Day 368: Te Puia

Te Puia is a centre for Maori arts, set in a geothermal area, with a gallery, various traditional Maori buildings and a nocturnal kiwi house.  I went there, sort of planning to draw and look at Maori carvings, but in the end the only one I drew was this koru design with a cicada skin resting on it on it.  It was the juxtaposition that interested me, the carving itself is a mere decoration on the post of an audio guide.  I wish it were a better drawing but it does sum up my experience of New Zealand forests: ferns and cicadas singing away.

I spent a long time sitting on top of a platform watching the geyser make its own mini weather system: blowing mists, pattering showers of water on rocks, and underneath all that, a dull thumping, like a heartbeat.  The mound deposited by the water is riddled with what look like mouse holes, but they are vents, ringed with yellow sulphur.


It's funny how sometimes our interest is not drawn principally by the things we came to see. In the cafe, on the parasol above my head there is a sparrow pattering and hopping around.  I can see its feet and tail sharply outlined on the canvas and a vaguer shadow of the rest.  A lady at the next table has remarked on how the sparrows are circling us and how she's glad they're not sharks. Then she went off into a comparison with the behaviour of sparrows in England's lake district. I looked at these ones and wondered if sparrows around the world are starting to evolve to be different.  Next thing I know two little sparrow heads are peering down over the edge of the parasol.  Another is sitting on the chair back opposite. It is fairly obese and doesn't look at all capable of the behaviour of the sparrows in Orkney, who seemed to want to become humming birds.  It's not that I didn't pay attention to the kiwi. One of the exciting things about Te Puia is the nocturnal kiwi house, which is just about the only way to realistically observe a kiwi at close quarters. You can really see how it pokes and prods with that crescent moon beak it's got, and how it looks like a pompom with legs from a whole lot of angles.


At Te Puia, you can see trainee carvers and weavers at work and some of their output, as well as a lot of excellent carvings all over the place.  I noted from one sign that a third of the curriculum on the carving course consisted of learning the iconography, which did not surprise me.  Also, the carvers here do not work under tapu.  That is interesting, because it gives them and their output a different status from the usual one.  I wondered if it was a situation that encouraged experimentation.  Sure enough, a few minutes later, I found myself in the gallery, looking at a very traditional appearing Maori ancestor carrying, instead of the usual axe of paddle, a long rifle, with the metal parts exquisitely carved in bone.  I don't know if that has anything to do with tapu but it was an interesting departure from tradition.

Day 366: 2nd year of travel?

Ozzlie the Tasmanian Tiger being
helpful (see below)

I believe we've been travelling for a year today, so it must be day 366, even though I seem to have lost some days somewhere.  If anyone is clever enough to notice it was a leap year, I have also allowed for the day we lost as we crossed the Pacific.  Anyway, on to other things.

Today was a long day that started at the house we left in Okiato and ended in Rotorua.  Over 450 kilometres through sections of New Zealand that have population densities approaching those of Europe, on roads that were meant for low population densities.  After I left Mike and Antonia at Auckland airport I did the second half of the journey in a daze.  It is always hard to drive with a handheld gps on one's knee to do the navigating.  Mine has the creative routing skills of a child and it is always worth second-guessing it, but that is a yet another thing to do, so I didn't.  Eventually, Ireached Rotorua. I had forgotten how much the places stinks - of sulphur technically, but it might just as well be rotten eggs.  It comes in gusts too, so that you can't even get used to it. 

By 6pm, it felt like at least 9pm.  I had no intention of drinking Rotorua's tap water given the pungency of its air and I was suddenly becoming conscious of the fact that I'd had next to nothing to drink all day.  I set off walking to Hell's Pizza which was just round the corner, slowly realised how big the corner was and went back for my car.  I sat and waited for my pizza wondering if I would pass out from dehydration.  Then I drove to the supermarket, which is about a mile away just across the street and bought a ten litre jerry can of water.  I think I was so thirsty that it looked like just enough. 

Somehow, I hauled the ten litres of water, the pizza and the salad up to my room.  I tried to open my jerry can of water, because drinking its contents was my top priority and discovered to my dismay that the cap was designed to be removed by big strong guys who are not dying of thirst.  I wondered if I would die before I could get help, then, amazingly enough the cap came off.  I decanted a glass of water, and started trying to fit my jerrycan into the fridge.  I removed the fridge shelves, but there was still no way!  I decided to give up before the bottle split and spilled nearly ten litres of water all over the floor.  Two more glasses of water later and it was time to attack the pizza, well, guzzle is maybe more the right word. 

At some point later on I started to notice that Hell's Pizzas are really pretty good and that I have very good taste in toppings. Immediately after, I realised that if I passed out now, it would be exhaustion rather than thirst or hunger so it was safe to do so.  I put Ozzlie, my tasmanian tiger Antonia gave me for my birthday on my pillow and went to bed.

Day 360: Sailing Day

Mike booked us a one-day sailing class/outing which was really way outside our budget but was still a lot of fun. We had both done some sailing as children, but we have forgotten most of what we knew.

We turned up at the dock at 9.30am and found that the lady taking us out grew up in Maryland, near Mike.  She sails around with her husband and two children and they live full-time on their boat so we had a lot to talk about.  Our plan was to take out a small sail boat (not hers, a smaller one), to an island on the far side of our peninsula, picnic there and head back. In the meantime, we are supposed to learn as much about sailing as possible.  Our first difficulty was to round the peninsula with the tide against us and very little wind.  Our second difficulty, once we did get into wind, is that the shape of the land makes it very gusty and changeable.  I had the helm (well, sometimes Mike was chatting and I kind of had everything!) and I wasn't super-comfortable with the boat's sudden changes of speed and angle.  I remember from sailing on the Med. that conditions were much more even, at least when our friend used to take us out.

Anyway, we made it to this island and went ashore in a very light plastic row boat that's very nasty to row or get in and out of and which I christened Ocean Detritus, because it didn't have a name, and that one was suitable. After a quick stroll on the island, we started heading back and when we rounded back into the channel between our peninsula and the mainland we found that both the wind and the tide were against us.  We tacked and tacked, only to remain where we were.  So we brought the sails down and motored back.  The lady who took us out was a bit disappointed by this, but it was the only way we were getting back before 7pm.  She had a race at 5pm, Antonia and I were exhausted by now, and Mike's steering at the helm had become, let's just say 'exciting'!

Day 358: Recorders and kayaks

This was a big day for of firsts for Antonia.  We drove over past Kerikeri to join in our friend's recorder group for one session.  Antonia has been learning the recorder (and how to read music) but this is the first time she played in any kind of group situation.  It really says a lot for her progress that she was able to sight read music well enough and fast enough to join in and well enough to pick up the thread if she got lost.  Her biggest problem was that there is still one note that turned up often that she doesn't know, and a couple of accidentals that she's lost on also.  It was a pretty challenging experience for her, but she did well.

After this, we went over to our friends' house in Kerikeri and took their kayaks out.  This was Antonia's first time in charge of any kind of boat all by herself.  People who know her will be interested to hear that she kayaks like she skis: as fast as possible, with limited steering control!

We went out for dinner to a restaurant in Kerikeri which was fabulous and enjoyed it so much that we missed the last ferry back.  With the ferry, we would have been about half an hour from home.  Without it, we had to drive south along the mainland for about 60 kms, then turn north back along our peninsula for nearly the same distance.  We had to drive through the forest on our peninsula over dirt track.  We got home about midnight, having seen a whole lot of possums and collapsed into bed.

Day 356: Circular walk with two ferries

Us posing on a mangrove boardwalk - Antonia and I are looking bored and resigned because it is the fourth time we've done this.  Mike is looking really excited and in to what he's doing.

 Today, for once it isn't raining, so we set off on a long circular hike from our house through forests and mangrove swamps over to Russell.  There we caught the ferry to Paihia, returned to Opua along the beach and more mangroves and caught the ferry back to Okiato.  It started raining when we about halfway along this last section, so Antonia and I got soaked while Mike destroyed his umbrella.  Lucky it isn't cold here!  The highlights of the walk were the fantail couples following us through the forest, the boardwalks over the mangrove swamps and the sailing boats all over the place.  It was nice to get back and into a nice warm bath, as if I wasn't wet enough already. 

Beautiful old style sailing ship seen from the ferry

Day 355: Waitangi Treaty Grounds

This afternoon, we went over to the Waitangi Treaty grounds.  The Waitangi Treaty marks the birth of New Zealand as a nation, so as Mike rightly pointed out, this is sort of the equivalent of the National Park in central Philadelphia where the United States were formed.  It's an interesting contrast.  The treaty grounds are in open countryside, with occasional homes and small communities.  They are composed of a mixture of fern forest and lawns with the sea at one side.  They contain two houses, the governor's house, representing the Europeans and the Whare Runanga, representing the Maori.  Some distance away is a large, open canoe house containing Ngatokimatawhaorua, a canoe of impressive proportions.  There is a small display of traditional Maori domestic architechture, a flagstaff and a visitor's centre and cafe.

Antonia went to see a cultural performance of Maori song and dance and I took a guided tour that focused on the significance of Maori carvings, mostly in the canoe house and Whare Runanga.  This was very interesting, and I now know what I am looking at when I see Maori carvings.  The main figure almost always represents an ancestor, often the founder of a lineages.  Additional figures may represent descendants in a general sense (that is, they are not named).  The detailed iconography of the carving varies since it may refer to events in the ancestor's life, his or her personality or characteristics, or tendencies associated with the tribe. Of course I wouldn't know what these details meant in a carving I haven't had explained to me, but I would know what sort of things the parts of the carving would generally refer to.

Days 348 - 354: Bay of Islands in the rain

We arrived in the Bay of Islands after a very long day of driving and settled in.  During the night it began to rain.  It rained and it rained, for days and days.  At night, we were kept awake by wind and rain.  On the news, Northland is flooded and roads are impassable, quite close to where we are.  This is the most rain we've experienced on our whole trip.  Oh well.  We are using the opportunity to get on with our work and studies respectively.  And also to watch television.  Television in New Zealand is interesting.  Most of the programmes are appalling, they are just imports from the UK or USA, or even Australia, and not always the best quality of import at that.  But the news is actually good. People discuss issues and raise points on it in a calm and reasoned manner.  Hmmm...




There are some other things about life in New Zealand that are interesting. In New Zealand, you don't find (at least not as much): dish-washers, dryers, bathtubs, ridiculously huge houses.... or insulation. So it's kind of a mix of the mostly good and not so good as far as carbon footprints are concerned.  In Northland, the Bay of Islands area, many people are on rain tanks for water as they were in Tasmania, but this isn't typical of the country as a whole.  At the moment we are staying in a house that has rain tanks and a bathtub, and we are using the latter because the former are overflowing.