Auckland to Rotorua

We had a full day today, for sure. But this first (actually, second) photo was taken yesterday, on the West Coast during the eco-tour. 

Now to move on: We left Auckland this morning and headed south through rolling hills to the Waitomo Caves, where we took a tour of the caves. One particular chamber looked like a cathedral; the stalagtites and stalagmites formed what looked like a pipe organ, and the ceiling arched high above. There have actually been concerts held there, especially at Christmas time, with an audience capacity of 200. That gives you some idea of the size of this chamber. After the walking tour, we boarded a boat and took an eerily quiet ride along the underground river to view the glow worms on the cave ceilings overhead. It was like looking up at the sky on a crystal-clear night and watching the stars, except the glow worms were much more thickly grouped than the stars. 

After leaving the caves, we continued south and then turned east to Rotorua. This is where we are spending the night...with much more reasonable internet connection fees than we faced in Auckland, by the way. Rotorua is a Maori resort town. The Maori were the first settlers of New Zealand, way back many hundreds of years ago. No one knows for certain what part of the South Pacific they came from, but a Maori guide told us this afternoon, with certainty on his part, that they immigrated from Tahiti. He feels certain about this because the Maori and the Tahitian languages are so similar. They would have arrived in New Zealand by boat, of course, and its hard to imagine how ancient man found the courage to sail the South Pacific for hundreds of miles in open boats.

We stopped at Rotorua's geothermal park to view the geysers and bubbling mud pools, then continued on to our hotel. (Shoot. I just uploaded the photo of the geyser, but it isn't placed on this entry where I'd thought it would be.) Well, anyway, the geysers and mudpools were fascinating, and the smell of sulphur in the air was strong. This place was like a mini Yellowstone...a mini-mini-mini Yellowstone, actually.

Tomorrow we'll tour this area, then around noontime we'll fly to the South Island to Queenstown. Saturday it's on to Christchurch, then Sunday is the big day: We fly to Australia!

It's much cooler here in Rotorua this evening than we've been used to since arriving in NZ. The tour guide advised us to dress in layers tomorrow, which is quite a switch. 

Let's see if I have another photo or two to share:

Yup, I should have known it: the last photo I added has just crowded the other two aside, so it's now the first one you see. I need to learn how to use Blogger, apparently. 

One final interesting tidbit: Bills here aren't made of paper; they're made of polymer. I didn't even notice this until someone pointed it out. They're expected to last much longer than paper money. 

Oh, another thing. I guess I'm even more tired than I thought, because I almost forgot to tell you about this evening. We had a "Hangi" dinner and concert, put on by the Maoris. The food, which had been prepared the Maori way, was plentiful, but it was the concert that we especially enjoyed. Several Maoris sang and danced. Their voices were powerful and their dancing expertly synchronized. 

I guess that's all for Tuesday, March whatever.