Feb 17 saw us visit the The National Aquarium of New Zealand, which is in Napier. This was a small aquarium with no large animals, but it was perfect for Sprout. He ran around with his cousin looking at fish and other animals. There was enough to keep me interested as well. The exhibits were excellent, and I liked that they had lots of local fish and animals. They also had some enormous eels which I though were cool.

There was a scuba diver that did a fish feeding show that was entertaining for the kids, but right next to that was a shark tank. This tank had a tunnel right through it which made for excellent viewing.

The first time I walked past the turtle tank I didn’t see anything. I didn’t think much of it, but the second time I went past the tank I saw the turtle tucked away in the corner. What a magnificent animal. As usual I was entranced by the animal and thankful to have experienced it, but I was also sad that it was captive there.

They also had Kiwi’s in a special habitat. Kiwi are nocturnal birds and would normally be sleeping. Their enclosure was darekened, but a red light enabled us to see two of them. They were walking around poking their beaks into the ground looking for food. Here is a really bad picture where you can almost make out a kiwi.

Outside we saw these huge Megaladon jaws. Everyone else was taking their pictures in them so we did too!

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On Feb 16 Sox and I got to check out the Napier Museum. It was an interesting little museum and I learned a lot about the big quake they had. Some of the stories told in the museum were haunting, and more than a little scary to think about since Victoria is overdue for an earthquake.

There were several different exhibits there, and one of the was called “Like: An Experiment In Interpretation”.

LIKE is a curatorial experiment that explores interpretation and translation across different artistic fields and media. This project was the initiative of Nelson based artist and curator, Stella Chrysostomou and it is framed as a scientific experiment into the processes of making.

The experiment began with the selection of an object that was simple and geometric but ambiguous in shape and function. This object was then described in written form by leading New Zealand poet, Bill Manhire. This description was then sent to nine national and international jewellers – Fran Allison, Andrea Daly, Peter Deckers, Karl Fritsch, Caroline Gore, Gavin Hitchings, Erik Kuiper, Sean O’Connell, and Lisa Walker – who were asked to interpret and ‘decipher’ the object based on Manhire’s text. This exhibition presents the original object along with the resulting pieces made by the nine jewellers, and Bill Manhire’s text, in an intriguing display that encourages viewers to closely examine the creative process of object making.

Basically a poem was interpreted by some jewelry makers and turned into a physical object. The poem itself was interesting and complicated. It begged for interpretation, and the jewellers did an excellent job with their creations.

Since this was our last week in New Zealand our hosts were helping ensure that we got the most out of the week that we could. One thing we hadn’t experience were fresh New Zealand mussels. Green Lipped mussels actually.

These were prepared in a white wine curry sauce that was to die for. Add in some fresh baked bread to sop up the sauce, and we were happy, happy, happy.

Later, after the kids were in bed, Sox and I went for a little drive to the bluff lookout to see the sun set. It was a gorgeous location and the sunset didn’t disappoint. It was a little windy though, and I had left my tripod in the car since I was being lazy, and that definitely showed in my pictures. Many of them were thrown away.

After leaving Rotorua, we drove the Thermal Explorer Highway. I see that they name their highways like we do: with sometimes silly names. Along the way I saw lots of signs to geothermal tourist traps. There were steam vents, geysers, mud pools, etc. We were on a bit of a schedule, and didn’t want any extra stops. We were trying to get to Lake Taupo for lunch, but first a stop at the Aratiatia Rapids.

The owner of the Pohutu Lodge told Sox about this place. There is a dammed river where a few times a day they release a bunch of water turning the gentle stream into raging rapids. Our timing wasn’t perfect though and it was going to be tight on seeing the start of the show.

After we arrived we realized we had missed the start, but were going to be able to see the end. This turned out to be less spectacular than we anticipated. The raging rapids slowly returned to a gentle stream. I suspect the beginning of the show would have been interesting, but similar.

If you look closely in this last picture you can see where I took the pictures of Sox and Beet. There is a tiny looking fenced off area. This gives an idea of scope.

From the rapids it was an easy drive to Taupo where we stopped for lunch at Dixie Browns. I had an excellent Sea Food chowder with a side of garlic bread. From Taupo it was a quick an easy drive back to Napier. This was definitely the fastest and straighest sections of highway we saw in New Zealand.

Feb 15 was our last day in Rotorua. The plan was to visit the Whakarewarewa thermal village after packing up. This turned out to be a very interesting and informative tourist attraction. We thoroughly enjoyed it.

The tour showed us many parts of the village including some of the steam vents, the mud pools, the cooking areas, and the bathing areas.

We learned that the mud pools were too hot to sit and soak in, but the mud was excellent for therapeutic uses. It gets harvested in the winter when the mud is more pliant. It felt very primitive seeing the bubbling steaming mud pools.

The cooking pool was called the champagne pool. This is where they cook all their veggies. They are placed in the pool for a few minutes and pulled out when done. Obviously this means the water is extremely hot (120º). Scientists studied the pool and tried to measure its depth, but ran out of tape at over 50 metres (if I remember properly). This pool gets its name from its eruption. The ground shakes a little bit then the water level in the pool raises 4-5 inches then settles again. This is followed by lots of tiny bubbles rising through the pool.

Meat is cooked in boxes built over steam vents. Very simple to use. Cooking times were easy to remember. Corn in the water for 5 minutes, a whole frozen chicken in the steam box for 1 hour. Everything else was in between.

The carved houses were pretty amazing. Different parts of the house symbolized various parts of the body. The carvings also told of the family genealogy. The main house in the village was over 400 years old.

The baths were pretty amazing too. Some of the water from a hot pool was channelled to the bathing area and fed into the tubs. Through the open air process, the water cooled to 26º by the time it was in the tub. It was also filled with lots of minerals that refresh the skin. And they were outside. The communal baths overlooked a river, and you could either watch a sun rise or a sunset as you bathed. Breathtaking.

Then we got to see the Pohutu Geyser. This was a beautiful and amazing sight.

Finally, it was just bizzare to see steam rising from the ground in so many places. Front yards, streams, holes in the ground, even from some of the above ground graves. It was interesting to see how they use their environment in so many ways.

The guide we had in the village was awesome. He was full of lots of interesting information and had quite a sense of humour about him. I highly recommend this tour to others.

The New Zealand adventure has come to an end. I am sitting on my couch here in Victoria. I still have lots of posts to make still, but I had to mention that the past 27 hours have been a bit of a blur.

At 4pm New Zealand time we headed for the airport. At 7pm local time we were getting off the ferry (7pm Victoria is 4pm New Zealand). Around 8, both kids were in bed, and now I am just relaxing a bit before heading to bed.

Lots of fun, lots of memories. I am a little sad the adventure is over, but it is nice to be home.

Also on Feb 14, I found a medical clinic in Rotorua that fixed up my ear. Dr Allyson took a quick peek, then got a nurse to syringue out my ear. Some wax had gotten dislodged and was resting on my eardrum causing a strange imbalance in my hearing. This had happened to me several times as a child, but the first time as an adult.

A nurse pumped what felt like several cups of water through my ear while Sprout watched. He was very interested in what she was doing, but didn’t say a thing. Finally she got the wax out and I could immediately tell the difference.

After getting my hearing cleared up, Sprout and I bought Sox a Valentines Day gift. After nap time for Beet, Sprout got play time at a playground right down on the lake. Dinner at Breakers again, then back to the motel for bed time.

Feb 14 (Valentines Day), our destination was Skyline. We were going to take the gondola up, I was going to do a couple luge rides, then we would head back to the motel.

I didn’t mention it was 13° and raining. Still, I wanted to make sure I got at least 1 luge ride in. We ended up buying a pack of 3 luge rides since it was cheaper than buying 2.

I got my butt totally soaked, and froze on the return lift ride, but it was totally worth it. The luge ride was a blast. You sit on the little cart and follow a paved path down. Controlling the cart is easy and you can go as slow as you like. All first timers must go down the scenic loop which was lots of fun. On my second trip down I took the intermediate track. It was fun, but not as fun as the scenic loop. The intermediate is faster, but that meant you got to the bottom quicker. Sox used the third ticket to try it out.

When she returned, she convinced me Sprout would like it and that I should take him down, so I did.

Sprout had a blast and actually wanted me to go fast. At one point we caught another group of people. I pulled over and stopped to let them get ahead of us. Then we caught up to them again. Sprout started saying something so I pulled over and stopped, concerned that we were going too fast for him. He just wanted me to stop so we could catch them again 🙂

The lift ride up was fine, but I was worried he would fall. He was just sitting there on the seat with his legs crossed enjoying the view, asking me to move my arm (which I had behind him to hold on to him a little).

For his trip down he was given a couple tattoo’s. Luge Ranger, Fun Patrol. I did a terrible job putting those on.

In the cafe at the top we had coffee, tea, and snacks. Their coffee was amazing in my books.

Our original plan was to drive the Coromandel peninsula passing by Hot Water Beach. Before I left a coworker told me about Hot Water Beach and I had really been wanting to experience that. The Coromandel drive was shaping up to be at least 6 hours, provided that we returned to Waihi Beach. Since we couldn’t return there, we had to reorg.

The kids had had a few longs days in the car, so we thought we would do a shorter drive, and end up in Rotorua. This meant no Hot Water Beach, which really didn’t sound like a child friendly area. We hit the road at a little past 9:30.

Back on the 8th during swim at Waipatiki I got some water in my ear, and decided to hit the clinic before leaving town. No such luck there as their first free appointment was at 4:30.

We stopped in Tairua for lunch, and I checked out the local clinic to see if they would have time to fix up my ear. We were there for close to 1.5 hours, and yet they were closed for lunch the entire time. Not helpful. The kids got some time in the fresh air which was great for them.

From Tairua we backtracked a bit then headed west through the Coromandel Forest (yay we got to see at least part of it). In Thames we drove around the town a bit, and did get to see the Firth of Thames. The ocean water was very brackish that day, and very choppy.

From Thames it was south toward Rotorua. We passed through Tirau which had an infatuation with corrugated steel.

Once in Rotorua we had to find our way to our motel. While driving the car filled with a disgusting smell. I asked Sprout if he had tooted (passed gas), and he replied no. A few minutes later I smelled it again. I was starting to suspect one of the kids again when I remembered that Rotorua is laden with volcanic activity. Ahh, sulphur. The whole town periodically smells like rotten egg. Nice.

We found the Pohutu Lodge and settled in. Form this motel we could see the Pohutu Geyser which was pretty cool.

We asked the front desk where to go for dinner that was child friendly and they directed us to Breakers. Imagine Red Robbins, crossed with Kelseys, but with a surf theme. The other nicety here was that you prepay for your food. When you are done you can make a hasty or leisurely escape. Perfect.