New Zealand-Day 2

The second day in NZ, we woke up to do our 1 day hike and the volcano was experiencing some bad weather conditions so they cancelled the trek. Stan and I loaded up the kids and drove three hours to our next tour destination called Rotorua. It is an active geothermal hot spot with geysers, mud pots, sulphur springs and much more.

Here we are driving past some mountains. You can tell the mountains are new because of how vertical they are. Over time (a lot of time) mountains tend to smooth over. I have never seen hills quite like this! It was like being inside a fairy tale story book....

Once we got to Rotorua, we saw our first geyser go off in about 4 minutes time.

Stan and the girls were fascinated, but having grown up next to Old Faithful, in Yellowstone National Park I was pretty familiar with this stuff.

Mud pots....they were boiling. I always get so nervous that someone will fall in and get boiled to death!

and below are some more pictures of the things we saw at the park

This is called the champagne pool due to the colour

Above is a pool called the Opal, which Olivia wanted me to take a picture of because Jill (her second grandmother) gave her Opals for her baptism and her birthstone is an Opal.

Above, the wind started blowing and it didn't smell so good--the bog of eternal stench is what we called this walk!

And next we went to a wildlife park to see all the unique animals to New Zealand. The top two on our list were Kiwi birds and Tuatara lizards.

And the storm came, absolute down pour...so happy I wasn't on a hike!

Tuataras were alive during the Jurassic period, only live in NZ and are nearly extinct. Olivia is learning about them at school, so we had her take a picture by them!

Above Mary on her way to see the kiwi birds. They are fat flightless birds that are going extinct (unfortunately a great source of food and they can't get away).

Often New Zealanders will refer to themselves as "Kiwi's" which is slang for "I grew up in NZ" and is in reference to this bird--which is unique to New Zealand. Yea, they are not talking about the fruit and it is also not a derogatory word for generalizing someone.

Mary touching the jade stone. It brings good luck and is all over NZ. those Kiwi necklaces on the Maori's are often carved out of Jade!

After the wildlife park, we went to a Mouri feast in a kept up Mouri village. It was great to learn about their ancient culture, and kind of sad to see it only alive through tourism. Here Olivia & Mary are trying to imitate the "face of the ancestors"

Being welcomed into the Maori village

Going to where the houses are

Learning the Haka

Olivia was selected to receive the flower made out of the leaves-she was so excited

Stan learning to throw sticks...a popular game among the Maori children.

Olivia learning how to use poi balls. Originally this was used by the men to keep their wrists loose for war but the ladies eventually took over and used them to synchronize dances and to symbolize different animals.
This is the "Hangie" where you dig a hole, put hot volcanic rock in the bottom and then place your food on top. Then you cover the top with tea trees which smokes the food. They also had Taewa (which is a cross between a sweet and normal potato)--It was AMAZING!
On top of this hut (where we ate) there is the face of the ancestors looking over us. You are supposed to acknowledge them (nod your head and look in their eyes) and give thanks before eating.

Olivia eating the Maori feast!

Honestly, the food was meat, potato's and gravy and then yummy desserts, it felt like Thanksgiving!