North Island Final Part

Rotorua
This was my favorite place so far. It's a town Santa Cruz size on a lake with a volcano in the middle and lots of geothermal activity all over. There are steam and hot pools, bubbling mud and stinky fumes throughout the town. The local museum is fantastic. It is also a center for Maori culture so we got to have some experience of that as well.

Dave by the steam. People have vents in their homes and backyards.

More thermal fun

Dave and I walked all over the town. Besides all the thermal sites we walked through a small Maori village and visited the church and traditional meeting house there. The church is an intricate combination of Western and Maori design.

Maori carving from the church pews

The Maori meeting house in the village.

We also spent a lot of time at the Rotorua museum. This is yet another amazing Kiwi museum. It has exhibits on the history of the building which started out as a spa, culture and history of Maori in the area and general local history as well. We had a guided tour with a man who knew everything, he was excellent, and humble as can be in the Kiwi way. We brought Anika the next day to do a scavenger hunt and see the art collection. We learned about NZ impressionist artists.

We also did one of those touristy things that is actually worth doing. We went to a Maori concert and Hongi (feast). It is a bet like a luau. You take a bus out to the village site. The bus driver was one of the best parts of the experience. He was so funny and entertaining. He did a monologue using 61 different languages to say welcome and imitate accents and cultural stereo types. On the way back he asked us to sing songs representing our countries (we did "This land is Your Land"). When you get to the village they do a traditional dance to check you out and then a woman sings the welcome song. You walk into a model village form the past where different Maori people demonstrate and explain their traditions. You can try poi balls, stick games, dancing the Haka ( the all male war dance also used for sizing up the guests) weaving and story telling. I have great photos of Dave learning the Haka and competing in a stick game. After that there is a concert with stories, songs and dance. This is followed by a film filing in any gaps in local Maori history and taking it to the present. Last you have a dinner buffet with food cooked the traditional way in a hole in the ground. It ends with singing and speeches. and the bus ride home as fun as the ride there. I loved learning about Maori culture form Maori people.

Cable car and view of Wellington

Wellington
This is supposed to be the artsy city of NZ but we didn't really get to see it. The weather is notoriously bad here and we got to experience that. Howling wind, rain and cold. I was glad for the silk long underwear I got in Japan. We went to the Te Papa national museum, another amazing museum. They really know how to do museums here. On our one good weather day we walked the waterfront which has outdoor art and great views. We also took the cable car (not as cool as SF's) to the botanical garden and walked around. We explored the downtown area pretty well but I wish we had better weather and more time to get to know the city well.

We took the ferry from Wellington to Pictonon the South Island. It is a three and half hour ride on a huge ship. We shared the boat with many sheep heading south.

The sheep

As you leave the port you face a wall of containers. This sight was significant to me because one of the things I am noticing around the world is the effects of our international consumer culture. Every where owning stuff is becoming more and more important often pushing away local products, art forms and traditions, redirecting the focus from community to commodity. All over the world we are seeing people wanting to have more stuff at the same time as the stuff.  I am not talking about food, indoor plumbing  or medicines here but plastic toys, bigger and bigger TVs, always a better computer and all kinds of electronics. We need to face that things do not necessarily improve our lives. I am seriously questioning free trade as we watch it make rich people richer and poor people poorer.

I would have liked to include many more picture here but the broadband all over NZ is so slow it takes forever to load a photo. Maybe in South America it will be better and I can add some.

Hope everyone had a good Christmas and/or Hanukkah! I will let you know about ours in my next blog. We are now in Nelson on the South Island and loving it.