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| Te Puia geyser just about to erupt |
I got a solid 7 hours of sleep, but at 5:30 my body said it was time to wake up. I lay in bed for a while reading new stories which was a mistake. It's the second day of the US and Israelattacking Iran if that helps to set the time period. Finally, I got up and dressed, then started working on the Blog again. It takes allot of time and commitment to do one of these. It's not just a quick 5 minutes, at least not for me.
By 7:00 we headed down for breakfast. It's a pretty full buffet with bacon, scrambled eggs, sausage, fruit, breads, etc. But the lady sat us right by the door leading outside and it was a chilly morning. But we had good food and ate pretty quickly.
Then it was back to the room and back to blogging. At the same time, we were trying to figure out what to do. We had a Māori experience scheduled for the late afternoon, but no real plans for the morning. Eventually we settled on hiking to a couple of water falls, then going to Hell's Gate. That's Māori thermal hot pools.
We drove to the road that led to the water falls but just 100 yards in the road was closed due to a fallen tree. The maintenance people were already on site cutting up the tree with a chain saw and it only took about 10 minutes for them to get the road cleared. The guy running the chainsaw was in shorts. I have a couple friends who've had chainsaws climb up their legs and leave them severely injured so watching that really made me squirm. But he finished ok and we drove on in.
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| Lower Waterfall |
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Selfie at the lower falls |
At the end of the road was the parking lot with a few camper vans in them. Apparently, this is a popular place for overnight campers to stay. All 3 were just finishing preparations to leave. I was tempted to ask questions but didn't want to steal any of their precious touring time.
There were several trails leading out of the parking lot and the signs weren't great about which lead where. So we just picked one and started. It led us straight down to small waterfall with beautiful views. We took some pictures than backtracked to another trail which seemed to lead higher up the river. It was a fully covered trail with the trees closing over the top almost all the time. It could well have been the path through Mirkwood. We're getting the Lord of the Rings thing started early.
When we got to the first waterfall (Tutea Falls) it didn't disappoint. Lots of water shooting out of a very narrow opening and down a pretty large drop. Mike said the books claimed it 23 foot drop and is the tallest commercially rafted waterfall in the world. I'm not sure about that, but it was impressive. We didn't see anyone come flying over the falls, but a quick web search had some impressive videos including a couple of dumps throwing everyone out of the raft.
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Descending to Tutea Falls |
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Tutea Falls |
As we started back up the hill toward the main trail, we decided it would be a lot easier to just walk back to the car and drive to the other parking lot near Okere Falls. Once we got there, we could hear allot of yelling and cheering coming up from the falls. We walked to the overlook and saw several rafts shooting over the falls with about 40 seconds in between. There was a camera man taking pictures so when he left we figured the rides were over.
We took the other trail down to the falls and found ourselves right beside the falls. Like 2 foot above the flowing water. It was awesome. There were actually 2 falls at that point, with the river dividing around a narrow island. The falls on the far side of the island had a steady stream and all of the rafts went of that. On the near side of the island was a jagged shelf that kept narrowing to spill more and more water over the edge. Any raft going this way would get dumped sideways off the falls and be overturned, probably killing anyone that tried to raft it.
Teenagers rafting Okere Falls
While standing there, we heard more cheering coming from up river and about 5 rafts slowly came around to shoot the falls. They all did the same things: they stopped just above the falls, cheered and raised their paddles to do a high 5, then pushed off. Everyone slid off their seats to sit as low in the raft as they could, then they dropped over the falls. When they came out, they had to get straight again for a smaller set of falls below the first. That one shot them out to the left and into a big eddy. I guess they couldn't get out of that eddy so they paddled back near the falls which grabbed them and shoved them hard to the right and out into clear water. We watched all 5 boats do the same thing with lots of laughing and cheering going on. It looked fun.
From the waterfalls, we backtracked just a bit toward town then turned East toward a place called Hells Gate. It's a geothermal hot zone about 3 kilometers long and 1 kilometer wide. It offers mud baths and other spa treatments but we just went for the walking tour. One was leaving just as we arrived so we got our tickets and joined the group, about 30 with a really energetic tour guide.
I can't tell you his name because it took him 15 seconds to say it and he was talking so fast I can't even tell you what the first letter of the first word was. A quick google search revealed his name was Ngatiroirangi, I'll call him Ngati for short. He was a real character. He often talked like an ignorant Māori hic, then he'd pop out things like "Māori tattoos aren't really tattoos at all, they are more like scarification with pigments abraded into the wound". I just don't know how much of his character was an act for the tourists. But whatever the case, he was entertaining, informative, and a pleasure to listen to. I think he's a highly knowledgeable man who's figured a way to pass that knowledge on to ignorant savage tourists. I'd highly recommend this tour to anyone.
The tour started with Ngati explaining the Māori story of creation, where Father Sky embraced Mother Earth and had 70 children. Then he sang a Māori blessing on us to protect us as we journeyed through the park. The prayer was all in Māori and took about a minute.
Our first stop was the mud baths where he explained the benefits of their particular mud and why everyone should try it. Then Ngati took us to a picture and explained the Irish Playwright George Bernard Shaw had come to visit and said the place looked like Hell's Gate and thus named the place.
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| Mud Baths. Not yet open |
The land itself is owned by a Māori tribe but the business is owned and run by a corporation. The big stipulation is that jobs must be offered to tribal Māori people first, and almost everyone we saw was Māori
Our tour guide at Hells Gate - telling a story
Ngati showed us a lot of various pools, hot pots, and mud pits. One was nearly jet black which he explained came from a deposit of almost pure iron and was used to stain much of the clothing worn by early Māori, He showed pits with a PH so low it was almost pure sulfuric acid and a temperature nearly 60C (140F). If you fell in, there was zero chance of rescuing you.
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Inferno Pool, hot bubbling sulfuric acid |
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| Black mud pit where clothes were dyed due to iron content |
We came to what looked like a forest with large entry gate and Māori carvings all around. Ngati explained that one of the 70 children/gods of the sky father and earth mother was in charge of nature and the entrance represented his presence. He again sang a Māori prayer to indicate our peaceful presence.
Ngati told us about allot of different trees, shrubs, and mosses. At one point he showed wild Hydrangeas and said the first white settlers spread the seeds all around the islands. Hydrangeas turn different colors depending on the Ph of the soil, so the settlers used the flowers to indicate what types of crops to plant in each area.
We saw a waterfall that only men were allowed to use. In fact, many of Ngati's stories were about what only men could do and what only women could do. He talked allot about his grandfather and how he spent his first 12 years speaking nothing but Māori and learning from his grandfather.
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| Water fall where only men were allowed |
Back around 1847, New Zealand began banning the Māori language and culture. They forbid the teaching of native arts and tried to force everyone to speak english. The suppression lasted well into the 1960s and in 1985 the country officially recognized the Māori culture and language. This became a recurring store for the rest of the day.
Even today, the tradition of Māori facial tattoos has been taken up by some organized crime groups, and laws have been passed which allow businesses to exclude anyone with facial tattoos from bars, restaurants, and stores. This in turn bans men and women who choose native facial tattoos. It's a real quandary. How do you prevent gangs without discriminating against the race and culture.
We saw soo much and heard so many stories that I'd have to write pages to cover even a part of it. As I said, I'd recommend this tour to anyone. But eventually we came to a lake where Ngati told us that only the women were allowed because it had all the best properties, good ph, moderate heat, super fine mud particles, and no sulfur smell. He said the village elder had blessed the lake so that now anyone could use the mud instead of only women and he scooped up a couple of big handfuls of mud and invited anyone who wanted to get some and spread it on face or arms. Many did and remarked on how soft and smooth the mud was.
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| 6 foot mud volcano that they used to cook in |
It also dried very quickly so soon our group was leaving a trail swirling dust behind us.
We had walked well over a kilometer to get here so now we had to walk the whole way back. We saw more pools including one shaped like Australia. When we reached the entrance Ngati again sang a blessing on the group wishing us safe travels.
We wandered around the gift shop for a while. I bought one of their pull over t shirts. It is black and has an awesome Māori design on the back. Mike said several times that he regrets not buying one of the shirts as well.
We headed back into town to get some lunch. Across the street from our hotel was a Korean chicken shop and both of us like the really crunchy exterior of Korean fried chicken. It was something like a chicken nugget shop. Mike ordered a sweet chili version and I got a garlic version. We split some pickled daikon and kimchi. It was very good.
After lunch we took a break for a few hours, and I worked on the blog for a few hours.
At 3:30 we headed for a Māori museum and cultural center called Te Puia. It's another site with geothermal features but they also have a Māori dinner and show toward the end. Our tour guide wasn't nearly as entertaining as Ngati. Her name was Kaiya (pronounced kai-ya). She talked constantly in the 3rd person and told us many many times about how her people were oppressed by the white people and how Te Puia was helping preserve the Māori arts and traditions. I very much agree with all she said but I'm not sure she had to repeat it so often.
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| Posing in front of Pohutu Geyser - The largest in the southern hemisphere |
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| Pohutu Geyser in full eruption |
Just as we started the tour, a large geyser - Pōhutu Geyser, the largest geyser in the Southern Hemisphere – started to erupt. According to Kaiya it was one of the largest eruption she'd seen in a while. We were still a good 300 yards away, but we did have a good view. We watched for 5 minutes then Kaiya had us move on.
Our first stop was the kiwi birds. Te Puia has a breeding program to try to help with the kiwi bird population, but in 15 years, they've only had 1 successful egg hatch and survive longer than 6 months. But when we got to the building, the cameras showed that all 3 kiwis had gone to sleep. So we quietly walked through the display and right back out.
We passed a few other geothermal features then eventually made it to the big one, the geyser. It was no longer erupting but we'd had a good look from a distance already. We stood there for a while anyway because that's what the schedule needed. Then Kaiya released us for 15 minutes to look around but to be back for our shuttle ride back up to the top of the hill. Otherwise, we'd have to walk.
Mike and I headed off for the farthest place we could see, up at the top of a small hill. When we got there, we saw a plaque about an earthquake that happened many years ago, and a bit of a view around, but nothing else. We hustled back down the hill and made it in time for the shuttle.
Once we were back at the visitor's center complex, Kaiya led us into the New Zealand Māori Arts and Crafts Institute. One of the main purposes of Te Puia is to pass along traditional Māori skills to the younger generations. They accept 5 new students per year. You must have at least 1% Māori blood. Then they select applicants based on interest and aptitude for the profession each applicant is seeking. All teaching is done 1 on 1, which is why they admit so few students each year.
We started in the wood shop. There were several projects underway and a couple of students were working. There were also a lot of examples of previous projects on the walls and in display cases that we could get close to. It was all beautiful work.
We also saw stone carving, bone carving and finally weaving. All had impressive work to display. We spent about 40 minutes wandering through the displays then finished in the school store where much of the work was offered for sale, often for thousands of dollars.
We left the school and Kaiya told us to wander for 30 minutes but to meet back in time for dinner.
We wandered into the gift shop. There were some cool things, but everything would be too large and difficult to get home. I wound up buying a few magnets. I did see some beautiful seashells that were translucent and shimmered in the light but I was worried they'd be broken with 5 plane rides still to go.
We met up with everyone else at dinner time. We were sat at a table with 8 other people. All were Americans. The meal was called a "Māori Hangi Dinner". It included braised lamb shank, lamb steaks, lamb ribs, fried chicken, vegetables, prawns, muscles, baked and raw oysters, and salads, plus several desserts. There was more but I can't remember everything. The best of everything was the lamb shank. It was really tender and flavorful. The ribs weren't great but everything else was pretty good.
To end it all I got a baby cone of soft serve ice cream. It was perfect, but like all the other meals on this trip, I over-ate.
Following dinner, we met up to watch a Māori traditional welcome (Pohiri) followed by a performance including a Haka. The welcome took a long time with 3 different warriors challenging us. Then we were welcomed into the Te Aronui A Rua (big decorated building).
Once we were seated in the building, we were asked to remove our hats (more about that later). The performance included songs with the whole cast, then women singing. The men performed a long stick dance, then the women did short stick tossing.
A couple reenacted a local love legend where the man lived in a neighboring village across the large lake. The woman wanted to go to him but her father had all canoes pull far up the beach preventing her from paddling away. So she strapped bladders to herself and swam across the lake. The guy singing had a magnificent tenor void that almost made me cry it was so good.
Much of the performance reminded me of the Polynesian performances my mother used to have us do when I was young. We used to cater luaus, then do a performance afterward. We did stick dances, poi balls, hakas, along with Hawaiian hulas, Tahitian dances, etc. But we were amateurs and not nearly as polished as this was.
Finally the men performed a Haka and the women did a short poi ball dance and a long poi ball dance. It was all great.
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| Māori Dancing in the big house |
When the performance was over, we got up and headed out. Somewhere in the performance my leather hat must have fallen off my lap, and I didn't think about it at all until the next morning as we left for Hobbiton.
We went to the hotel where I once again worked on the blog. My watch said I'd walked 16,000 steps and I sure felt it. So after a while I put on my swimsuit and headed down to the hot tub. I didn't know where Mike had found the towels the night before, so I wound up calling him. Turns out they were behind the front desk, in a storage closet.
The hot tub was quiet and peaceful. There was a young couple in the other tub, but they were enjoying the quiet as well. There was Māori flute playing and bird song in the background. I only stayed about 10 minutes, just long enough to let my muscles relax and help the lactic acids circulate. As I got out to leave a Japanese couple with 2 young kids came in laugh and joking. The kids jumped into the hot tub splashing and the mom loudly kept talking about how cold she was. At least I assume that's what she said. I just quickly dried off and got out of there.
Back in the room I finished day 1 of the blog and started on day 2 (this one). I wrote until my eyelids started to droop then climbed in bed and was out cold before I knew it.
Sorry for the lack of pictures but we were asked not to photograph much of the afternoon's activities.
My daily step count was 16,000 or 7.4 Miles
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