Rotorua and Napier

We are following the news from Christchurch and it really isn’t good but, again, be assured we are a long way away and are fine.

We did indeed have a long journey from Kerikeri in the north to Touranga but we made it by about 3.30pm when we met up with a guy called Martin Parkes who I taught 30 years ago. He emigrated to New Zealand just five years ago with his wife and daughter and they love it. It was so good to meet up with him and we had a really nice couple of hours on the sea front in Touranga reminiscing and hearing all about his life here.

We then completed the journey to meet up again with John and Coral in Rotorua in a bed and breakfast which was fine but really would never match the one we had left that morning. And it was raining when we arrived which is just not on our itinerary.

The following morning we went into the town and walked around a park in which there are numerous bubbling mud ponds and steam rising from holes and clouding above lakes and pools. Rocks below the ground are at such heat that water rises as steam with a mildly sulphurous smell which intensifies now and then.

 

It really is extraordinary. Locals use the heat to cook in the earth and the heat is put to more commercial energy uses. In the evening we went to a Mouri evening of entertainment and to see the geyser in Rotorua. It’s spectacular: every hour the pressure builds and the thing lets go, spaying you with what becomes quite cool water, laced with rather grey stuff which is murder on glasses and camera lenses.

We visited a couple of lakes right next to one another one called Green Lake the other called Blue Lake because the first is green and the other ….well you can guess. And we also visited a delightful Anglican church decorated with traditional Mouri carvings. A fascinating fusion.

I said last time that I would start using the aftersun lotion to minimise the effects of the sun and I have taken my own advice and the results are pleasing, I’m sure you’ll agree.

An unexpected side effect is the loss of chest hair and a serious lengthening of the tongue. This was, actually, part of the Mouri evening of entertainment which included the Haka and a really good meal with meat cooked from the thermals (not mine – I didn’t bring them with me!)

It was farewell again to J & C this morning to travel via Taupou to Napier. It was a fantastic drive through spectacular post volcanic terrain and miles and miles and miles of commercial forestry. There were wonderful waterfalls

and from a slightly grey-skied morning we got to Napier in blazing sunshine. Now that’s more like it.

Napier was destroyed by an earthquake in 1931 (actually largely by the resulting fires) and completely rebuilt in about two years. In fact the design of the building was, perhaps logically, art deco but it is only quite recently that the town realised what a treasure it had in itself and restoration and protection has resulted in an amazing art deco town.

The place is just full of gems and we will take another look tomorrow at some of the ones we had a fleeting glimpse of this evening on a guided walk.

And so it all continues in the same way: lots of sunshine, loads of great conversations with all we meet – this evening we talked over dinner in a restaurant with a NZ couple who were a treat. There is certainly a good deal of concern around about those in Christchurch and it is clearly a bad one. We will just have to wait and see how things develop.