9/30/06 – Up early again, pack to travel and picked up at 7:20 for out bus trip/tour to Rotorua. The Great Sights folks carried us from Aukland to Rotorua. Along the way we stopped for a tour of a glow worm cave and lunch. The cave was interesting. New Zealand’s geology is volcanic in nature. There are a lot of caves, at least along the path we traveled. The glow worms are an interesting creature as they live in dark places and are the larvae of a particular fly. Their life cycle is 11 months. The larvae glow through a chemical reaction to attract small insects that live in the cave. We arrived at our hotel and went for a walk. Rotorua is a vacation town, full of restaurants, bars, etc. We had a great dinner, checked out an Irish pub, watched a Rugby game with a pint, and then back to the hotel for bed.
10/1/06 – We are starting to count the days until the end of the trip. We still have a lot to see in the 9 days left. Today we went for a geothermal tour of all the volcanic activity around Rotorua. Hot springs, Caldera’s, volcanic cones and overall the smell of sulphur, we covered a lot of ground. Some of the sights were breathtaking. Others just stunk. All throughout the town and countryside, you can find evidence of the volcanic activity we are above. They use geothermal heat to produce about 10% of their power needs.
This evening we went to a Maori village for a traditional dinner and concert. It was quite a production. We were taken to village a half hour out of town. Our driver was very entertaining during the drive. At the village we were shown examples of Maori life, watched a song and dance show and then we had a dinner of traditional food.
Tomorrow, it’s off to Christchurch.