Day Nine: Rotorua, New Zealand

Kia Ora from New Zealand!

Today we visited the Whakarewarewa Maori Culture Center in Rotorua. And no, I have no idea how to pronounce Whakarewarewa. For those of you who work crosswords or know your history of New Zealand, the Maori are the indigenous people who were here about 600 years before the Europeans showed up. Kia Ora is their traditional greeting. At the center we saw a presentation of traditional ceremonies, dances and songs of the Maori people, which was surprisingly entertaining. (I say surprisingly because you just never know what you’re getting yourself into with these deals.) This is a picture:

Not sure what it is all about, but it sure was loud and it looked like they were having a good time.

The other part of the center is a geothermal area, which pretty much reminds me of Yellowstone National Park, but with a completely different landscape.

We were also supposed to see Kiwi Birds there, but it was kind of weird deal. Kiwis are nocturnal, so you don’t see them in the day very often. So in captivity (anyway in this case), the building—really a tunnel—was completely dark and felt a bit like we had entered a Halloween horror house. Doug said he thought he saw one on a nest, but I couldn’t see a dang thing. It just looked like a really bad diorama.

When we are on vacation, Doug always wants to buy a couple of souvenirs to gaze at with fond memories, as well as to take home and junk up our shelves. Today, since our recent Kiwi “sighting” was still fresh, we came back with these with these little guys. In this pic they are enjoying our balcony as we pulled away from shore.