The morning brought yet a third perspective of the Huka Falls (1st - jet boat on the water, 2nd - helicopter above it, 3rd - pedestrian from aside). The Waikoto River system supplies eight hydro-electric stations and provides cooling water for two geothermal and one thermal station. These 11 stations produce 65% of the north island's power generation and approximately 25% of New Zealand's hydro power.
Upstream you can see where the Waikoto River is forced from 100 m wide and 4 m deep into a channel 15 m wide and 10 m deep.
The average daily flow over Huka Falls is 160 cubic meters per second.
From Taupo, we headed just up the road through forest and farmland to Rotorua, the heart of Maori culture, which dates back to the 10th century. Maoris are the indigenous people of New Zealand. The first stop of the day was zorbing in which people hurl themselves down a hill in a big plastic ball, inside of another plastic ball.
You can do a dry version (zorbit) in which you’re strapped into a harness and you roll down the hill head over heels (like Kate) or...
...you can do a wet version (zydro) in which you are soaked with a giant bucket of water and are free to roll, bounce, and flip down a zig-zag track.
My zorbing hopes were dashed when I just barely exceeded the weight limit for this activity. Despite several valiant attempts to persuade the staff, I did not get to zorb. Bummer! Ah well, next!
We went onto a skyline gondola and the world’s first commercial luging track! Skip, Skye, me, Liz, and Catherine ride up the gondola.
We got two rides down on the toboggan-like luges. The entire group did the scenic track the first go-around and moved up to the intermediate track for round two.
Everyone's anxiously awaiting the first ride down.
In all my showing-off brilliance, I was leading the pack on the intermediate track and determined not to allow a single person to pass me. I took the first curve with a bit too much speed and wiped out. I ran straight into the wall, flipped the luge sideways, and banged myself up – on quite possibly the least dangerous activity of them all. How ironic. How adventurous can a person be without a single bruise or scratch?!
And I wasn't the only one. Niv ran into a tree, and Sarah M was thrown off her luge when T rattled her handles as he flew past. Her injuries won out.
Skye holding up the line at the exit of the scenic track. She was in slow mode to appreciate the scenery.
After track one before riding the chair lift back up for round two.
We watched the luges as we rode the chair lift back up to the top.
We stopped by another marae before going heading to Te Puia. Here's the main meeting house.
And here's the marae's church.
Everywhere we looked, we saw steam rising out of the ground from the hot thermal springs.
Now it was time for a bit of culture. We went to Te Puia to sneak a glimpse of Maori culture including their heritage, settlement, customs, and traditions, along with their carving and weaving schools.
The main entrance to Te Puia was called Te Heketanga a Rangi and consisted of 12 monumental contemporary carvings reaching skywards, each representing a celestial guardian in Te Arawa culture.
Maori men were at work in the wood carving school.
And Maori women were at work in the weaving school.
We did wood rubbings of Maori designs (much like all their tattoos), similar to brass rubbings in the cultural center.
This set-up resembles hangi, the traditional way of cooking in this area in which food is laid atop rocks which are placed in the ground and heated naturally.
We also saw a live kiwi bird, which is New Zealand’s national symbol. It was huge - probably 18" in diameter and looked like a solid, giant soccer ball with a beak.
Most exciting for me were the natural wonders including hot springs, building sulphurous pools, silica terraces, bubbling mud pools, and geysers.
The Nga Mokai a Koko Mud Pool is a large pool of boiling mud, nicknamed “frog pool” by the Europeans likening the plopping mud to leaping frogs.
So you all know how much water I drink right? Look at my new talent!!
Pohutu geyser is 30-meters (100 feet) and shoots giant waves of water into the air. Pohutu means 'constant splashing', and true to form, this geyser erupts regularly, 2-3 times each hour. Intense heat from molten rock below boils seeping rainwater turning it into steam. Pressure increases inside an underground crevice until it is strong enough to shoot the water and stream upwards through the vent and up to 15 meters into the air. When the jet has died down the crevice fills with water again and the process repeats.
All this thermal water reeks of sulphur.
Yet another sample room.
The evening brought a continuation of culture with a Hangi dinner and Maori concert. Hangi is the traditional way of cooking food over hot rocks in pits in the ground for up to 4-5 hours.
Phil (left) from the Contiki group was chosen to be the chief for the evening.
The Maori haka is a war dance with a variety of cries and grunts with the whites of the eyes bulging out and the poking out of the tongue.
The audience was invited to participate in part of the concert. We girls practiced swinging ‘pois’ as we danced to the music.
The guys practiced being fierce with their haka (bulging eyes and protruded tongue).
Following dinner, we walked next door to the Polynesian Thermal Pools, which were naturally boiling hot.
There were multiple pools, each of varying temperature. I preferred the hotter pools but don’t think I ever tried the hottest one. The smell of sulphur was undeniable throughout the entire day but was most pungent with the steam of the thermal pools raising into our faces, but we endured the smell for the comfort of the pools.
Our group essentially overtook every pool we entered. This one is all us.
