Rotorua and trip to Auckland

Rotorua and trip to Auckland

 Rotorua was a lot of fun.

 I walked into the centre of the city from my motel
last night for dinner and to sitesee. The signs said
2 KM. It took an hour. Therefore it was closer to 3
1/2 to 4 miles.

 A continuous strip of motels all the way. This is a
vacation spot for people seeking the baths and the
Geysers along with the history of the Maori people of
New Zealand.

 I found a cyber cafe last night to write from and now
I am writing from one in downtown Auckland.

 Rotorua is very, very flat. It sits on a large lake
and is surrounded by smoke rising from the ground
every so often. I was less than 1/2 mile from the
main geysers in this area in my motel. The last time
one of them exploded it wiped out an entire community
of Maori people, several years ago.

 Cabbed into Rotorua to site see this morning, eating
my way from pastry shop to pastry shop and to sandwich
shop. Found the tourist center and then the Maori
museum which was built as a famous spa inn 1904. Many
kings and queens have bathed there. Not me. Plain
water is enough for me. Ha ha! I did the bath spa
thing in New Mexico with several mineral baths a
couple years ago. That was enough for me.

 Actually my motel had 3 separate baths. But I had had
enough excitement last night after walking over 8
miles in and out of town.

 Had a wonderful roast pork dinner, many courses, at
the Grande Hotel. It was originally built in 1880 or
so and was where the kings and queens use to stay.
Unfortunately it has burned to the ground a few times
over the years. Now it has been renovated into a
smaller apartment building with an excellent
restaurant on the ground floor.

 Gift shop visiting and some buying today. Maopri
Museum visiting and a visit to the Maori Reserve and
Geyser Institute to tour a sample ancient village and
several geyers. At lunch time there held a
performance of ancient dances and singing. Before we
entered the marae, area of the community house, we all
had to leave the welcome gates. Then our guide asked
for a volunteer to be chief of the visiting tribe.

 Yes I volunteered.

 All I had to do was not be scared off by a menacing
warrior scout who came out to check me out. Once he
had tried to size me up and or scare me off he left a
token gift, a silver fern branch.

 Then we were all allowed to enter the welcome house
following behind our chief, me. hmmm pretty neat.

 Once seated I was invited up on stage to be formally
welcome by the 4 warriors by a handshake and two light
toughings of our noses.

 The dancing and singing that followed was exciting to
watch and experience.

 Then it was time to shop, oops I said that already.

 Then it was time to wait for my van to the airport to
fly to Auckland.

 An hour later I landed in Auckland.

 Tales of Auckland to follow.

 Thank you for reading my wandering notes and for your
great messages friends.

 Alan

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