We began our North Island exploration in Rotorua, an area of NZ unique for its geothermal activities. The remnants of the ever-present volcanic activity show their features in the form of spurting geysers, bubbling mud, steaming cracks in the ground, and hot pools of mineral-rich water. It didn’t take long to find (or smell) the sulfur-rich attractions of Rotorua…a short walk to a nearby park had many areas of small pools of natural warm mineral waters (to soak your feet), several gated-off pools of bubbling mud, and many areas where steam was constantly rising from holes in the ground!
The next day we headed off to see the nearby Mt. Tarawera volcano that last erupted in 1886 completely burying a nearby village, killing most inhabitants. Along the way we stopped at the beautiful Blue and Green Lakes, and had a great hike around the Blue Lake…loved the palm-tree lookalike trees, but with fern branches instead of palm leaves…looks like Billy loved them, too!
While checking out views of the dormant volcano, I met Irvin, a 5th generation Kiwi! He told us about his ancestors coming over from Great Britain looking for land in a new world…he was such a fun and very interesting guy and he loves living in NZ…it’s a good life here. The background of our photo is the volcano with the top blown off!
NZ’s indigenous population are called Maori, and they came to NZ from many South Pacific islands since at least 1200AD. The Maori people and their culture are very visible throughout NZ, but especially in Rotorua where 35% of the population is Maori. The Rotorua Museum, which was an elegant spa retreat (specializing in medical mud treatments) since 1908, has a wonderful exhibit on the history and culture of the Maori. We thoroughly enjoyed our visit to the beautiful museum and gained so many fascinating insights into the Maori people.
The museum visit was a great prelude to our attending a traditional Maori Hangi (feast) that evening and experiencing the Maori traditions, such as their dress and face tattooing, war dance, songs, folklore and storytelling. The Maori are a very proud people and it’s important to them to keep their language and culture alive and these Hangi dinners are just one way to do that. It was a very entertaining evening, but I was happy to learn that all the face tattooing we saw were only temporary, as opposed to the traditions of their ancestors which were deep gouged tattoos.
When I was a freshman in college, I really wanted to try skydiving…but I never did. So, as we traveled around NZ with adventure activities offered all over the place, I started thinking that this was probably the perfect place to check skydiving off my bucket list…so I did!!!!!! I really jumped out of an airplane at 12,000 feet (with an experienced guy strapped on my back)!!! Yep, an incredible experience, and one I’ll probably never do again…honestly, I was amazed at how calm and not at all terrified I was…I just knew I would be safe…it was just an experience…but an extremely exhilarating and exciting one!!! Getting ready to hang my feet out the open door of the plane was intense…and so was the free fall part…
But my favorite part was after the parachute opened and there was complete silence and incredible views and it felt like we were floating as we slowly drifted down to earth…what an experience!
Afterwards we just relaxed by Taupo Lake, the lake I had just skydived over, and then we found a beautiful and very powerful waterfall to enjoy watching…Huka Falls.
The roadside scenery we’ve been passing on the North Island is generally less “awesome” than the South Island, but still a very beautiful countryside of rolling green hills, lots of sheep and cows, but NO roadside lupines that I love so much!!!!
Our next experience was to drive to the little town of Waitomo which is famous for caves with glowworms! This area of NZ is predominately a limestone subsurface which has dissolved over hundreds of years creating subterranean caves, caverns, grottoes and rivers…and within these dark spaces are millions of glowworms!! Glowworms have luminescent organs that produce a greenish light and they weave a sticky silk-like thread that trails down from the overhangs they live on. Insects are attracted to their light, get stuck on the threads and become dinner! It was really cool to walk around the caves and then float on a raft on a river through the caves to see the glowworms…it was pitch black darkness, silence, and millions of glowworm lights…magicial!
Then on to the big harbor city of Auckland…home to the best sailing clubs in the country! We spent a day wandering around the city and then explored the lovely volcanic-based Victorian harbor town of Devenport, as well as several beach areas north of Auckland, such as Goat Island.
And we spent our last day in NZ at Waiheke, a favorite island escape of Aucklanders. A 45-minute ferry ride from Auckland was a great way to spend a beautiful morning, and then we went from wine tasting to beach exploring, to picnicking on the next beautiful beach! Great day!
We were happy to learn that we had a great view from our hotel room to watch Auckland’s New Year’s Eve fireworks from the SkyTower…not the most impressive fireworks display, but very convenient for us!!
We’re starting to feel sad about seeing the finish line of our amazing two month adventure…but it’s easy to look forward to our final destination of Fiji…also because we’ll be joined by David there!!! So looking forward to Fiji!!!!