The DougBlog
"Et sans savoir pourquoi, disent toujours: Allons!" —Baudelaire

Tuesday, November 23, 2010

Doug & Karen's Kiwi Adventure Part 2: Rotorua



After a few days in Auckland, we picked up our rental car to begin our north island road trip. The automobile itself was a Holden Epica. Has anyone ever heard of this car?!:

This wasn’t the first time I’ve driven on the left (intentionally) and I even surprised myself at how quickly I become adjusted to it now. Sure, there were a few minor incidences of turning into the wrong lane while onlooking Kiwis pointed and laughed with a knowing smile that said “tourist.” But mostly we were without incident. For some reason I was more humiliated by the fact that the turn signal and windshield wipers are reversed so every time I went to signal I instead turned on the wipers. Colleen will remember that pain from our time in Australia...but I digress.
Per Karen’s request we took a scenic route through the Coromandel peninsula, along the Pacific Coast Highway, ending up at the New Zealand surfing Mecca of Whangamata—a wide, sandy beach that was nearly empty when we arrived:

That didn’t preclude of from having our lunch on the beach, followed by the time in the day when we chilled:

Some local fauna and flora:


The most surprising discovery here was the public toilet that offered the most interesting and jazzy soundtrack for your bathroom activities. Click below to experience it for yourself:


Finally we arrived in Rotorua. This is the heart of both New Zealand’s geothermal activity and Maori culture. On the geothermal side, it’s a lot like Yellowstone: hot springs, geysers, boiling mud pots, and through it all the sweet stink of sulfur. We visited the Wai-O-Tapu Geothermal Wonderland because it’s said to be the most “intense” of the geothermal areas and we figured that with “Wonderland” in the name it’s gotta be good. Boiling water from deep in the earth leads to chemical reactions to create a spectrum of living colors:










Here’s Karen pretending to be a creature from the deep (not much of a stretch):


The boiling mud pots are especially hypnotic:



It was on a hike in this park that I began my love affair with koru. The silver fern is a ubiquitous plant in New Zealand and a frequent symbol. It can grow in all sorts of forms, from a low shrub to a tall version that looks like a palm tree. In all cases, new fronds are constantly “born” from the center of the plant. The new fronds come out in tightly-wound spirals that unfurl. Within each frond, the individual leaves are spiraled too. They’re quite striking. The Maori call these spirals “koru” and consider it a powerful symbol that you’ll see all over New Zealand (like the Air New Zealand logo). It symbolizes new life, growth, strength, peace, and harmony; the circular shape conveys perpetual movement while the inner coil suggests a return to the point of origin:



Speaking of the Maori, we also attended a hangi in Rotorua. Technically “hangi” refers to a cooking method where food is smoked underground. For tourists it means something more like a luau, where a traditionally-prepared hangi feast is accompanied by Maori performances. The Maori take the traditional aspects of the feast very seriously. When we arrived, the first order of business was for the group to elect a chief to represent ourselves. Karen promptly nominated me and I became Chief Doug! My roles would then include unearthing the hangi feast, accepting a peace offering from Maori warriors, making a speech to the Maori chief on behalf of all the guests, and engaging him in the hongi (not to be confused with hangi, hongi means “sharing of breath” and is the traditional Maori greeting that involves pressing your noses together twice). Yes, Karen would be warned to sleep with one eye open hereafter...

First I unearthed the feast and took the traditional first taste (which I pretended to enjoy despite the fact that it was my arch-enemy the sweet potato):



The Maori make their entrance by waka (canoe):


Me on my throne:


The Maori enter:


I am rapt with attention—I was coached on what to do (and what not to do) and warned to take it all very seriously:


The chief listens to my speech (with great suspicion):


The hongi:


Then I got to join Karen in a place of honor in the first row to enjoy the show:






I call this “Maori kibitzing”:


The big number is the haka, a posture dance intended to scare and challenge enemies—the All Blacks even perform it before every game:



CHOW TIME!


For the last part of the evening, we toured the Maori land including glow worms (more on them later...so cool) and this natural spring:


Here’s some video of the festivities with a special message from Karen at the end:


Rotorua itself had some nice gardens:




It was here that we caught our first glimpse of the Pukeko—the “other” national bird of New Zealand that you have a much higher likelihood of actually seeing (given that Kiwis are endangered and nocturnal):



Next up…we drive across the north island volcanoes of Tongariro National Park (home of “Mount Doom”) on our way to the capitol city of Wellington!! BUT BEFORE WE GO…A FEW PARTING SHOTS!



We found this genuine Maori artifact by the side of the road. So I peed behind it:


We never figured out what kind of tree this is but you see it all over. At first we thought they were cell towers because they look so unreal:


Delicious:


Next stop, Wellington!

Friday, November 19, 2010

Doug & Karen's Kiwi Adventure Part 1: Auckland


Okay, so there’s hasn’t been much blogging. That’s because there’s hasn’t been much that was blog-worthy, and it was a particularly busy summer. But now it is fall and time for my annual autumnal journey—and this year’s destination was New Zealand, accompanied by that wyniswoman deluxe, Karen Landes.

Why New Zealand? Why not?! Although its become more popular since The Lord of The Rings was filmed here it’s always been on my “top 10” list. It’s a small country but jam-packed with amazing and varied sights. I think a good example of this is the fact that, one night, I was going through my photos from the day and found these two photos one right after the other:


For a second I thought I must be missing a bunch of pictures but then I realized that was not the case at all: indeed I was hiking on a glacier and then on a beach only an hour later. What a crazy, beautiful place. I’ve had no time to blog on the run but now that I’m sitting in Christchurch Airport awaiting the first of my 3 flights home I’ll get started. Our first stop was Auckland, New Zealand’s largest city.

It’s a nice city. Although it is officially the “world’s largest Polynesian city” it doesn’t feel particularly exotic...it is however beautifully situated on top of 48 dormant volcanoes:


We visited the Auckland War Memorial Museum, which is, well, both a war memorial and a museum. It seemed like a good way to learn about the country we were about to explore. It’s a beautiful neoclassical building on an old volcano overlooking the city:



The coolest parts inside were the Maori crafts. The Maori are the native people of New Zealand, Polynesians who seem to have first discovered New Zealand around the year 950 and only started to come in large numbers in the 1300s (one reason New Zealand is so wild is because it’s only been inhabited for about 1000 years). The displays included these entire whare (houses):




You could go inside the biggest one to appreciate the intricate work:





The sticking-out of the tongue is a traditional Maori stance of challenge, as we saw in a demonstration thereafter:



The top floor of the museum is the war memorial:



Here’s Karen enjoying her lunch on the steps. For a skinny lady she sure does enjoy her food:


The Sky Tower is the most prominent building in Auckland and the tallest in the Southern Hemisphere:


Needless to say you can’t help but go to the top, and it does offer some impressive views:



Scary:



Karen dealing with High Anxiety:



The prominent volcano in the distance of the 4th photo back is Rangitoto, an island in the harbor. We took a ferry there the next day and climbed to the top over fields of lava:








The island is dotted with baches, cute little old huts that were used for vacation homes. They got their name because they were usually owned by bachelors when they went out a-huntin’ and a-fishin’:


Auckland is known as “The City of Sails” because it has more boats per citizen than any other:



Famous green-lipped mussels:


Next up…the Maori culture and geothermal wonderland of Rotorua!! BUT BEFORE WE GO…A FEW PARTING SHOTS!



Yes, they have Kiwis:


Proof that it’s spring on this side of the planet:


Karen and I shopped for food like our parents were away for the weekend:


So far from home, and yet so close:


Karen shows her pais as we pay homage to our peeps:


Class photos from a Maori school. Clearly the second year was a bad one:


This one speaks for itself:


Ditto:


Does Oklahoma City have a large boat registration department?!:


Finally, while I’m not usually a fan when airlines try to make their safety videos entertaining, Air New Zealand’s is actually pretty funny. It stars actual employees and members of the All Blacks, the country’s national rugby team (which in turn is their national sport). Click to play:


Next stop, Rotorua!