelt and Queen Elizabeth.  Two tribes merged to live in Waka Village after a disastrous volcanic eruption in 1886 destroyed one of the communities, along with the legendary Pink and White Terraces which once adorned the mountainside near Rotorua, now submerged in  water below.  The terraces were made of silica and shone pink and white in the light.  They held pools of blue mountain water, where people, both Maori and pakeha, came to bathe in healing waters.

In keeping with that theme, we decided to visit the Rotorua Museum and Government Gardens, where many pakeha came in earlier times to "take the cure" offered by hot springs.  Some of the museum exhibits featured the baths and rugby (of course), but the most interesting were those about how the Maori came to NZ, traveling by canoes with sails woven of reeds, from somewhere called Hawai'ki.  All Pacific Islanders trace their roots to this story.  No one knows the literal location of Hawai'ki.  Sometimes it sounds as if it's a mythical place, since it is also where souls return after death.

In addition to this exhibit, there were beautiful paintings by a painter named Charles Blomfield, who was the most famous painter of the pink and white terraces on the mountainsides.  There was a film, with surprising special effects-- loud noise, seats shaking as if one might actually be experiencing the destruction wreaked by the volcanic eruption which sent the terraces tumbling into the sea and caused many deaths, destroying the home of the Maori who lived there.

That evening we had another cultural experience, called People of the Land, Beauty of the Night.  We stood on the banks of a stream, while Maori warriors came paddling down in their waka.  Then we enjoyed the hangi, a feast of foods cooked by the geothermal pits in the ground--delicious roasted meats, potatoes and sweet potatoes, with NZ wine and a few other dishes added in (like pavlova).  We were seated in language groups, so we chatted with other Americans and a lone Frenchman at our table and were later led
 in song by a Dane.  After dinner, we went on a night walk through the Rainbow Springs nature preserve, where they incubate and protect hatching kiwi.  In addition to the kiwi, there were a number of other birds, along with tuatara and a few fish.

The next morning, it was back to Wellington.  But first, we made one more stop to see the redwoods near Rotorua.  We returned, tired but happy.