Day 2 - Auckland to Rotorua - Raindrops Keep Falling on Our Heads

Seat 11K 

OOOPS – we just discovered the image from the plane. In case you didn’t hear enough about the Air New Zealand trip here is Patricia’s seat 11K.

Anyway after a very long night in our beds we were up at the crack of dawn and went down for the breakfast that really was.  Our buffet!  We checked out and met Peter our driver and guide in the lobby.  Nice guy – late 60’s scuba dives, climbs mountains, used to be a teacher and school principal.  Good training for guiding us.

The good news – we are in an English speaking country

The Bad news – we haven’t a clue what Peter says half the time. Pat gets every other word, Maddi every other story.

The Green of New Zealand

This was a driving day but it gave us an amazing glimpse of how green and lush this country is. They have trees that were always here, trees that were brought in from all kinds of places and vines that kill trees and then become trees themselves.  They have trees that are so clever they grow up absolutely straight and when the branches fall off they take the knot with them so the lumber is “knot free”.  The Kauri tree, straight as an arrow with no waste and lasts forever as siding, just paint it every so often.

We saw all the most unusual animals like cows and sheep and horses! and a deer farm , some alpacas,  but the setting they were in was spectacular: hills everywhere, trees and ferns that give texture to the all the shades of green.  New Zealand has no indigenous grass – you would never know it by the never-ending carpet of the stuff that is everywhere.  The colors are so rich – even in the gray skies and rain.

We had fish and chips for lunch at an adequate little place in a 3 store strip mall and were introduced to the Island’s special treat called Hoky Poky Ice Cream: vanilla with these sweet crunchy caramel balls in it.  They know not of two chaps named Ben and Jerry. The Gilman/Ring rating - NWTC (Not Worth the Calories). 

The main reason we came to Rotorua was to experience some Maori culture, going to a Hangi dinner with typical Maori food and some entertainment.  Not knowing we needed to have reservations and not knowing we needed to be in Rotorua by 5PM, we decided to take the scenic route.  This gave is some beautiful scenery but we missed the dinner.  No Hangi for us. However, Rotorua Lake in the mist is beautiful. The Falls nearby are as well.  As nightfall approached we reached our motel (with a spectacular bathroom) and had a lovely Thai dinner.      

Yellow Kiwis

On the way to Roturua we stopped at an Open Pit Gold Mine.  HUGE pit goes down 12 stories, they don’t use it anymore but it was quite a hole.  Gold in NZ is in pits not alluvial (look it up, if you must).  Next we stopped at a Kiwi farm, not the birds the fruit. It seems they have developed a yellow kiwi, which is bigger and sweeter than the green ones.  We have not tasted it yet, not ripe enough, but we did steal a few from the ground and hope they are edible today.

Oh yes – in case today’s song title didn’t give you a clue – it rained on an off all day.  We learned a NZ saying  - if there is enough blue sky between the clouds to make a Dutchman’s pants (those balloony things) then it is clearing up.  Well, there was enough blue for some guy in Holland to get two new suits but it kept on raining anyway.