Rotorua - Blue Lake & Maoris...  21 Feb 09

Minutes after we had checked in at our lovely b&b our lovely hosts went through various options of how to fill the 3 hours we had to spare between 'now and dinner'.  Dinner was going to be a cultural evening about the Maori people and we were going to be picked up at 5.45pm.  

We opted for the Blue Lake, as we were promised that it would take about 50 mins to stroll all the way around it.  We found the said lake, parked the car in the designated area and sure enough, the signs did say '1H round trip'...  Good, it left us with enough time to go and see the Red Woods on the way back, we thought.  Oh, how wrong we were, yet again. I don't know what it is about NZ and time allowances but we find that it is usually double what we are told to expect. NO exaggeration. 

So, we started our stroll, walking at a fairly good pace we thought, just made time to take a few shots as it was a gorgeous path through some beautiful sub tropical forest... but we soon realised that it would take us more like 1h45 to 2H to complete the loop. Panic. We would never have enough time to freshen up before our maori evening.  As we realised this major flaw in the plan we happened to be nearing another car park area and Janet, in sheer desperation, braced herself up and asked an older couple who was about to drive off if they'd kindly kindly kindly give us a lift back to the other car park as we were running late for a special evening.  They agreed and saved the day. They were very happy with themselves having 'done a good deed' and we were sooo grateful. I just had time to grab a shower when the maori van parked outside. 10 mins early. I wasn't even dressed and didn't even have time to dry my hair but by then the weather had cleared and it felt quite warm so it didn't really matter. Phew.  Talk about something working 'in the nick of time'. 

We'd booked our evening with the Matai company, just off Rainbow Springs and we'd highly recommend them. I'm not normally a 'cultural' type of person... I avoid museums like the plague, for instance, but Janet's sister had done this previously and suggested we book it.  So, we went on her recommendation and I'd pass the recommendation too... It was much better than I expected, it has to be said.  It was a full 4 hour treat and every hour we did something different. 

The first hour they took us inside Rainbow Springs and the Maori tribes arrived on an ancient war boat, paddling away and pulling tongues (as they do in their culture, oddly) and we then went to see them perform a few dances and explain about their language and traditions. It could have been quite boring but it was very well done actually, and even fun too.  They also performed the haka, the most famous maori dance, the one that NZ rugby players perform before a match to scare off their opponents so Janet tells me (needless to say *I* would never know that sort of detail as I detest all sports and never watch any). 

Part 2 was a buffet cooked maori style, i.e. haingi.  They bury food in the ground and use stones that they had heated up in a fire to cook things to perfection. The buffet was simple (potatoes, sweet potatoes, beef, chicken, stuffings, potatoes again in a creamy sauce - very French like actually) but it was the best dinner we'd had in NZ.  It just melted in our mouths and it had a slight 'smoke' taste to it that enhanced all flavours beautifully.  We were very impressed. 

Part 3 was a night walk around Rainbow Springs. It was/is a sacred place for the maoris and the main pool produces 2.4 million litres of water a DAY.  Pure crystal clear water, so clear in fact that I swear you can barely see it. They told us that it was 2.8m deep in the middle but it really looked like 1m no more. It had a couple of eels in it and some trouts (that are free to come and go as they please) and at night it's surrounded by glow worms (fact: the female worm glows to attract the male, copulates with it for 26H and then they both die of exhaustion after she's laid the eggs ... romantic or what ???).  I know that most guys will be jealous about lasting 26H... but I think the price to pay is too high, right?  Talk about 'going with a bang' though :)

Then our guide gave us an educational talk about the native kiwi bird (which, I'd say is about the only thing that NZ has to offer that you can't find anywhere else in the world) and it was quite fascinating really. I never realised, for instance, that there used to be 12 million kiwi birds in NZ way way back but that now they are down to just 50,000.  The poor little bird being flightless was defenceless against all the predators that humans introduced over the years... the main guilty parties being cats, dogs, possums, ferrets and stoats.  None of them existed in NZ before and so there was no need for the kiwi to learn how to fly. So it didn't. Its wings are the size of a small finger and never evolved at the rate it needed to evolve to fight off its new enemies. Humans also killed it, as expected - the maori chiefs used to make war cloaks with its feathers and a whole cloak would have required about 100 kiwis, sob.  The female kiwi is a true champion too, and it lays eggs that are 1/4 of its body weight. It is the highest egg to body ratio in the animal world. It would be the equivalent of a female human delivering a 16kg baby !!!  OUCH.  They can produce up to 9  eggs per year and the male incubate the eggs for up to 2 months, while the females goes out and looks for food. Females have longer beaks and darker feathers. Their nostrils are right at the end of their beak to help them smell food and they have whiskers like cats !  yes, yes.... check it out. The maori chiefs also used kiwis' beaks for painting tatooes (they have many tatooes all around their faces as part of their cultural heritage) and also some kiwi bones for musical instruments.

If kiwis are left to their own devices only 5% of youngsters will survive in the wild. Just 5%. Tragic.  A leaflet said that the kiwi population has halved every 10 years for quite a while now and if it continued at this rate, this beautiful bird would be extinct by 2015... ahhhh.  To try and stop this from happening Rainbow Springs have come to the rescue and breed kiwis.  Once the eggs have been laid they take them away, put them in an incubator and take good care of the chick until it is about 2 years old, or weights about 2 kgs --  i.e. when it is strong enough to fend for itself and have a fighting chance against its predators.  Once they reach the ideal weight, they are released back in the wild and then have a 85% chance of survival.  Nobody is quite sure what is the average lifespan of a kiwi, they had one in captivity that lasted 34 years.  There are SIX types of kiwis actually. I also never knew that there were several types of kiwi fruits. Here they serve just as easily for breakfast the green type that we are accustomed to in the UK, and the yellow type (a touch sweeter). I also had kiwi berries yesterday, it looks like a green thumb and just melts in the mouth - no stone. Perfect. But I disgress...

Part 4 was to walk through an aviary to see some kiwis for real.  It was a dream come true as I'd stand no chance of seeing one in the wild as they are nocturnal.  We walked through an area where they had about 4 roaming around and we spotted three.  We had to swear not to talk or take any photos as the flash would hurt their eyes.  Everybody was very good and kept really quiet.  They looked so precious, you just wanted to cuddle them. They did look very vulnerable though, poor little things. Earlier on we'd also seen two possums in a cage and they looked adorable too, just like big fluffy teddy bears almost. I don't know why so many people here hate them ('vermin') because they are seriously cute.  I'd adopt one tomorrow if I could...

We got home at 10.30pm but were very happy. It had exceeded our expectations.  Time and money well spent ($118 each, for future ref).