Smelly Rotorua

Actually we didn't find Rotorua nearly as sulphurous as some places in Iceland, but we took the opportunity to go to a Maori concert and meal. The meal was a hangi, which involves steam cooking the food in the ground. We already knew that, having been to one in Voe with Kester.



As you can see there was plenty of food.

The real thing, involving a party arriving in a waka (war canoe) and performing various dances and songs, including a full haka, was quite an experience.

Actually we could have organised our own hangi as the campsite had it's own steam cooking ovens set into the ground. The suggested recipes including cooking times like "4 to 8 hours" and "all day if possible" - definitely not fast food! After the hangi we had a night time tour of the neighbouring wildlife park, complete with kiwis. The Rotorua campsite had hot tubs fed from the same volcanic sources, but on Monday night we stayed at Miranda where the campsite had a full swimming pool fed by hot springs. It really was like swimming in a hot bath - luxury! Just up the road at the Firth of Thames we visited a bird reserve with thousands of migratory wading birds, some familiar and some not so.

Now we are back in Auckland having returned the camper van unscathed. Today we visited Waiheke island just half an hour out into the gulf. This is the view of the ferry heading back to Auckland, just visible in the distance.



Tomorrow it's a flight to South America. Due to time zones and international datelines it seems we will arrive in Santiago about five hours before we leave New Zealand - no we don't understand it either!