So You Thought Kiwis Were Cute?

March 13

The first of our day trips from base camp in Cambridge was an hour’s motor down the highway to Rotorua, with the plan just to have a roam, see what we could discover and experience another part of the North Island. Another day of freestylin’!

The day started with me heading out for a 10km run. Off I went along some rural roads, that were like I have at home, with no shoulder to run on, although they were busier here, but the drivers were great and gave me space until I could turn onto a street in suburbia. I happily plodded along the paths, exchanging smiles and good mornings with other walkers and runners and it was a great start to the day. As I made my way back up the drive of our accommodation, our host was walking towards me carrying a strip of fencing. After exchanging “good mornings” she said, “I’ve just put a fence up, but just step over it, I’m about to bring the cows up.” That’s rural living for you. I didn’t even know they had cows, but I timed my return well to not become entangled in the bovine peak hour.

Before departing, it was time to top up our hire car with some juice. That was a shock to start the day! How much? How much do you reckon? “$2.87 a litre for 91! Premium 98 was over $3.00 a litre. Yep, things sure are pricey on this side of the ditch!

First stop when we arrived in Rotorua was the Information Centre to get our bearings and then we set off for a roam. We found ourselves down by the waters of Lake Rotorua, watching a float plane taking off and the community of ducks taking it all in their stride.  Then we headed down to Government Gardens, which was a lovely spot with some fascinating architecture. The area was once a spa and the main building was the Bath House, opened in 1908 and it’s the only surviving building from the first 45 years of the Rotorua Spa. Today it’s part of the Rotorua Museum of Art and History. Nearby is the Blue Baths that were one of the first places in Rotorua where families could bathe together for fun, rather than the exclusively therapeutic spas in the gardens. The garden paths looped around croquet and pétanque lawns and  also had some naturally thermal pools. The grey and showery morning had cleared to a sparkling sunny day, with blue skies and some fierce heat beating down. Just perfect for some more roaming.

We headed out to Te Puia, a huge thermal reserve that is also home to the New Zealand Maori Arts and Crafts Institute, established in the 1920’s to promote and foster all aspects of Maori culture. We had a guide who took us around the grounds and the Maori Arts and Crafts school, before leaving us to freestyle roam for ourselves. The reserve also contains the Kiwi Conservation Centre where we could walk through and see kiwi birds that are being raised until they’re ready to be released in a designated predator free zone. We were able to see these fascinating little birds up really close, but it turns out they have to be housed separately rather than being able to live together. They are incredibly territorial and solitary birds and if they were put together in the same space they would fight until one of them was killed. In the wild, apparently the decision about pairing is all down to the female, who is bigger than the males…if she’s approached by a male, she sizes him up and if she decides she likes the fella, they’ll pair up. However…if she doesn’t like the look of Brad, Howard, Shane or Stan or whichever fella has decided to try his luck, she’ll just lay into him and most likely kill him. Yep, just when you thought kiwis were cute little birds! Watch out kiwi Darren, put your best cologne on because when you try some speed dating with kiwi Brenda, your life could depend on it! The two they have at the Conservation Centre have a half wall between them, so they can sense and smell each other to get to know each other, so when they are finally introduced to each other, hopefully they’ll have a pair up, rather than a dust up! “When we put them together, we just live in hope,” our guide told us.

We continued walking around the grounds of the thermal reserve, looking at thermal mud pools and geysers, including Pohutu geyser, the largest geyser in the southern hemisphere. When it erupts every hour or so, the spray can reach up to 30 metres in the air. 

We took a walk through the Arts and Crafts Institute, where students were working away learning and practising various skills in stone, bone and wood carving and in weaving. When we saw the area where the carving is done, all the students were men. We were later told that traditionally, women are not allowed to carve because, it was explained, traditionally men would have to walk many kilometres to find a fallen tree to use and then drag this back to camp, leaving themselves open to ambush or attack from warring tribes. This was considered too much of a risk for women to do because as the saying went “if we lose a man there are more of them, but if we lose a woman we lose a generation.” Men are allowed to weave, but women are not allowed to carve. Hearing this was itching my feminist bones somewhat. We were told though, that similar schools in New Zealand do  have women learning the traditional skill of carving, but Te Puia focuses on traditional approaches, although they are changing soon to open up carving  to women as well. There were many stone and wood carvings around the Institute, adjacent gallery and around the park. The figures in the carvings are never of living people, only those who have died. They will often have eyes made from Pau shell (abalone shell) which is considered a “life essence” by the Maori, so including them in eyes on carvings is a way of including a life essence of the person the figure is representing. 

After a stroll in the Thermal Reserve under the beating sun, we took ourselves towards some shade with a stroll through The Redwoods & Whakarewarewa Forest. These amazing giants towered above us, with their bark showing the red glow their name suggests and we strolled between the broad trunks of these incredible trees.

It had been a full day but before we hit the road for the return drive, we stopped off at Kuirau Park, a park in downtown Rotorua that also has geothermal activity within it. We strolled past steaming pools, with 100C water temperature and the distinctive sulphur scent rising up from the water. The whole area of Rotorua has geothermal areas everywhere and even a regular park in town, has pools and ponds giving off steam from the thermal activity far below. 

Phew! We’d packed a fair bit into a day trip to Rotorua…some nature, some culture, some history and some wildlife. All of it fascinating and it gave us some terrific learning to boot. 

The shock learning for the day was…forget about drop bears, beware the snarling kiwi! They may be cute and they may be feathery fluffy, but don’t mess with the girl power of Shirley, Sharon or Kylie kiwi!  Now, kiwi Roger, you have been warned!