Week 2 - Day12 - Kiwi Birds!

The local high school is quite pretty. The grounds are covered with large local trees. They have tennis courts and a football field with grandstands.
Students have another week holiday before the begin their final term of school this year.

This flower is outside the holiday home in Tauranga.

We were off today to see the kiwi bird at the Kiwi Bird Sanctuary outside of Rotorua. They had a very nice trail through the bush with large naturalized cages of local birds. Many of them you could walk in with the birds.There were wild New Zealand pigs, domestic rabbits, local donkeys, chickens with chicks and assorted wild ducks.

They also labelled all the trees and bushes, which, was quite helpful. The Kiwi birds were inside a building, as they are nocturnal. This place certainly was worth the visit.

The white duck is called a curly feathered duck. Its feathers are so long they drag on the ground. This wood pigeon is twice the size of our local pigeons.

We pick-nic'd in the car at a local down town park in Rotorua. This park was recommended to us, otherwise we would have missed it. Well this park certainly was a surprise! This is quite a large park full of hot springs.

They have most of the hot springs fenced off to prevent any mishaps. The hot springs ranged from steam escaping from rocks, looking much like a fire pit of smoldering ashes to bubbling mud. When you crossed the grass you could see tiny gas holes about the size of a quarter.

These tiny gas holes made me quite nervous as we saw one that had developed quickly and it looked quite dangerous.

The ground around the above crater (video) had just broken away from a gas hole, to become a meter deep crater, about two meters across. It was filled with bubbling mud and smelled quite sulphery. As we looked over this particular crater, I talked to a couple of local men and they told us this particular one was only a year old.

I started to watch where every step went. There were hot springs everywhere!

As well, the gardens in this park are spectacular. I found out, from the gardener, what that bright pink bush was - he spelled it as Azalea Amenone. These flowers are particularly small compared to the common azalea.

The park was filled with azaleas and rhotodendroms in all sorts of colours. The bridge over one particularly large hotspring pool was covered with purple wisteria.
I met the head gardener who explained that this was a rather new park as the train used to run through this property and it was not public land. I think it looked rather mature myself. I didn't ask how old it was! He was putting in a perennial bed covered in bark. He has decided to start using bark to keep the weeds down. The town employs three full time gardeners for this garden alone.

The final interesting features were the public foot baths. We found three in total. Two baths were covered and one outdoors. The were well used by the public.
Our next stop was to check out Zorbing. It was just was around the corner. We had a great laugh watching it.

We watched both wet and dry zorbing. The rider is strapped in for dry zorbing and then they are pushed down a hill going head over heals!

Wet zorbing is more interesting - you are not strapped in and they put water in with you to help with your position going down the hill. They push you down a zig-zagging course. These balls can also bounce.

They should take this up at Devil's Elbow in the spring, summer and fall! Alan and I plan on going back and trying this.

We checked out a farm that had sheep sheering etc. It was terribly expensive beginning at forty dollars a person. Most of the displays were free so you paid for a wagon tour of a farm and then sheep sheering. We opted out.

Week 2 - Day 10 - Tsunami Warnings

There has been an earthquake in Samoa that reached 8.3 on the richtor scale. It is very sad that so many lives were lost there.

They have put a warning out for the east coast of New Zealand that a Tsunami is expected to hit at ten this morning.

We are currently located in Tuaranga which is directly on the east coast. So, we are packing for the day and and heading for the hills, to Rotorua. Will fill you in later...

... the tsunami that reached New Zealand was quite small. It certainly alarmed a lot of people. The people of Samoa are having difficulties and are expecting another earthquake and tsunami tonight.

On our drive into the Waimanu volcanic valley the scenery was lovely.

We spent the day at the hot springs outside of Rotorua. The gorge is beautiful. We walked along it on a long trail. There was quite a variety of hot springs and craters.

This is the river that once lead to the pink terraces I talked about yesterday. There were many bubbling springs with spectacular colours in the rock. The water was quite hot to touch...of course Alan and I had to try it.


The gorge walk took 2 1/2 hours long. The craters were amazing and did not have the sulphur smell that the Rotorua geothermal springs have.

When we reached the lake we saw nesting black swans and pairs of swans with their gosslings. This lake is called Lake Rotomahana which is a warm water lake.

Once we were done at the gorge, we went into Rotorua on a shopping expedition. Peter was looking for gifts to bring home.

Week 2 - Day 8 - The Kiwi Cart!

Had an interesting day today. Visited a Kiwi farm. Learned how much healthier kiwis are for you than orange juice. I tasted golden kiwi juice and had to buy some, it was super. We had a tour around the farm on a Kiwi Cart. That was quite informative. One kiwi plant produces 1500 kiwis each year.

We went to Rotorua to the Museum. That is quite a beautiful old building. We learned about the eruption Tarawera Mountain in 1886. It is such a shame that the pink and white terraces no longer exist. Then we saw a movie about it where the seats moved with the volcanic explosions which really gave you the feel of volcanic activity. (source for post card - Early New Zealand Postcards, 30 Sept 09, www.jeffpylenz.com)

Another interesting feature of the museum was that it used to be a health spa or bath. The bathtubs in the ladies section were made by Royal Doulton. In the basement they also had mud baths available. People came from all over the world to "take the cure".

Outside of the museum you can walk foot paths around the natural sulphur vents and mud holes as well as hot springs. It was unbelievably smelly. This path is along the edge of lake Rotorua. There were small islands covered in nesting birds. I couldn't believe the number of black swans. I counted over forty.