Sulphur Smells and Hangi

20th November A short walk around Taupo harbour in the morning looking at the big expensive boats and marvelling yet again at the clearness of the water. I was also struck by the way that things such as litter bins and toilet blocks are often beautifully decorated.

On the road to Roturoa, and we were heading into the Thermal area of NZ. There are large areas of thermal activity (and indeed volcanoes) and NZ has harnessed the thermal activity as a source of power in several places. However we were more interested in going to see some of the geysers and mud pools so headed to the Wai-O-Tapu (Sacred Waters) Thermal Park. We had heard that the Lady Knox geyser went off at 10.15 each day and were curious to see that and find out how it was so predictable.

In actual fact it is induced with soap and there was an amusing story about that discovery. There used to be an open prison in the area with very limited washing facilities. Two of the inmates decided to use the hot water of the geyser to wash themselves and their clothes and suddenly heard a rumble as the geyser shot their clothes up in the air. The soap reduces the surface tension of the water and allows the lower very hot water to mix with the surface cooler water that normally acts as a stopper, builds the pressure and whoosh. This does happen normally but not as regularly as tourism demands so an environmentally friendly bag of soap is dropped in and after a few minutes an 8 meter shot of hot steam sprays up into the air. The rest of the park was impressive with various bubbling pools and strange colours caused by different minerals. A smell of sulphur hung over the whole thing. Once again the birds impressed me with the Pied Stilt wandering around in the acidic water and looking for food. Perhaps they like hot dinners! The ground was often warm to touch although bizarrely not all the time. I don't think you would ever complain of cold feet though!

On our way to Rotorua we booked an evening tour at a Maori Village. A number of people had told me that it was 'touristy but must do'. I found the whole thing extremely interesting and quite moving. It was also very well organised. We were picked up from the campsite and along with about 150 others taken to a reconstructed Maori village just outside of Rotorua. The guide told us about the various ceremonies that would take place and we were greeted by a war party who danced threateningly and then welcomed us in. Then we were taken in smaller groups to be shown various aspects of Maori life, carving, dancing, various games that sharpened skills, and learning the Haka. Dave and I managed to be dragged into 'help' with various demos with more or less success.

Then came the unearthing of the Hangi meal. The feast was cooked in a huge pit over very hot stones, covered with wet sacks and left for several hours. It smelt delicious but we were guided away from it whilst they finished preparing it, and taken into the meeting house for a rather wonderful display of traditional and then more contemporary singing and dancing. Finally a short video of how the Maori have managed to integrate themselves into the new way of living. All the way through was a sense of 'this is what is happening, let's use it to make the best life we can.' There were many Maori involved, most of whom seemed to be related in some way and they all seemed to be very happy and committed to what they were doing. Although it was obviously a commercial enterprise (there was another sitting after ours and it was a nightly event!), we felt that we had got value for money, not just in terms of content of the evening but in terms of enjoyment from all those involved. The Hangi meal at the end was really tasty too and Dave's only complaint was that he had not been hungrier.