Smells, stones and stuck

I've been to a few more towns after leaving Taupo. I've been to Rotaruro (I've forgotten how to spell it - again. I've been trying for the past 5 mins but somewhere along the line it never looks right), Waitomo, Thames and now Whitianga.

One thing I need to teach you is how to speak a wee bit Maori. 'hangi' and 'hungi' are 2 different things. The first 'hangi' is a very delicious meal, 'hungi' is nose in Maori but they both sound the same to the untrained ear. Also 'wh' in Maori is said 'f'. Therefore Whitianga is pronounced 'fitianga' and 'Whakapapa' is pronounced 'fuckkapapa'.

I went to Rotaruro on monday last week. The first thing you notice is the smell that comes with the beautiful scenery. It is a lot more volcanic than Taupo. I thought it was intriguing that in Taupo the lake had hot spots on the edge that could burn you and an area out of town had steaming pools of water and mud. When I got to Rotorua (I've just asked someone the correct spelling) the backgardens of some people's houses have pools heated by thermal activity, there are whiffs of boiled eggs (very strong whiffs) as you walk down the street and not always in the same place. This smell gets worse as you head towards steaming jets of cloud. These jets don't occur out of town alone; jets of ponging eggs pour out pits in the local park, backgardens, drains and anywhere it can. Amazing was the local park where you can stare at these jets and see the local authority doing it's best to keep up with the multiple jets appearing every so often. Barriers go around each jet and sometimes a barrier is joined onto another barrier to shut out another jet thats appeared beside an existing one. More jets are appearing in the grass and you know more barriers will be round them soon. You are told not to walk on the grass but stick to the path (not always followed - ahem) as you can get burned or disappear in a loose bit of sod! You head to the edge of the lake and go through Maori town. It looks like a shanty town as the houses are bare boards and trailer vans, ram-shackle buildings beside imported houses. The sewage runs down the gutter as it cannot go underground as the ground beneath is so hot. There are graves in backgardens. This seems ok if the graves were not tombs; graves here cannot be buried as they would be cooked so pipes beneath take the steam away and the tombs sit above ground. At the Maori-Catholic church it's Tudor-like style on the outside but inside it is covered with Maori art on the walls, pews, alter, windows, everything! This church is right beside the local meeting house (which name in Maori I've forgotten) and all of the local icons. All around the church are tombs above ground with more steaming pipes to stop the bodies from cooking as much as they will be doing on this volcanic ground. All around the the lake there are sights of volcanic activity from steaming jets to sulphur deposits or copper deposits etc. The drains smoke, back gardens are filled with bubbling pools of water, smoke rises from the lake, drains, water or dry ground! As you can guess I was quite impressed and in awe from it all.

The first night I was there I went to a Maori festival night. It is held every night to allow tourists and others to see Maori dances, performances and eat a hangi. The performance was great, the Maori chief on stage was the son of the actual chief, who'd been called away that day, he was 17 but acted and seemed a lot older but the art (now put on by ink stamps not engraved on as of old) that the actors (of average age 16) were wearing. All of them spoke fluent Maori and had jokes between them on stage in Maori so no-one understood exactly what was meant. The meal was amazing - chicken, lamb, potatoes, kumara, vegetables and stuffing from the hangi. salad and desserts were also on offer but do not get cooked below ground. Maori food is the sweet potato - kumara. They love our food and eat as we (westerners) do. Having had my fill of food - I was very tired and slept very well that night. I haven't eaten that much for a very, very, very long time!!!

The next day I got up early and went to Waitomo. It is a very small town (one street of a few yards) but that is not what everyone goes for. The caves - limestone caves below the surface is where a lot of adventures happen. The bus getting there was late (it had a new driver) and the trip which I was booked on did not wait due to miscommunication from the driver. I lost my deposit but the owner of the bus company got me on another trip and paid my deposit - so nice of him! This trip was black-water rafting and I had brought my cosie with me for the other trip anyway. Black-water rafting is not as scary as it's above ground whiter sibling. It involves, being pulled along on a black rubber ring in freezing water under the surface of the earth. I volunteered to go first as no other girl was fast enough or brave enough to do it and the girls were to go first I think to scare them! I didn't work! I went into the depths of the hills first strapped inside a black wetsuit with a red hard-hat and white gumboots (wellingtons) - yes it did look like a marsian landing in the light of the outside day. We trudged through water, mud, rock etc and got pulled along sitting on our rings through v. cold water or swam using our rings for support watching glowworms or singing in the pitch black (head lights out)! As the first in the group whenever any of the scary stuff happened I was first to do it! So when we were told to stand looking back and fall backwards off a ledge into the water below with the ring below us I was frist to do it. It is a lot scarier than it sounds especially as you can't guess what height is below you but it was great fun! And when told to slide down a chute on the ring and hope that you don't sink too much as you don't know the depth of water below I went first! All in all I was a very brave little cookie!

Getting away from the smell of Rotorua for a day was a blessing and I was glad to leave the next day after only 2 nights there because the smell which was ok for the first few hours I was in the town only got worse the longer I stayed there. I went to Thames the next day which is at the edge of the Coromandel. My clothes having been in Taupo and Rotorua smelt like BBQ but not as nice! Deo-spray is in great use till all my clothes get washed again over the next 2 weeks.

Thames is a nice little town on the edeg of the water and was quite cold. I used it as a place to wander along streets, sleep and catch up on resting as I hadn't rested much over the past week. 2 nights there and then onto Whitianga. In Thames I found out about 2 NZ icons. One was Buzzy Bee - I was told I had to see him???? The other is L&P - now I know what it stands for Lemon and Paeroa (the town it was made) I had been wondering for ages what it stood for! So I've come to Whitianga in time to spend a weeks here as I can't get a scenic flight to Whangarie till friday. So Anzac day (today) is spent in quiet computer typing! :-) One really bad thing about the scenic flight is that I've found out I can only take 15kgs on it. My bag having been 17kgs leaving London has increased considerably since then and now i've got to cut so much out. All old clothes, papers (including those sent to me) have now got to go so it's a wee bit of a hard week of fewer clothes as well!

One thing I forgot to say (I know - how can I have forgotten anything after all that's been written) is that I tried to do some Wwoofing but everywhere in this area is full! And as I'm here to stay for a week I can't go to another area and try it at an earlier date. So now I won't be able to do any Wwoofing unfortunately!