30 Apr 2013

Roturua, where hotsprings bubble and geysers blow

thefamous Pohutu Geyser in Roturua
We had two days in Roturua. On the first day, not wanting to waste time we walked around town to view the sights. First we went to the lakeside where a large paddleboat was waiting for passengers. This was the lake cruise and the boat looked like something out of Mark Twain. It was too late for a cuise which would take an hour so we decided to defer this and walked on towards the centre of town. The weather was beautifully cool - not cold but nice when you are wearing a sweater, (about 17 degrees Celsius) and I enjoyed looking at the wonderful colours of fall on the trees along the road side - reds, orange, yellows. 

A road in Roturua
   
Repin relaxing after some shopping
That night we were entertained to a Maori concert and dinner. We were taken to a Maori village and shown their ancestral history and how they arrived at New Zealand. Then they showed us the Haka -  a traditional Maori dance which mostly consisted of singing and war like movements and scary faces! The typical Maori feast was called a hangi (pronounced as hungee) where they barbeque the meat inside a deep hole filled with hot stones. The meat was wrapped in leaves and cooked to perfection.

After the dinner we were taken to see the kiwi, also a typical New Zealand flightless bird. The kiwi is nocturnal so we could only see it at night - in looks it was bigger than a chicken and dark brown in colour so it is not easy to find. Kiwis are protected animals and on the endangered list though today their main predator is the possum.

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