Exploring New Zealand, March 2016, Part 4

As a decade birthday gift for Erick, we signed up for "Exploring Australia and New Zealand," a University of Michigan Alumni tour coordinated by Odysseys International. This post covers our flight from Queenstown on the South Island to Rotorua , and our visits to Te Puia, the Maori center. (You can click on a photo to see a larger version.).

I managed to get some aerial photos on our flight via Wellington from Queenstown to Rotorua on the North Island. 

Boarding our Air New Zealand flight - note the silver fern symbol

Over the South Island:

 Over the North Island:

Note the windmills

Over Wellington

Rotorua

We arrived at the Regent of Rotorua, a boutique-style hotel - I couldn’t help snapping photos of our room there.  

After checking into the hotel, we traveled to Te Pula Thermal Reserve and Cultural Center for Te Ra, an official Maori greeting welcoming us to the marae, the village meeting grounds, and a performance in the wharenui (meeting hall), and Te Po, a bountiful buffet dinner. 

Preview of some traditional dishes roasted in a pit 

Maori guide explains the greeting ceremony

Maori performers come out for the greeting ceremony

The challenge - do you come for war or in peace?

Representative of us visitors with palm leaf signifying peace

Visitors invited into the wharenui

Maori performers demonstrate dances and songs using traditional weapons, fern leaves and poi (red balls on a cord used by the women with great dexterity):

Maori love song

Haka - the challenge dance

Visitors, including a few from our group, get ready to attempt the haka

Visitors - yes, I gave it a try - get familiar with the poi

After the performance, we had a chance to look around a bit before heading back to the hotel:

A waka taua  - war canoe

Kauri tree used for canoe making 

Maori dwellings

A storage building

Our first look at the geyser field - a full tour tomorrow

Day 20: We returned to the Te Pula Thermal Reserve for a guided walk with Maori guide Jojo through the thermal terraces where we saw the geysers and mud pools, and enjoyed warming ourselves on the rocks. Afterwards, we visited the carving and weaving schools, admiring the work of skilled masters and apprentices.

Our Maori guide for the morning

 Views of the geyser field:

Close ups of sulphur deposits and the mud pool:

The Maori Arts & Crafts Institute at Te Puia - carving (men) and weaving (women):

Waka bailer - note sea opal inlays

Examples from the gift shop 

Amazing what the Maori weavers can do with flax

A few final observations from the morning:

Kiwi male with egg to be incubated - his job
Cloak of kiwi feathers, below

The silver fern - symbol of New Zealand

Later that morning we got a guided tour of the Rotorua Museum of Art & History in the Government Gardens. It’s housed in what was once a Bath House opened in 1908 in this town famous for its spas.

Rendering of what the museum building looked like when it was a bath house

Model of the building in its bath house days

Preserved bath area 

They offered mud baths, too

The museum had some wonderful Maori objects, but photographing of them was not permitted.  

We also watched a documentary about B Company 28 Maori Battalion in WWII.  More than 3500 men fought and one in six died. Our museum visit ended atop the building for a birds eye view of the grounds and Lake Rotorua:

Erick and I were on our own for the afternoon. We walked along the waterfront a bit before going to our massage appointments at the QE Health Spa; his a 30 minute therapeutic, mine a relaxation massage.  

Ducks on the lake

Mokoia - a lava dome - in Lake Rotorua

Black swans are plentiful in New Zealand

In the evening, we had dinner at the Craft Bar & Kitchen on Eat Street and walked through the Rotorua Night Market where both locals and visitors assemble to buy farm products, prepared goods, souvenirs, etc.

Deserving of its name - so many choices

Rotorua's Thursday Night Market - where locals and visitors
enjoy the goods, food and entertainment

Next up: Exploring New Zealand, March 2016, Part 5 - from Rotorua to Auckland with a visit to the Ruakuri Cave, our time in Auckland, and our departure for home.