North Island New Zealand

Oh my I' getting so behind in my posting.  No in room internet at Rotura. But we are on the plane to Christchurch so I will try to catch up.  The transferring of photos has also been interrupted to I will probably have to go back and fill in details later.  At least I should be able to get the timeline down. We arrived in Auckland on Sunday March 6 (so weird since we left Honolulu on Friday)

Kia Ora ( hi, or good health)

So we landed in Auckland on Sunday morning and were able to check into our room right away.  We had until early evening to relax and get situated before meeting the rest of the tour group.  The group is 37 in number most from US including Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, New York, Kentucky, Montana, Connecticut (just us and the Booths') 3 sisters from Canada and a couple from Tobago.   Our guide is Steve (an Aussie) and our bus driver for the North Island is Eric (a Kiwi).

So on Monday March 7th we started with a short drive around Auckland which Steve described as a city with no top 10 sites to see but we thought the marinas were rather impressive, with lots of sail boats and motor boats. The largest harbor area in the Southern Hemisphere .

After touring the city we traveled through the lush green pasture sod Waitomo to see the famous glow worms cave. There we stalactites and stalagmites like I'd known from Mt Timpanogous in Utah. After walking through the caves we loaded onto a boat where we viewed the glow worms.  Funny thing they didn't look like worms to me but rather stars. They did have these strange strings attached to them so maybe the name comes from that. They are similar to a butterfly I that the edges  hatch ,eat and then form a chrysalis, after they lay eggs but the never come out of the chrysalis because they cannot eat and starve and die.  

 

After leaving the caves we drove on to Rotura where we had a Hangi dinner and Maori culture performance.

The dinner was a buffet of traditional New Zealand foods all of which I tried including a raw fish dish, smoked fish, venison, pork, chicken and lamb. The desserts were terrific too with a merange tart that melts in your mouth.  The entertainment was filled with stories, song and dances of the Marori people. I'd like to learn how to twirl those pom things.  

Scary Huh!

On Tuesday we started early with a visit to RAINBOW SPRINGS where our American guide showed us huge trout all of which were introduced to New Zealand for sport fishing.  You cannot find trout on any menu in New Zealand but you can catch the and have your hotel cook them for you.  Of course you must buy a license and catch one first. We also saw huge California Red Wood trees that grow twice as fast in New Zealand as California due to the favorable growing conditions here.

Living fossils

Not too many creatures can claim to be “one of a kind,” but that’s a boast the tuatara can make. In fact, the tuatara is one of the most unique animals in the world. Although it looks like a lizard, it really is quite different. Found in New Zealand only, the tuatara’s closest relatives are an extinct group of reptiles around at the time of the dinosaurs. This is why some scientists refer to tuataras as “living fossils.”
- See more at: http://animals.sandiegozoo.org/animals/tuatara#sthash.l6gJmBkN.dpuf

We saw the only lizard like creature found here, a Tuatara, but it is not really a lizard but a dinosaur .  Don't ask me how they know that, it looked like a lizard to me. Not too many creatures can claim to be “one of a kind,” but that’s a boast the tuatara can make. In fact, the tuatara is one of the most unique animals in the world. Although it looks like a lizard, it really is quite different. Found in New Zealand only, the tuatara’s closest relatives are an extinct group of reptiles around at the time of the dinosaurs. This is why some scientists refer to tuataras as “living fossils.” 

Living fossils

Not too many creatures can claim to be “one of a kind,” but that’s a boast the tuatara can make. In fact, the tuatara is one of the most unique animals in the world. Although it looks like a lizard, it really is quite different. Found in New Zealand only, the tuatara’s closest relatives are an extinct group of reptiles around at the time of the dinosaurs. This is why some scientists refer to tuataras as “living fossils.”
- See more at: http://animals.sandiegozoo.org/animals/tuatara#sthash.l6gJmBkN.dpuf

But the highlight of Rainbow Springs was the Kiwi encounter where we saw an elaborate system of collecting eggs from the wild and hatching them, raising them until they can fend for themselves and releasing them into the wild all of which costs about $5,000 each. Not sure if that is NZ $ or our $ but either way, that is an expensive bird.  They really want to save them.  Seems that their predictors, all nonnative to New Zealand make the survival rate, 1 in 4, too low to keep them from extinction without such a program. I was lucky enough to capture a small kiwi feather to bring home as a memento.

Today was a full day as we hit the thermal pools, mud pots and geysers. Amazingly like Yellowstone but all close together.  No need to drive in between just a short walk.  The geyser was only at half height for us but still impressive.  Our guide was a young Maori man extremely proud of his heritage and a wonderful source of information.  We saw their carving school and weaving facilities, huge war canoes and the plants they used in their culture.

I don't think I have the order of things right on this day but we also went to the AGRODOME where we saw lots of breeds of sheep (13 I think) all breed for different qualities of wool and meat.  These Kiwis like to eat their lamb!  

They did a shearing demonstration and a dog herding and cow milking audience participation. Those dogs are amazing and a well trained dog is worth about $10,000 at their prime.

We also took a Rotura Duck Tour before calling it a day.  Like the ducks in Boston this is an old army amphibious vehicle. We fully expected to be driving into the lake that we overlook from the hotel but we simply drove up to it saw the swans and other ducks before we ventured onto the highway out of town and up some hills down into some valleys and into a very blue lake called Blue Lake. Our driver Grant and his sidekick Markus were quite the comedians and with duck whistles for all we had a grand tour.  We heard about a sacred lake called Green Lake that we were told only Maori people could use. If you touch the water and have no Maori blood, it is bad luck. We didn't go as the bad luck is their fine is $400, very bad luck indeed.

So dinner our final night in Rotura was at the Citizens Club, very much like the Elks Club back home, good food and drink with very reasonable prices. Eric the bus driver was our sponsor.  Back to the hotel for a final soak in the hot springs so nice and warm.

We will fly to Christchurch the location of a serious earthquake a few years back.