Markings/tattoos

We had one of the chiefs explain about their face tattoos which they dont do now, not permanently anyway. Around

This guy had very little markings, he told me that its take him about two mi utes to put it on and these days he can do it without a mirror

nine years of age, they went to the tattooist and after a few meetings of chat, their marking were decided. One side was mothers side and the other side was fathers plus their own personality.

Only chiefs had any markings above the eye line.

The Sticks

One of the areas that we visited while at the Maori village was childrens games. Kids were taught it but it was to strengthen their hands and give them skills to defend themselves later in life.

The sticks were about six inches long and round, two of the women gave a demo, then they moved to sticks that were longer and they twirled and twisted them. The wrist movements were incredible.

Next they asked the chief to choose two men and two women to come out.  I was chosen! What the ? Not knowing what was coming next, I stepped forward to join the others.

First we had to learn some words, turned out we were learning left and right.

 Once we learnt the words, she would call the words and we needed to leave our stick and move to the next one. A few goes and we got them all right, then the sticks were moved further out. This time the other girl and I went out after two turns. Certainly did make one think.

The Haka

Not sure if the spelling is correct but what I mean is the Maori war dance.

Going out to the Tamiki village by bus, our tour cost included being collected at Blue Lake cp, taken into their main headquarters, then we headed off in a big 40 or so seater bus. On the way we had to select a chief. Their job was to greet the chiefs of the village, accept the hongi, nose presses and lead us around the village.

They arrived by boat.

Our chief had to accept the fern leaf from the Maori chief.
We had all been told that we had to stand, no smiling or laughing and definately no copying their actions.

 Later one spot all the guys had to do the Haka. Warren is in black over the chiefs left arm and John is towards the right in a maroon shirt.

Before we had dinner, they gave a performance including the Haka. These two were the oldest members and I think they were married.

A Hangi

I hope I have the spelling right. We went a Maori village and dinner at the end,oh boy what a feast.

We were invited to see the meal being brough up from the ground. First was the vegetables, potatoes, carrots and sweet potatoes. Then there were whole chicken and a tray of lamb.

Later when we went to eat, a tray of fish cooked in coconut milk was added, mussels and salad.

Dessert was pavlova, New Zealand pav we were informed by the bus driver after he had asked if they were any Aussies onboard. Cake and custard were offered as well. 

This was my meal.

Blue Lake caravan park.

In the main, we are staying at Top caravan parks, little bit more money but great facilities including camp kitchens which we are using.
The one at Rotarua was at Blue Lake about seven kms south of the city.

Very popular for swimming and boating, the lake has been divided off so everyone can enjoy whatever they want to do. One evening, we saw kids who had a pool ladder in the water, they climb up and then jump into the water, they were having a ball. It seemed that a lot of people came out after work for a swim, it was rather hot.

Six km walk around the lake.

Photo taken by John.

The water was indeed blue, there was another smaller lake around the corner called Green lake and you guess it, it was green. We drove up to the look out to check them both out and the colour difference was quite amazing.

Across to Rotarua

There were some hold ups on the way across. When we finally got to go, there were cars trucks and camper vans backed up for a couple of miles.

The scenery was pretty, though it was windy and up and down, there was even a short tunnel to go through.

We stopped to have lunch at Piopio. It was a small community that rallied around to keep their town viable after the banks closed the branches there.

They put in the giant easles and invited businesses such as a vet and others to come and set up shop there.

This was a cache just out the road near toilets and apparently where drivers change over. Cache was called the Giant Count. It was an electrical box, took us a couple of minutes to realise that the lines didnt go anywhere, then we had to work out how to get into it (a magnetic key slide underneath with key inside).

This large bush was on the side of the road, not sure if it was a roadside plant or in someones yard, very pretty.

New Plymouth

We made our way to New Plymouth, travelling independently. Funny thing was, we both stopped at a little town for lunch.

  In the middle of town was this great walkway through to public toilets and a carpark.
The yellow thing on the right, is a fridge that has been turned into a free library.
On to Stratford and we stopped again to go to a war museum, we were directed around the back and found ourselves at a funeral. Opps, apparently although it was called a war memorial centre, there was no museum, it was meeting rooms.
We went across the road to a quilt show.

  The town's quilting club was twenty one years old and as such some of the quilts depicted that.

Clock tower in the main street. A glockenspeil played at 10am, 1pm and 3pm, we were too late for one, too early for another, bummer.

Our spot for the night was on a bluff overlooking the breakwater, very nice sheltered by some hedges and only a few steps to the facilities.