Got a bit lost leaving Mt. Manganui but eventually found our way onto the correct highway and began the slow, cautious drive to Rotorua. I was only driving at 80 to 90 km/h because of the rain.
We arrived in Rotorua around noon and, once again, found the information center quite by accident. We picked up a free map – the most inaccurate and unhelpful so far – and booked a performance and dinner at Tamaki Maori Village for the following evening. We drove to the hostel and checked in but our room wasn’t quite ready. So, we left our luggage and drove into town to the museum.
I got completely turned around because a road that was clearly marked on the map as a through road was actually a pedestrians-only shopping lane. I tried to get to the museum via another road, only to find that at a certain point it became a one-way road. Argh! I eventually found the way to the museum and parked, thankful to be off the road.
The museum was quite lovely. We started by watching a short movie about the history and culture of Rotorua. The area is volcanic and in the late 1800s there was a major eruption that destroyed the town and killed over 100 people. The benches in the theatre shook and jumped to simulate the tremors from the eruption.
From there we went to an exhibit that explained the culture of the Te Arawa, the local Maori group. It was quite informative and I really enjoyed the artifacts that the Te Arawa had shared with the museum. We also went to an exhibit about a Maori battalion that fought in WWII and was quite successful in battle. Dad would have loved that exhibit!
We saw a static exhibit about the volcanic eruption that provided more information about how the people in the town reacted during the event and how the survivors fled the area after the event. The final exhibit that we visited reviewed the museum building’s history as a geothermal spa where people came to “take the cure” for various ailments. We even walked into the basement and, hardhats on, explored the labyrinth of pipes and gauges that fuelled the spa baths.
We drove from the museum to the Polynesian Spa and booked a spa treatment for the following day (today). Then we swung by Pak ‘n’ Save and bought groceries. I wanted home-made spaghetti for dinner so we picked up some veggies, mince (ground beef), pasta, and sauce. Mom also picked up some cereal and fruit for our breakfast.
Back at the hostel, we cooked dinner and then retreated to our room to watch The Motorcycle Diaries on my laptop. Quite a few people walked by and looked in the room, probably curious how we ended up with a TV in our room.
This morning we awoke early. Mom had a shower then went over to the kitchen for breakfast. She came back within a couple of minutes, steaming mad. Someone had stolen all of our groceries, including Mom’s precious fruit. I dressed and had a shower, then we marched over to the hostel reception to complain. Apparently people had been complaining all morning about stolen food.
The first order of business this morning was to find another Flash drive (mine broke in Hamilton) so I could upload text and photos to my blog. We found a Dick Smith’s in town, I bought a Flash drive, then we wandered across the street to an Internet café where I transferred files from my laptop to the Flash drive, then from the Flash drive to Blogger. (If you’re wondering why I didn’t just plug my laptop into a network port, they charged twice the normal rate for the privelege of plugging directly into the network.)
From there we walked to a music store and bought some music for the remainder of our road trip. I’ve been humming and whistling an old Gowan song incessantly since Hamilton, where I heard it in a shop. Three or four days of the same song is a bit irritating, even for me, so Mom and I agreed it was time to get some CDs. Mom picked up some CDs of traditional Maori songs and I picked up Oceania II.
We had a quick brunch at McD’s, visited some gift shops, then drove to the park. You have to pay big dollars to gain entrance to the largest geothermal ponds and geysers and we didn’t want to spend our money on that kind of thing. The guy at the information center had circled a park area on the map and advised us to go there to see geothermal ponds for free. It was a fabulous little park and we had a great time wandering amongst stinky bubbling mud holes and stinky steamy ponds. I have some nice videos of the more interesting mud holes and ponds.
Bloop, bloop, plop - and stinky, too!
Near the car park there was a shallow geothermal pool where you could soak your feet so we pulled off our sandals and put our feet in. Shortly afterwards a whole bus load of Korean tourists arrived and joined us in the foot bath. They were very friendly and one of the fellows spoke very good English. We lingered for about 20 minutes then decided to head back to the hostel. We said goodbye to the tour group and received many waves.
We’ll head off to the Polynesian Spa shortly. Tonight is the Tamaki Maori Village tour, performance, and dinner. Should be good!
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