Taupo to Rotorua

We were up early ish this morning and got on the road about 9am. It was really cold through the night and rained the whole time but we stayed tucked up and slept well. Our plan was to drive to Rotorua and visit a forest but as we were driving along we saw a sign for the wai-o-tapu 'thermal wonderland' and we remembered someone had mentioned it. 

It was all a bit of a snap decision, we pulled off the main road and were sat in the car park trip advisoring. We had plans for another thermal waters tomorrow but they both seemed to have great reviews, this one is 'the most colourful waters in NZ' the other had slightly better reviews. The time was running out for us to decide as we read that the geyser here exploded at 10am and we were sat in the car park at 9.50 making the decision. In the end we jumped out and went for it.

The geyser was 150 years old and was discovered by prison inmates who were made to clear the forest. They found the hot water and decided they could do the clothes washing here. When they mixed soap with the water the geyser erupted, something about it breaking surface tension. The forest is the 3rd largest man made forest in the world and they think originally there were about 130 geysers but through people interfering and building etc there are now only 15 left (they sound like endangered animals when you say it like that!)

The eruption was awesome, when the guide first put the synthetic soap (that doesn't effect the environment) in it just bubbled and I think Edd thought that was it! It was soon showing off with water spouting meters above us.

We spent the morning walking around the other craters, lakes and pools looking at all the volcanic activity. I had a fantastic guide who explained everything as we went along. We had decided we didn't have time for the guided tour so Edd stepped up as guide and read info to me as we went, he took the job very seriously and I would have given him 5 stars on trip advisor! 

My favourite was the florescent yellow/green pool a mixture of lots of minerals including sulphur and ferrous salts. Edd's favourite was birds nest crater, birds lay there eggs in little holes on the inside walls of the crater and the hot water and steam helps incubate the eggs for the birds! 

Each pool was a different colour depending on the mineral in the water, orange was antimony, purple magnesium, red iron oxide. The whole area smells of rotten egg which comes from hydrogen sulphide and everywhere seems to steam. The water below ground is heated by magma left over from volcanic eruptions (hottest recorded is 300degrees!!)

We also stopped off to watch mud bubbling, it's so therapeutic, I could have watched all day and I took hundreds of pictures trying to capture the little boils, only a few were a success!

We had lunch in the car park of our next stop because I was adamant we had to be on time! We were to a birds of prey trust. It was just as I had hoped! Brilliant!! We had plenty of time to look around the little aviary at the beautiful Falcons they had. The trust was for conservation, they rescued mainly Falcons and the odd owl with the aim of fixing them and releasing them once trained. Having said that, a few they can't release if they won't survive on their own so they keep them for breeding and release their young.

I was in my element but got more and more anxious as more kids arrived, kids tend to get priority at holding animals over adults and I'm now at the age I'm considered too old to be desperate to have a turn at holding these cool creatures. They bought out two birds and let them fly around whilst they told us stuff about them. 

There are only 10,000 native NZ falcons left, that's less than there are kiwis in NZ. 75% don't make it to their first birthday due to farmers thinking they are a threat to their chickens, road accidents and of course introduced predators who eat the eggs and small young. They have 4,000 feathers and the coolest part is, is that the rescue centre uses dead birds feathers to replace damaged ones by super glueing them in until the new ones grow back so that the birds can fly in the meantime!!

The fastest recorded flacon can fly at 240miles an hour! And finally (I could go on and on!) the art of falconry, training your bird to catch your food to feed you and your family, started 4000 years ago, it's still used in places such as Mongolia as a form of hunting.

When the demonstrator finally asked if any adults would like a turn holiding the bird my hand shot up! I did get my close up to this stunning animal!!

We just had time for a quick cup of tea and a few minutes nap for Edd before we left for dinner. I think the amount of driving Edd has been doing and the unease he's feeling at the fact that plans were changed quickly today leaving us a bit more empty tomorrow made him sleepy. 

He doesn't cope well with not being organised and I definitely don't help there, I would if I could but it stresses him out if he leaves it to me and I don't get things as under control as they are when he does them!! Better he does them himself. I need to take some driving off him but he's enjoying it and is struggling to let go! I'm sure he'll get tired enough soon! 

He mentioned the need for a hotel soon and I didn't jump on it quick enough, we've ended up in a campsite! I think Fiji will hopefully be a welcomed rest for him. He's taking on a lot, the driving, the cooking and the planning of the rest of our trip. I try but my trying isn't organised enough for him and doesn't alleviate the stress! I've agreed to be promoted to head blog writer as a way of helping!

We were collected at 5pm for dinner, a big coach full of tourists were picked up and shipped on an extremely touristy Maori evening experience. But my goodness was it a great, fun, evening! Things started well when we met an English couple on the coach and hit it off straight away. 

A chief was chosen from our coach and as we arrived our chief lead us in to greet the chief of the village. We had a serious, ceremonial welcome dance, peace offering and official greeting before being able to relax and learn more about Maori culture, tradition and history. We walked around stations learning about the training they did before fighting, the dancing, the weaving and tattooing they did and the boys got the chance to try the Haka!

Years ago they used to tattoo their faces, by carving into their face, letting it heal, and repeating 3 times before using ink in the split skin and burning the skin so the ink didn't run!!!! Apparently lots of Maori lost their lives from this as they lost too much blood. Below the eye tattoos were tattoos of physical attributes and above were spiritual attributes.

We then had a demonstration as to how our food had been cooked underground, steamed on hot lava rocks in its own juices before a pee show dinner. They danced and sang for us before showing us how the Haka should be done properly. I really don't know how they get their eyes to pop out so much!! The buffet dinner was ridiculous with so much food and we then sang a few more songs before our journey home.

The driver on the way back was brilliant and had us singing song home. We even did 'she'll be coming round the mountain' and did numerous loops of the roundabout. I have a vague memory of them doing that last time 15 years ago.

Edds fast asleep but excited as we have shifted plans around which means hobbiton (hobbit world for any of you, like me, that don't know so much about Lord of the rings) tomorrow. I think I'm going to have 3 hours of being completely confused about what everyone is talking about!!