Kia Ora - February 26-28

Finally! We have had a very nice overnight flight from Honolulu to Auckland on Air New Zealand. They have a Maori-style fern logo on the tails of their planes - and everywhere else:


It takes two days to get to Auckland, even without delays. There is no way around it. You lose a day when you cross the International Date Line. (You get it back when you come home!)

Our introduction to NZ begins on the plane:

1. Barefoot kiwis. Several of them were barefoot in the plane, even when they went into the toilet. 
2. You can't always understand them. There was one flight attendant who had a pretty neutral accent. The other one had such a strong kiwi accent that I only got about every other word.
3. Kia Ora! A Maori greeting used by almost everyone in NZ, including the flight crew on our plane. It means "be well" and is used as a greeting. I like it!
4. Food. Kumara? Turns out it's a type of sweet potato that is very popular in NZ.

Air New Zealand meal. I can't remember exactly what this is as I am writing this three months later.

We arrived in Auckland in the morning, picked up our car, and headed to a grocery store. (They drive on the opposite side here. The first few miles were a challenge.) We wanted to stock up on snacks and toiletries and basics like laundry soap. We would not be flying for almost 10 weeks, so weight and bulk would not be a problem. It turns out that everything is expensive in NZ and a lot of things we are used to buying are not available. Next time I will bring more supplies from home.

We had a 3-hour drive ahead of us. Our destination - Rotorua. As soon as we got away from Auckland the countryside changed to farms and small towns. We passed through a few fern glades. Delightful!

We stopped for lunch at the Kaimai Cheese Company Cafe, in a little town called Waharoa. We had some coffee and, a sandwich and a stretch. There was an artisanal cheesery there, so we bought some brie and crackers to take with us. It was excellent.

As we continued on down the road we had some "interesting" moments with the GPS. Oh, well. We made it to Rotorua despite the GPS.

What IS that smell? It smells like rotten eggs. I guess. I don't really know what rotten eggs smell like. It smells like sulphur. everywhere. The whole town smells. This place is very geothermally active. There are vents all over Rotorua. They make the place smell. If you get away from one vent, you get closer to another. You get used to it.

Turning off one of the main roads onto a short dead end street, we arrived at the Sport of Kings Motel. Rotorua has, seemingly, hundreds of similar motels: small, family-owned and run, built in the 60's or 70's. There are way more motels than you would expect in a town this size (69,000). This particular motel was recommended to me by an ex-pat Kiwi I met on a cruise. It also had excellent reviews on TripAdvisor. And for good reason. Tristen and Pete couldn't have been more welcoming. Tristen was exceptional when it came to helping us plan our activities. Our room was in need of a little updating, but everything was available to make us comfortable - a thermally heated pool, a barbecue area, laundry, bicycles. Not that we spent much time in our room.

To stretch our legs we decided to go to the Redwoods in Whakarewarewa Forest. It was about 5 minutes away, but it was like entering a different world.

This free forest/park has a variety of hiking trails for walks ranging from 30 minutes to 8 hours. They also have biking trails, orienteering courses, and equestrian trails. It's even a wedding venue! We chose the Quarry Track, a 90-minute route. It was incredibly calming and relaxing to wander through the redwood forest. It was hot in town, but pleasant in the woods. The air smelled great. There were no bugs. Just beauty and, most of the time, a respectful silence. Most people felt a sense of awe when they entered the forest and instinctively spoke in hushed tones. It had that kind of effect on you.The Maori call it manaakitanga.

I'm a tree-hugger

Huge ferns

Part of the Treewalk

It felt like being on a Star Wars set. You could easily imagine Luke Skywalker zipping around between the redwoods in his little Landspeeder.

Did you think to yourself, "Redwoods? In New Zealand?" These are indeed California Coastal Redwoods. From 1899-1901, 170 different species of non-native trees were transplanted in NZ to see which ones could be grown successfully as timber trees.

In the evening we visited Mitai Maori Village for a cultural experience.

They had a bus that picked us up at our place and stopped at several motels along the way. Most of the motels appeared to be small, family-owned concerns. It looks like someone came through here in the 60's or 70's and built motels everywhere, and no new ones have been built since.

Mitai is a a family-owned business on an enclave of Maori lands. The evening included a cultural performance, a traditional Maori meal, and exploration of the property.

You can't see it in this photo, but the water was bubbling

We were shown the sacred fairy spring and then we witnessed a demonstration of the wakas,war canoes.
 

Our dinner was a hangi meal - cooked in the ground using hot rocks or a steam vent. Of course there was kumara.
 
The cultural performance felt authentic. A warrior came out and spoke to us in Maori. A formal welcoming ceremony took place and then came dancing, demonstrations of weapons and combat, and a chance to learn about Maori carving, tattoo art, and the poi ball dance.

 
The Maori people are Polynesian and many resemblances can be seen between Maori culture and Hawaiian culture. However, the Maori appear to be very fierce and warlike.

There is presently a lot of interest in traditional Maori culture in New Zealand, and in some schools children are taught Maori language and customs. Both Maoris and whites seem proud of New Zealand's Maori heritage.

The show ended with a haka, war dance, and then we wandered down a trail in the dark to see silver ferns and glow worms. We did see a few glow worms, but this must not be considered a true glow worm experience.