Our tour took us today to Rotorua about an hour’s drive north of Taupo and located on beautiful Lake Rotorua. Again we traveled through absolutely gorgeous countryside decorated in undulating hills, new spring growth, wild flowers and blooming dogwoods and bright yellow Spartium aka Spanish bloom. This is a major geothermal area so we also saw several geothermal power plants.

In Rotorua we enjoyed the Te Puia Arts and Crafts Center established to preserve Maori arts and traditions. run by a non-profit, Te Puia generates find to support scholarships in traditional Maori arts - wood and stone carving, weaving and, now, an effort to establish a foundry school to create longer lasting art.

Our visit started with a quite well done cultural show including singing and dancing. Of particular interest was the performing of a haka, a traditional Maori war dance during which warriors widen their eyes and stick out their tongues to appear as fierce as possible. Very interesting.

Following the show, we had a docent-led tour of the grounds which included a darkened building containing a kiwi, the iconic flightless, nocturnal bird of NZ. We then walked through the Whakarewarewa geyser field, the largest protected geyser field on the North Island. Many geyser fields have diminished greatly in magnitude due geothermal steam harvesting. Whakarewarewa consists of five or six geysers all connected to the same fissure. The largest, Pohutu, explodes periodically after building pressure due to a building column of superheated water in the bore above. Pohutu is the largest geyser in the Southern Hemisphere. As one would anticipate, the air carries a slight sulfur aroma.