Rotorua Part 3: Buried Village

After our delicious lunch by the lake, we headed to the Buried Village, which the owner of our hotel had recommended.

The Buried Village is the site of a Māori village that was buried in boiling mud from a volcanic eruption in 1886. What happened was that the volcano erupted, but a lot of the subterranean heat also went over to a nearby lake and ended up coming out that way - hence, the mud. Anyway, so then it was abandoned, and now it is a tourist attraction.

I realize that this is a somewhat overwhelming map, but I had a lot of things to label on it, so hopefully that's okay. What I find impressive about this is the distance that the boiling mud travelled to get from the lake (orange circle) to the village (yellow circle). That's a long way!

Also, please note that I have oriented the map the way they had it labeled at the museum, which turns out to be a mistake, because North, you will notice, is where West should be. Sorry about that.

This is an artist's depiction of the eruption. Notice the multiple eruption sites, as well as the grey mud starting to come up from the lake in the distance. 

A lot of people died in this event, and I think that this painting captures the ominous, threatening impression of the beginning of it all, leaving you to imagine the destruction and terror once it got to the villages.

This is an artist's depiction of the pink terraces (in the pink circle on the map). These were a huge tourist attraction pre-eruption, and were apparently stunning. People paid a lot of money for transportation to get there, and then for the privilege to draw or paint them. 

If you look on the map at the lake around them, you will see a darker blue area within the larger light blue area. The dark blue is where the lake was before the eruption, and the light is its current area. So the terraces are underwater now. Unfortunately, not only did this mean that we couldn't see them, it also resulted in many hilarious (not) jokes from our tour guide about how we should have planned ahead and brought a submarine.

Note: J's favourite video game (Guild Wars), has recreated these terraces in part of its virtual world, so J gave me a virtual tour after, which slightly mediated my disappointment. Slightly.

This is a depiction of what some of the wreckage looked like after the event.

This is the home of the village blacksmith at the time. Notice the 5-6 feet of mud all around it. I tried to imagine that much boiling mud falling out of the sky, but my imagination fell short.

This is the whare (house) of the village Tohunga (Priest), Tuhoto Ariki. 

He predicted that something awful was going to happen to their village, and he was right. During the eruption, the boiling mud fell on his whare and broke part of the roof, trapping him inside. Unfortunately, due to Māori beliefs at the time, his prediction meant that he was somewhat blamed for the event. The villagers believed that if they touched him, they would bring upon themselves the horror that had been brought upon him, so they left him trapped in his whare for four days! Eventually, the pākehā (non-Māori Kiwis) came and dug him out and took him to the hospital in Rotorua. This was a mixed blessing, however, because the Māori believed that Tohunga (Priests) should not be touched, and the pākehā doctors bathed him as part of their treatment, which was a horrible dishonor for him. In addition, they cut off all of his hair (for sanitation), which was deeply degrading and disgraceful. He had no dangerous wounds or diseases, but died soon after these events, and his Māori community believe that he died of a broken heart and spirit.

I find this story deeply tragic on many levels, and wish that all cultures and people were better at knowing how to respectfully care for one another.

On a much brighter note, we learned that Māori build living whare (houses)! If you cut down a fern tree (not a silver fern tree, because they're sacred) right at the base of the trunk and quickly "replant" it as part of your walls or roof, it will take root and keep growing! Also, NZ fern trees have partially hollow trunks that catch seeds from lots of other plants. As a result, these other plants start to grow (as you see in this picture). This accomplishes two tasks; insulation and camouflage. The little plants grow in between the fern tree trunks, making it wind/cold proof. The houses are built into the environment (in this picture, into the side of a hill, but often into the forest), and when the plants grow all over it, it blends back into the forest, so enemies can't find you! Wow!

Note #1: Most whare are not nearly as short as Tuhoto Ariki's house in the previous picture.

Note #2: Māori have different whare for different purposes. This is a picture of a whare moe (sleeping house), which is a very important one to be camouflaged. There is also a whare kai (eating house), a whare wānanga (school), whare whakairo (meeting house), etc. The whole village would do lots of things together in the different whare, instead of each whanau (family) doing all these things in their individual homes.

As a part of our walk around the Buried Village, we took a little side trek to see this beautiful waterfall. It doesn't look very big in the picture, but it was quite impressive. We also got to see a charming stream that was full to bursting with beautiful rainbow trout, but they were far too fast swimmers for my picture-taking skills. It was very exciting to see them all, though.

After the tour and our independent wanderings, we went to the Green Lake/Lake Rotokakahai (in the green circle on the map). We were told that the level of actual greenness depended greatly on the weather and colour of the sky, and I have to say that we might not have been there on the best day. However, it was still beautiful, and definitely green.

Next, we went just around the corner to the Blue Lake/Lake Tikitapu (in the blue circle on the map). It is definitely blue, but not impressively more so than other lakes, in our opinions.

Also, I just noticed that the clouds apparently ended over the Green Lake (notice the grey sky in the picture) and left clear, blue sky over the Blue Lake! How funny! It was one of those fickle days that couldn't decide how many clouds it wanted, so that is not too surprising, but it sure is a striking difference between those two pictures.

We were quite tired after our horse trek and on-foot explorations, so we headed back to Rotorua, relaxed for a bit, and then went out to dinner before more lazy relaxing. It was a great day.

Rotorua Part 2: Horse Trek

On our second day in Rotorua, we headed out of town to Lake Okareka, about 15 minutes away from our hotel. There we had found a great deal on a two hour horse trek around the lake, through the rainforest, over some hills and pastures, and then back down to the stable by the lake. It was a cold but beautiful day, and we had a truly lovely time. 

Hard to imagine that it's winter.

We ended up with one horse in between J and I, because my horse was being difficult. He was very intent on showing me that he didn't have to do what I wanted him to do, and though I always won, he made it rather difficult to accomplish forward motion at times. 

Equestrian Merciers!

J looking very confident on his horse, who was lovely and just wanted to be nice.

So, as we were riding out of the fields and back towards the lake, I noticed a bunch of fantails (birds) flying along with us. I wondered why that was, and our trail guide said that the horses' feet turned up the soil, making it easier for the birds to find food. I don't really understand this, because they didn't seem to be checking the ground at all, but far be it for me to disagree with her.

Anyway, I wanted to get a picture of a fantail, but knew that I would not be able to focus in on their rapid movements, even if I wasn't on a moving horse, so I didn't even attempt it. Imagine my delight, then, when I got home and looked at this picture and saw a fantail right there in it!

Zoomed in and cropped - TAH DAH! A fantail! Awesome bird, don't you think?

At the end of the trek, after J and I had split off from all the other riders, who were on shorter treks, the trail guide said that since we seemed confident on horses, we could try going faster if we wanted. We agreed, not realizing that the horses took "faster" to mean "bolt." I have never experienced horses going that fast, and 80% of my being was intensely focused on just not falling off. Fortunately, the other 20% of me - admittedly the stupidest 20% - was screaming "YAHOO!!!"and wishing it would never end. When it did end, however, with me mostly still in the saddle, I had possibly the greatest surprise of all which was J, still fully in his saddle, which was rotated 90 degrees to the side of his horse. I turned and saw him at exactly the second when he had to admit that he wasn't going to be able to fix this problem, and was forced to fall, surprisingly gracefully, to the ground. Turns out that his amiable horse had pulled the sneaky horse trick of puffing out his chest when he was being saddled, resulting in it being much too loose and basically letting go when he started running. Thank goodness it didn't fully let go until he slowed back down, or J would have been in trouble. Anyway, excitement all around, and a very adrenaline-filled ending to our horse trek.

After the trek, we went to a little cafe on the beach of the nearby Lake Tarawera and had a lovely lunch and enjoyed the view. Life is good.

Rotorua Part 1: Kuirau Park and Whakarewarewa Forest

Last weekend, J and I went to Rotorua, which is 4 hours north-east of us, meaning that it is most of the way across the North Island. It is also a very geothermically active part of the world, which means all kinds of exciting things to see. Unfortunately, due to the "active" sulfur all around, it also means that it is quite stinky. However, I find that smells are not intolerable for too long, and in this case it was completely worth it.

Although we were very excited to be in Rotorua and see all the attractions, we were also intent on taking things slow and relaxing. So we did (I think), a good job of balancing activities and relaxing in the hotel doing nothing. Which was lovely and well-needed.

On the first day there, we headed down to the local market in Kuirau Park. Coincidentally, this park also has lots of geothermal activity, so we got to have some fun with that. 

The first thing we saw was this bubbling mud, which reminded both J and I of "The Bog of Eternal Stench" from David Bowie's Labyrinth. And yes, it did stink, but it was also very interesting to watch the mud continually move and bubble and explode.

I actually took this picture for my kindergarteners, who are currently enthralled with the adventures of my friend Āwhina the Hippo (puppet), who comes and tells them stories partially in Māori of all the exciting things that she does. Anyway, here she is posing on a pretty bridge in Kuirau Park of which I  forgot to take any non-hippo pictures.

J has always had a love for street food, especially Japanese street food, so we were delighted to find authentic Japanese okonomiyaki in the Rotorua market! The okonomiyaki is the food on the left, and it is a a pancake sort of thing, but with anything delicious you want in it - noodles, cabbage, rice, egg, pork, mochi, squid, etc. We were introduced to them when we were in Osaka, Japan, and haven't had any since, so we were very excited! On the right is a dumpling, which is not particularly unique, but it was delicious!

We did a little exploring in the shops in town centre, which was nice. Our favourite part was this jade store, and especially this beautiful and shockingly huge piece of jade.

Next, we went walking in the Whakarewarewa Forest, which is a redwood forest. The first trees were planted over 100 years ago by Europeans, and they are amazing! It was such a beautiful place to walk, and the ground was lovely and springy from all the fallen bits.

We love fern trees! We learned some new and fascinating things about them on this trip, which I will share later. In the meantime, it was raining a bit on and off, and I thought that this one would be quite an effective umbrella for J.

As usual, we were thrilled to see the surprise of the silver underside of the ferns.

J exploring the forest.

See what I mean by huge? And there was one big one like this that was "The Mary Sutherland Memorial Redwood." There was a little plaque that told her story - she was the first woman Forestry Graduate in the world, graduating in 1916 from Bangor University in Wales. Later, she came to NZ and worked in the Whakarewarewa Forest.

This eerie blue stream was probably our favourite part of that first day. It was captivating and surreal.

After we both stared for quite a while, J said, "I have an idea!" He borrowed my camera and took this very special picture. Do you notice the trick? It's upside down! The crazy blue of the water plays tricks on my mind, so that even though I've looked at the picture loads of times, I have to keep reminding myself which was is up.

This is zoomed in on the surface of the water, which is so clear that you don't even see it and so you look right through to these ghostly shapes within it. I do not understand the science that makes them white like that, but perhaps it is best that way.

Consider this a continuation of my love affair with ferns of all shapes and sizes. I just can't get enough of them, and I have always particularly loved the rare occasions when the light comes through just perfectly like this, and you get to see their silhouettes.

After a somewhat more intense hike than we had anticipated, we came to this lookout, which I thought would be uninspiring due to the somewhat rainy conditions, but the mist ended up adding to the experience. I could imagine that the blurred distance is the edge of the world.

After that, we chilled out in the cozy hotel for a bit, then went out to a fantastic Japanese restaurant for one of the best dinners we've had in a long time. If you're ever in Rotorua, go to Yamoto Japanese Restaurant. We were walking by it in the afternoon and J said, "Oh look, Japanese! Looks authentic!" A couple came by and was heading into the restaurant, and the lady grinned and said, "It is authentic. And wonderful! You should eat here!" We were delighted both with the review and with the friendliness, and so we went back for our delicious dinner, and it was a great end to a great day.

Terror on the Beach Update: Seals Have Fangs

Remember how I said that Holly the Idiot managed to come away from the seal encounter unscathed? Well, I was wrong. I took her on another walk today, and this time her raucous adventures were of the non-terrifying kind, but they did get her covered in mud, so home we went for a bath. In her post-bath fluffiness, as I was toweling and brushing her dry, I noticed a rather sizable amount of fur missing from her side. My best guess as to how I didn't see it yesterday is that her hair is very silky and smooth, and must have laid over it so that the skin didn't show. Also, please remember that I did not actually finish my post-fight check, because Holly was determined to get right back in there. And then after that, I figured since she seemed fine, what would I be looking for? Well... a bite. That's what.

Hmm, bald spot. Wonder where that could have come from?

Upon closer inspection by J (if one must have an insane dog, one really should be married to a veterinarian), it was discovered that there are, in fact, two puncture wounds from two very big fangs. You can see one at the right end of the bald spot, and the other is in the white area near the middle, but is already swollen to the point of being hard to see. I am a little unclear on how the fangs so efficiently shaved off all of her fur down to the skin without doing more damage to the skin itself, but I am thankful that that is the case.

J is off to get some cephalexin to ward off nasty infections in the wounds, and we'll hope for the best. She is continuing to act completely unhurt, so it's hard to be too worried.

Conclusion Part Three: Do not fight with a seal. They have fangs.

Terror at the Beach

Well, today started out as a lovely day. I am on a two week school holiday, which I have to say is quite charming. It is funny how the same time at home that almost killed me when I was unemployed has become a delectable treat now that it's time off from work.

Anyway, sleeping late, tea and shortbread, Skyping with friends, a bit of yardwork in the unseasonably warm afternoon, and then a trip to the beach with Holly in the bike trailer. What could be better?

Little did I know, there was danger just around the corner. Literally. We walked down the hill from where I locked the bike trailer, and stepped out onto the beach. I was thrilled to see that, it being the middle of a work day for non-teacher-types, there were only one or two other dogs on the beach, so I could let Holly off the leash without fear of shenanigans. Or so I thought. Spoiler alert: I was wrong.

As soon as I let her off the leash, Holly bolted down the beach and into the tall grass at the edge of the sand. Given her general insanity, this was not, in-and-of itself, concerning. What was concerning, however, was the enormous seal that reared up out of the tall grass as Holly (uninhibited by it being at least three times bigger than her), pounced on it. From there ensued a terrifying and ludicrous dance between the three of us. Holly and the seal, which was startlingly agile, bounded around in tight circles, snapping their jaws terribly close to each other and making awful noises, while I sprinted across the beach screaming Holly's name, to no effect on anyone. As if that wasn't bad enough, as soon as I got close enough to have some hope that Holly would notice me and come to her senses, the seal noticed me as well, and charged at me with unfathomable speed. My rescue mission instantly became a frantic retreat, but only for a few seconds, as Holly capitalized on the seal's diverted attention to intensify her attack. As the seal charged back at her, I couldn't decide if I was worried that the seal was going to hurt Holly or if Holly was going to hurt the seal, and perhaps this confusion qualifies as a partial explanation for why I was stupid enough to get close enough again that the seal charged me again. Have I mentioned that it is very fast? Well, this time I stayed away, frantically calling my attack-crazed dog while she continued to ignore me and to escalate her battle with the seal.

At this point, a woman ran up with her dog and said, "It's going to hurt your dog! Who do we call?" I did not find the former comment helpful, but the latter was brilliant, given that I'd left my phone in my backpack, which I'd dropped when I saw the seal and was halfway down the beach. I said, "Animal Control" at random, since I don't even know if such a thing exists here, let alone what they would do about my dog and the seal. I instantly forgot all about the lady as I drowned in the unstoppable spectacle of what I was increasingly convinced was the end of Holly's life, when suddenly the seal landed a chomp on Holly's side, and my terror that she'd been hurt instantly turned to relief when I saw her running towards me - and more importantly, away from the seal - with only a slight limp. I grabbed her collar and almost made the mistake of checking her side when she apparently discovered that she was fine and lunged back towards the seal! What an idiot! Anyway, I hung on for dear life (hers, mine, or the seal's, take your pick), and hauled her back to my backpack, where I extricated her leash and put it back on her, resolving never to take it off again.

The nice lady caught up with me at that point and said she didn't call the authorities because they apparently already knew the seal was on the beach. She showed me a sign in the tall grass that said, "Warning, seals may bite, keep well clear." Thanks. So helpful at this point. Why it would not be placed at the entrance to the beach is beyond me.

Thankfully, Holly the Idiot seems to have suffered no damage as a result of her total stupidity. She did, however, have a drastically decreased amount of fun at the beach, given that I forced her to stay on the leash and far away from the seal for the rest of our walk.

You will see no pictures of Holly and the seal in their death battle, because I am (thank goodness), not the type of blogger who will take a picture first and futilely struggle to save her doomed dog second. However, I am the type of blogger who has a camera with good enough zoom to present you with this picture of the seal in all its glory.

I am disappointed with the lack of scale in this picture, which almost allows you to get the impression that this creature is not colossal.

I looked it up, and it seems that we encountered a New Zealand fur seal. On average, the males weigh about 126kgs (275lbs), which seems about right to me, although I must remind you that my estimating skills are terrible. See? Big!

I will say, however, that despite its enormity and ferocity, it is quite cute. I find it a bit silly that I can think that, but look at its lovely soft fuzziness and cute face! The general consensus online is that they are, in fact, adorable, and that they prefer to be docile, but that you should definitely keep clear because when they decide not to be docile, you don't want to be there. If someone could figure out how to tell Holly that, that would be great.

In case you were wondering, no. No, it is not common for fur seals to pop up on the beach in New Plymouth, although they do apparently have signs on hand for the occasion, so it can't be unheard of. It seems that they are much more common on the South Island and in parts of Australia. 

Conclusion: It was still a lovely day on a lovely beach, but I will be far more careful now that I know what could be around the corner.

And... Conclusion Part Two: Now that I'm over the terror of this whole experience, I am actually a bit thrilled at the idea that I live in a place where you can accidentally bump into a fur seal. I've never been able to say that before! 

How to Speak New Zillund

Well, J and I just got back from a wonderful holiday in Rotorua, and I am very excited to share all of the wonderful pictures we took with you. Unfortunately, my SD card reader just broke as I was in the process of uploading them. I didn't know something like an SD card reader could just stop working, but it did. Anyway, I'll get the problem fixed soon, but in the meantime, no pictures.

Fortunately, the mother of one of the children I taught in Whanganui gave me this picture. We have had some lovely conversations about the differences between Kiwi English and American English, which I always enjoy. She gave this to me because she thought I would get a kick out of it, and I'm passing it along to you for the same reason.

Most of the jokes are centered around the fact that Kiwis say their 'i's as 'u's, but it's still very funny. Sorry it doesn't quite fit neatly into the blog page, but I wanted it big enough for you to read it.

While I'm at it, I thought I'd add a few more Kiwi-isms that I've managed to forget in my other lists.

~ Chock-a-block (Extremely Full) - Actually more commonly shorted to "Chocka." Eg. "Sorry it took me so long at the bank, but it was chocka."

~ Pack a Wobbly (Throw a Fit) - Eg. "No, she's not hurt, she's just packing a wobbly."

~ Grizzle (Whine/Fuss - only for a child) - Eg. "She grizzled a bit on the train, but nothing too bad."

~ Whinge (Whine) - Rhymes with hinge. Eg. "Sometimes you just have to have a good whinge."

~ Bach (Small holiday house) - Pronounced batch. Eg. "They have a bach by the sea, so that's where they go every year."

~ Chemist (Pharmacist) - Eg. "No, you can't get that at the supermarket, you'll have to go to a chemist."

I promise to get those pictures uploaded soon, and I hope you enjoyed these in the meantime.