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New Zealand Travelog #31
Rotorua, NZ - Wed, 17 Apr 2024, 6pm
Today was another busy day, combining getting from point A to point B with several hiking treks. A and B were respectively, leaving the small motor lodge with natural hot spring pools and checking in to a nice hotel in Rotorua with views over Lake Rotorua.
In between those and with a route of 180km— which, at this point, is one of our easier days of driving— we did several things:
As with yesterday's busy day, I will followup with additional blog entries later to expand on these activities and share photos.
Rotorua, NZ - Wed, 17 Apr 2024, 6pm
Today was another busy day, combining getting from point A to point B with several hiking treks. A and B were respectively, leaving the small motor lodge with natural hot spring pools and checking in to a nice hotel in Rotorua with views over Lake Rotorua.
In between those and with a route of 180km— which, at this point, is one of our easier days of driving— we did several things:
- We hiked at Huka Falls, a park in the town of Taupo where the Waikato River draining Lake Taupo plunges over a small drop. What's impressive here isn't the height of the waterfall but the enormous amount of water pouring through it. The flow averages 200,000 liters per second.
- We also drove through Taupo, a resort town on the lake. It was very... resort-y. I looked at staying there when I was planning bookings for this trip, but the cheapest hotels were 2x what we spent on the old time-y, middle-of-nowhere one with hot springs.
- We visited Okere Falls, near the town of the same name. This park is home to not one but several waterfalls. We hiked a walking track that visited two of them then drove a short distance to a short hike for a third.
- Te Puia, on the edge of Rotorua, is both a geothermal park and a Maori cultural center. We walked around for a few hours, first with a guided tour group, then on our own, seeing the geothermal features and learning about Maori culture and history. We managed to time a viewing of the park's biggest geysers erupting as a pair late in the afternoon— and with literally nobody else around at the time!
- In terms of learning about Maori culture, we confirmed a wild notion we'd had since last week, "Hey, these Maori place-names read kind of like Hawaiian place names... they're both Polynesian; are they from the same people?" Yes! The Maori who settled in New Zealand, which they named Aotearoa in the 12th and 13th centuries CE, were seafaring people who explored from Taiwan to the Easter Islands to Hawaii to as far as South America before arriving here.
As with yesterday's busy day, I will followup with additional blog entries later to expand on these activities and share photos.
