Wai-O-Tapu

Sometime during my trip to Rotorua, I decided to go to Wai-o- Tapu, what the Paikiha (white Kiwis) call the Thermal Wonderland. I don't like that term because it kind of sounds like some kind of Theme Park. When translated from Maori, it means Sacred Waters... and that is so much more accurate. So I went on a trip to this beautiful place of sacred colored waters and what a place! I received a map of the place and let me tell you, it takes a good 2 hours to go through all the places. We only had 1 1/2 hours to visit because I was on a shuttle bus ( I have no car) and so was restricted on time. I do recommend you come here on a day when you have no restrictions because there is a little cafeteria and a gift store where you can chill out before, after or during your time there. The concept is that there are several pools of "water" having different names related to what people thought they might represent. First we went to see some of the bubbling pools of mud. That was pretty cool because it's not every day that you see mud literally boiling in front of your eyes. The best part is that it is completely natural! How insane is that?!

Bubbling Mud

Bubbling Mud in Action

Afterwards we were taken to Lady Knox, a well-known geyser that erupts at 10:15a.m. every morning (they help it along with soap). I hear it's similar to that of the park in the US (I'm currently forgetting the name because I'm a bit tipsy as I write this...it's Friday and I have two consecutive days off from work and it's been 6 weeks since I've had this opportunity. SO....you can imagine the giddiness I felt and the subsequent need to celebrate) .

Lady Knox in Wait

Anyway, I videoed the geyser erupting but as I said in an earlier message, I took it vertically and can't figure out how to turn it around ( I apologize for any cricks in your necks!).

Lady Knox in Motion

Lady Knox and Me

After the mudflats and the geyser we went into Wai-o-Tapu, but once again I forgot to bring in my journal to tell you the exact names of each of the pools. Sorry! Work has got me wonky!

I hope you will enjoy the sights, though, and know that these pictures are truly of sacred waters.

Heart-shaped face An acorn's home

A little history of how volcanoes have shaped New Zealand ( New Zealand is on the Ring of Fire, a global map of where the world's most active volcanoes in the Pacific Ocean are located. Red lights in the Rotorua Museum were lit up all over this country!) The Artist's Palette The Champagne Pool Steaming River

Is it Moss or chemical composites? A Mud Plateau

Another Artist's Palette

Fingers of Fluorescence

A Separate World

Moss-Covered Rocks

People walking through the different pools

Moss-Covered Bark

Devil's Ink Pot

The Devil's Bath. Look at that incredible color!

Close-up of the Champagne Pool - looks like something from outer space

A Strange Beach...

Bubbling water - like blowing in your bathtub! (or farting....)

Multi-colored Pool

Mystery Article #1

Hey everyone. I have a little game for you.

The first person who can correctly guess what the microwave might be used for, if there is a use, and post it as a comment at the end of this entry, will get a Kiwi souvenir from me. I promise you it'll be a good one!

Good luck!

Waitomo Caves: Rap, Raft 'n' Rock

It feels like so long ago now, but on one of the days when I was still in Rotorua, I decided to go to the Waitomo Caves. These are caves located about 1 1/2 hours from Rotorua and they are a large series of underground caves that you can do various things in. I found a company that would give me the opportunity to abseil(rappel) down into the grotto (it was about 27 meters down), then we did a series of walking through the freezing cold water, saw glowworms that only exist in New Zealand and Australia, do some inner tubing down this underground river (they call this blackwater rafting) as well as climb up and down the inner rocks and through them at times too! Lastly, we climbed back up the grotto. It was really fun and a new experience for me.

Our ill-fitting uniforms for the experience!

We were a group of six: here we're practicing the impending rappel
I opted to be the first to rappel down the grotto; it was thrilling!
I was a bit worried here, but when I sat in the harness, it felt pretty secure
Pretty cool, huh?
The mouth of the cave

It had rained really hard over the previous week and this was the first day that the cave was opened since the rains. The current was super strong so we had to gingerly navigate ourselves along the sides of the caves carrying our "rafts".

We also had to cross wires at some points because we had to get from one side of the cave to the other.

Some of the bugs and animals that can be found in the cave...
Possums were brought over from England, I think, and are considered real pests here. People can shoot them...and do...quite regularly.

Glowworms are called such because their asses literally glow. Above are what they use to catch their prey. When I saw it for the first time, I thought they looked like crystal curtains. Basically glowworms have no asshole so when they eat, they cannot get rid of the waste and it accumulates in their tails and with the mixture of elements, they end up glowing. Glowworms live in the worm stage for about 9 months. Afterwards they hatch and then become flies and live for only about 2 days, enough time for them to mate and then they die.
Looks like a starry night? Nope! These are the glowworms. We turned off our headlights and our guide fired off a type of gun and they all started to light up. How cool is that?! They light up when there is noise because they interpret it as food and they want to attract their prey by lighting up.

After the glowworms our guide instructed us to get on our inner tubes and raft down the river. The catch was, that for the first several meters (which lasted about 5 minutes or so) we had to turn off our lights and so we were traveling along a very quick river in utter darkness. We had to keep our butts high, our feet up and our elbows in, in order to avoid getting hurt if we were to hurtle straight into the rock sides. It was scary but very cool. The picture above was after we turned our lights back on. Here, I fell off my inner tube and was holding on for dear life!
Some of the natural formations in the cave...
Eels live in these caves too, though I didn't see or feel any. I don't think I would have anyway, the water was so cold that I couldn't feel a thing! Eel is a Maori favorite. I'd love to try it some day.

Here I am looking like an idiot as I let the current take me. The guide did catch me before I went past the point of no return.

We also squeezed through some holes in the rock. Sometimes it was quite a tight squeeze!
More local residents!

Finally, after about 4 hours of treking in the dark, we climbed back up the grotto and back into the real world! It was super fun. I truly recommend it.

'til next time!

Rotorua Relaxing

Whale bone club

As I must have mentioned before, I met a really cool Maori tattoo artist named Kaianga in Rotorua. We spent about 5 days talking together, learning from each other's culture, language, food... but I spent most of the time asking questions and waiting with baited breath and eyes wide open, for the intricate answers that were to come. Though not all Maoris speak the language, nor do they all know that much about their history and culture, this man does and I was blessed to have had the opportunity to meet him.

He taught me a Maori action song that they play for kids, where you learn the colors of the rainbow and you point to the color you are singing. It's a lot of fun! And you really do feel like a kid!

One afternoon, I mentioned the fact that I wanted to try Puha, a "weed" as the white Kiwis consider it, I think from the dandelion family. Maoris eat it and though there were plenty of puhas to choose from at Mimiha cottage, I didn't know how to cook it and wanted to try it properly from someone who knew how to do it before I tried cooking it myself.

Kaianga was really excited and had spotted this really big puha in the backyard of the backpackers. So we decided to have a "boil-up" that night. I wasn't really sure what that was but we went out to the butcher's, bought some meat and then he went out along the highway and found some more wild puha, got some potatoes and kumara and then we reassembled at the backpackers and the meal was on. He showed me how to cook it and I wrote down the recipe, which incidentally I don't have with me as I'm writing this and I stupidly forgot to take a picture of it, but it's kind of like Haitian "bouillon" in the sense that you stew the meat for about 2 hours and then add the puha, potatoes and kumara and then let it simmer for another hour. I asked him about spices and he said we didn't need any. I found that really strange and thought that it would be really bland, but I was really pleasantly surprised. The puha provided all the spice you needed. All we added was a little sea salt and it was done.

We had a delicious meal along with Alix and two young kiwis, a couple...he's 20 and she just turned 18 and they are pregnant. That's something else about New Zealand that I find really surprising. People have kids and get married really, really young here. You'll regularly find 45 year olds who are grandparents. It's so beyond me. They are cute though, and I do hope they make it.

Me and Kaianga with Alix in the background

After dinner, we went to see a movie, actually a documentary, called Rain of the Children...a true story of a Maori woman who had 14 children and lost them all. It's much more complex than that, but if you get the chance to see it, I really recommend it. Kaianga fell asleep and I was really surprised, but he said that it was a little too close to home and hadn't expected it to be so emotional so he just shut off. I can understand that. I was emotional too, yet I can't directly relate because I'm not from here.

Anyway, to go back to a more general explanation of my time there, I did not expect to have such a spiritual experience in Rotorua, meeting Kaianga as well as a French woman, Alix, at the same time. I remember sitting outside at a picnic table smoking menthols and drinking wine and then the next moment I was involved in conversations about the meaning of life, the Mayan calendar, ancestors visiting Maori tattoo artists in their sleep and finding the reason for being here... I was lightheaded by the overflow of information being exchanged. It was exhilerating and exhausting at the same time. I loved it. I have yet to find that energy since, but it has stayed with me and I'm grateful for having met them.

Kaianga suggested that I go to Hastings, a town along the east coast of the North Island, to find seasonal work and since he comes from the Mahia peninsula, not too far away from there, I figured we'd get a chance to meet again.

But again, I learned so much from him and I don't think that it's over quite yet. He also carves wood and stone and the day before I left, he gave me a piece of jade that he had found a while back. It was just waiting for the right owner and he decided that I was that owner. He told me that I needed to find someone who could make it into a necklace for me. I was honored that he would give me such a gift. I had nothing to give him in return. But I think we'll see each other again and perhaps I'll have something to give in return. He told me to trust that I would find someone to make this stone into a neckland and I did...but that's another story to come.

Rotorua on a Sunny Day

He showed me some of his carvings in the stones and also explained to me that a lot of the time, the Maori artifacts he has often come from a bartering system: he has something someone wants, like the ability to give a tattoo, or a carving and they would have something like the whale bone club above. He also plays music, including the guitar and various Maori instruments. Below, a video of a Maori flute with Kaianga playing it.

Enjoy!