Here at last

Greetings one and all! I apologize for being so late getting our posts up but we have been so very busy. Here is the low down on our first 2 days here in New Zealand.

July 6th, 2008
We have arrived! After many, many, many unwashed and sleepless hours we disembarked at Auckland International Airport at 4:45 AM. We killed the time until the rental company could pick us up changing into winter wear, searching out ATMs and the like. After the paperwork and formalities at the camper place, we were off! It was terrifying. Driving on the opposite side isn’t a thing you can mentally prepare for apparently or at any rate our mental preparation was inadequate. The clutch makes us appreciate our Volkswagen. Anyhow, we are adjusting to our home/vehicle away from home/vehicle and will soon be able to stop chanting “left, left, left, we’re on the left” every time we approach an intersection.
We made it into Auckland and decided to do just one thing (we wanted to get to Rotorua before dark). Zada cast the deciding vote and we headed to the Sky Tower. The Sky Tower is the tallest building in the Southern Hemisphere at 384 meters. It was an excellent choice, as it gave us a chance to see the complete layout of the city. Auckland is known as “the city of sails” with good reason. The harbor was blanketed in sailing craft. The views were absolutely wonderful. We debated the sky walk (a walk around the exterior of the observation deck at 192 m), but as it was unbelievably cold and raining intermittently we decided to stay inside and visit the Sky View café instead.
The drive out to Rotorua was lovely. The countryside in New Zealand is marvelously lush and dotted with picturesque sheep and cows. We were reminded of the Cape Breton Highlands, and parts of Washington State. The velvety quality of the grass and the way the shadows define the hills was truly exquisite.
We made fairly good time, only pausing to take in the metal wonders of Tirau, a charming small town boasting a corrugated metal workshop of tremendous skill and imagination. We all but collapsed as soon as we made it to the campsite - delirious with the joy of sleeping horizontally for the first time in almost three days.
July 7th, 2008
It is far colder than expected or I don’t know what 40 degrees feels like. It was a struggle to get up and out despite our excitement about being here. I may need to invest in more cold weather clothing and have my eye on the New Zealand special merino-possum blend woolen wear. The possum is an invasive species and a serious nuisance. The Kiwis have found a way to make their unwelcome guest pay. The wool blend is amazingly soft.
We started our exploration of Rotorua at Te Puia, the Maori culture center. It is a remarkable place, with the avowed mission of preserving and promoting the Maori traditional arts and skills. They boast a carving and weaving workshop. Students are selected to undergo three year apprenticeships in the workshops were they receive training from master craftspeople. The workshops are open so that you may see the work in progress and talk to the artists. The complex also has a reconstructed traditional village, a meeting house where they perform traditional songs and dances such as the “Haka”. Extremely well done interactive displays instruct in Maori legends and crafts. The hall that showcases the ancestor stories and legends is designed to resemble a traditional meeting house. The meeting house is perceived as the body of the ancestors, so that seemed a nice symmetry. The next hall is dedicated to cultural artifacts, such as weapons, musical instruments, weaving and carving. The displays here were very engaging. The musical instruments were in a case and the sound produced by the instrument would play when you held your hand over them. Every instrument is a wind instrument – even the drum has to be blown into to produce its proper sound. We learned several interesting facts about the various weapons – the family favorite was the one designed to kill your enemy and then remove his liver.
The center also has a number of beautiful nature walks with interpretive trails identifying native flora and fauna. We spotted a fantail and a tui. The part of the park with all the geothermal features is called Te Whakarewarewa . There is a fumarole (a steaming hole in the ground) under nearly every rock. The whole place smells of sulfur. In the center of it all is Pohutu geyser which erupts 2 or 3 times an hour. In Maori “pohutu” means “constant bubbling”. There is a “warning geyser” (one that erupts shortly before the one next to it) below Pohutu named “The Prince of Wales’ Feather”. These two geysers are surrounded by terraces of travertine that are stained red, brown and green by algae living on the rock and yellow by the abundance of sulfur. There are many mud pots nearby. These are ponds of simmering mud. It’s like Yellowstone National Park Jr.