Wellington, New Zealand

We spent the day doing traditional touristy stuff in Wellington, the capitol of New Zealand. A fair amount of walking was involved in the same weather we’ve been seeing since our arrival: partly cloudy, windy and temperatures in the low to mid 60s. The pavement was wet when we hit the road this morning but that’s about as close to rain as we’ve come. We’re keeping our fingers crossed for tomorrow when we cross the Cook Strait from North Island to South.

First stop: The Beehive, New Zealand’s concrete structure that looks like a beehive and is the capitol building. We had a guided tour by a nice lady who gave us details of New Zealand’s governmental structure and much history about New Zealand and its governance.

Government here is, she told us quite proudly, modeled after Westminster, the UK’s parliamentary system – a constitutional monarchy. Calling it a monarchy is a bit of a stretch since New Zealand no longer has any direct ties with the Queen’s government, but old habits die hard I guess. Actually, the Prime Minister recommends a Secretary General candidate to the Queen of New Zealand, a job held down by the Queen of England. Don’t ask me, I just tourist here.

New Zealand also has a unicameral government structure. There used to be the equivalent of the House of Lords – the Legislative Council – but that do-nothing body got in the way of efficient government and a brave Prime Minister appointed 29 new members – the suicide squad, it was called – in 1950 to the Legislative Council who, upon assuming office approved a bill from the House of Representatives that did away with the body entirely. Hmmm . . . do away with do-nothing governmental bodies? What an idea!

One interesting aspect of the process here is that after a bill is approved at its first reading it is assigned to a Select Committee for further review, analysis and modification. At this stage members of the public can appear before the Committee and give testimony. The bill is reported out of the Committee for a second reading. If it passes, the House of Representatives, acting as a committee of the whole, debates it further and then takes the third reading vote. If passed it is presented to the Secretary General for signature or, theoretically, disapproval. No Secretary General has ever disapproved a bill, however.

But enough of New Zealand politics. Everywhere we go in New Zealand folks who dare be so bold comment on our upcoming election, shaking their heads and showing great sympathy for a people who suffer such an indignity as our current pair of candidates. The only real opinion anyone has expressed to us so far was by our tour guide, a 50-ish lady who said, “I must say that the idea of Trump becoming President scares me.” But that’s a sample of only one. (I, Judy, had a discussion yesterday with a lady from England who expressed the same opinion.)

After the Beehive we made a quick swing by Old St. Paul’s church, interesting to us for two reasons: a) it’s an 1860 wooden structure that has somehow escaped burning to the ground and b) U.S. soldiers worshiped here while stationed in Wellington to defend New Zealand from feered Japanese invasion.

From there we found our way up the hill (everything in Wellington is either up or down the hill; there are no flat spots) to the Bolton Street Memorial Park, the final resting place for some of Wellington’s elite, including Ric***********, New Zealand’s longest serving Prime Minister. He was a staunch British loyalist who liked to dress up in British military regalia. “King Dick” they used to call him we learned later at the Te Papa museum.

The burial grounds connected to the Botanical Gardens. We passed through a corner of the gardens but were worried about having enough time at the museum so we took a short cut. This path led us to the Cable Car, which took us down the hill to near our hotel and on the way to the Te Papa. Sounds like a great time saver but we had to walk up the hill almost as far as the cable car took us down but the cable car is something any self respecting tourist must do so we did it.

We reached the Te Papa by walking along the waterfront, a pleasant stroll. We stopped at a storefront sandwich shop for a quick lunch.

The Te Papa is a relatively new museum, the national museum of New Zealand. And a fine museum it is – and free!. We started on the fourth floor, which is dedicated to Maori subject matter. The displays trace Polynesian arrival, inter-tribal warfare, the invasion by the British and other Europeans and the conflicts and at least partial resolution that came about after the 1840 Treaty of Waitangi. We learned that there have been resolution of some land and other claims in the recent past but other claims are outstanding. Claim 262 has to do with intellectual property rights, including Maori claims to knowledge related to plants and animals. I don’t pretend to understand the ins and outs of this subject nor where the inquiry stands, but it gives you an idea of the complexity of the process.

The other striking display at the museum, taking up almost all of one floor, has to do with New Zealand’s role in World War I and in particular New Zealand’s initial campaign in Turkey in the Gallipoli campaign. New Zealand had more than 16,000 killed and 40,000 wounded for a 58% casualty rate in all of WWI. Particularly moving were the 2.4 times life sized figures depicting actual New Zealand participants in the Gallipoli campaign. The war had a lasting impact on the people of New Zealand and this display was a testimony to the deep level of feeling that remains to this day.

One other factoid from the Te Papa: before the Polynesians arrived New Zealand’s grass land comprised 5% of the total land area. Today it is over 50%. The Maoris and Europeans cut and burned the landscape to make room, ultimately, for sheep and cows.

Then, finally, supper at what Google told me was the closest sea food restaurant – the Crab Shack, a chain of such establishments. Our waiter talked us into a kilo of crabs. Figuring that seasoned lobster shuckers like us would have no problem, we dug in. But what a job it turned out to be. Lots of cracking and picking for little scrids of meat. No tails and claws, just legs. But I liked it (Judy not so much) and at least we have bragging rights.

So to bed and up for the 9 AM ferry tomorrow. The adventure continues.

Wellington, New Zealand

One of the greatest contributions of the Twentieth Century, right up there with sliced bread, night baseball and the iPod, is the collapsable passenger-side rearview mirror. So there I am, circling our Wellington hotel like an old hound dog looking for his bed after the GPS gal said “right” when she meant “left”. The streets are narrow, winding and on the side of a mountain. Traffic is heavy and cars are parked on both sides of the street. Judy sucks in her breath, but it is too late. THWAK. Her rearview mirror collapses, harmlessly to the side of the car. Thankfully, no damage done (at least to our car; I never saw what we hit) and one slight wrong turn later, we’re parked in our hotel’s parking area. “Judy, I need a beer and a burger” was my comment as I switched off the ignition.

That was the end of a long but rewarding day. It turned out to be about seven hours of driving (including photo stops, gas, ice cream and you-know-what) and four hours of unexpected adventure on Mount Ruapehu in the Tongariro National Park, an hour or so south of Taupo. This was one of three long driving days in this trip.

We had planned a quick stop in the park, hoping for at most a two-hour hike followed by High Tea at the chateau. But when we stopped at the visitor’s center to ask directions, we were given a second option: a ride up the ski lifts that would take us to the chalet half way up the mountain. The day was beautiful so we pushed on up the hill and took a twenty-minute ride through fairly brisk and somewhat windy weather – probably near freezing at the chalet. The views, as you can see in the pictures, were magnificent.

There were even some die-hard spring skiiers out today. They rode the lifts we used but from there they had to slog on foot to the summit to reach skiable snow. I don’t know anyone who loves skiing that much. Wait a minute, yes I do . . . the Longo boys!

Unfortunately we dawdeled too long on the mountain so our hike turned out to be only an hour and we never made the waterfall at the midpoint of the loop. But we did have two nice phone conversations with Rebecca, Esme, Griffin and Kevin. The first call was from the chair lift as we made our way down. The kids were still trick or treating so we didn’t talk too long. Later, on our hike we completed our conversation.

High tea tasted great – scones with cream and jam plus hot chocolate but we missed on the ambiance department. Rather than going to the hotel’s main lobby where high tea with all the linen napkins and mountain views were to be had, we instead stumbled into the coffee shop. Same grub but not the full experience.Next time we will read the sign out front before committing to the coffee shop.

From there it was a five-plus hour drive through some spectacular countryside, twisting mountain roads with fresh views at every turn. As usual, the driving was as interesting as the sightseeing stop at the park.

Coming into Wellington is like entering any big city. Plenty of traffic but it moved along ok and until we hit the little kafuffel finding the hotel everything went without a hitch.

We checked in, got our bags and found the burger and beer I had my mind set on. We’re now in the room. I’m typing and Judy’s plotting our movements for tomorrow. On foot, I can guarantee you that!

Taupo, New Zealand

Yesterday afternoon Judy and I agreed on three objectives for today, Halloween:

1. Pay no entrance fees for any activity whatsoever. No tours, no pay-per-view geysers, no commercial caves.

2. A low key, somewhat relaxing day. We’ve been on the go for seven straight days (or 28-day trip is now one-fourth complete). It’s hard to believe. On the one hand it’s hard to believe we’re 1/4 done. On the other, arriving in Auckland seems like several weeks ago, not five days. But it’s time for us old foggies to act our age. And besides, we’ve got a six-hour drive to Wellington tomorrow and would like to spend three hours or so in Tongairo National Park on the way. Tongairo is home to three volcanic mountain peaks. One was snow covered this morning so we probably can’t summit, having left our pitons and ice boots at home.

3. Do the laundry. Did I ever mention that Judy is a sainte? She is.

4. Get to bed before 11 PM, which is why I’m typing this at 5 PM. When laundry’s done we’ll head into town and get some grub. We saw a place last night that advertises Authentic New Zealand cuisine, including venison. We’ll need to check that out.

So we slept in until 7:30, had muffins and juice in our room which, incidentally, looks out on Lake Taupo with views of the aforementioned volcano peaks to the south. We also talked with Jeff and had a great conversation with Reagan. This trip brings back fond memories for all three of us when we went to Normandy and Paris last year. Wish we had a grandkid or two along on this trip – they’d all enjoy it.

As to Objective 1, we technically achieved the no-fee goal. Here’s what we did:

1. Drove to the Aratiatia Dam, a hydro project where they open the dam three times a day (four times a day during summer months). There’s a big flood of water that lasts for 15 minutes, filling an otherwise empty river into Class 5 rapids. Why they open it when they do is a mystery to me. Why three times a day (four in the summer)? Is it to provide peak power during daylight hours, especially Summer afternoons when everyone has their airconditioners running? Or is it to satisfy tourists’ need for something to take selfies in front of? Or do they just need to empty the lake behind the dam every so often? Whatever the reason, it made for some pretty pictures.

Cost: $0

2. Hiked five miles from the Dam to Huka falls. It took us over 3 hours; they advertise it as a two-hour trip but I took 275 pictures and Judy shot enough video to make a full-length Hobbit movie.

Cost: $0

3. The hike ended at Huka Falls. If you think Aratiatia was something you ought to see Huka Falls. Rushing water before at and after the falls proper. See the pictures. Pretty spectacular.

Cost: $0

4. Taxi ride back to the car at the dam. We’d thought of hiking into town (another five miles) and getting a taxi back to our car but decided it was 2 PM, we were hungry and hey, we’re supposed to be relaxing today.

Entrance Fee: $0
The taxi did charge a $35 exit fee, but our goal was $0 ENTRANCE fee, right?

5. We drove to the Prawn Park, a commercial enterprise where you can catch, cook and eat your very own prawns. They have numerous big tanks full of prawn (sorta like a fresh water shrimp) where you fish. You can even drive golf balls to kill the prawns; I didn’t investigate how exactly that works, but they had full bags of rightie and leftie clubs. Unfortunately, because of our $0 entrance fee pledge, we could only eat in the restaurant.

Cost: $0
Excluding the lunch tab for deep fried prawns and prawns in a curry sauce.

6. Wallowing in warm sand in front of our hotel. Our room is about 10 meters from Lake Taupo. The sandy beach is called a warm beach because thermal water flows through it. It’s scalding hot if you dig too deep. Judy dug down, made a nice little nest and luxuriated in mud-covered splendor. After we both went in the hot pool to help our aching joints and muscles.

Cost: $0
Unfortunately, while the fee for the first wallower is $0, the fee for a second is more than I am willing to pay. I took pictures.

7. Laundry, nap and journaling. When the last load is done we’ll head into town for dinner.

Then, up at the crack of dawn and off to Wellington. By the way, the left-side driving thing is going well. As with jet lag, I was just about over it by Day 3. The only residual problems are that I still open the left door before I realize that the steering wheel is on the ledt and I still can’t remember that the turn signal is on the right. I wipe the windows instead of activating the turn signal but Judy says, “It happens less often.”

Note on tonight’s dinner: The Vine in downtown Taupo. Just a light supper, tapas style:

– Venison meatballs

– Braised portk belly

– Rack of lamb, shared

– Scallop and chorizo risoto

– Stickey date pudding with hokey pokey ice cream

It was the best meal in New Zealand so far and one of the best we’ve had anywhere in quite some time. I’m calling Air New Zealand in the morning and reserving two more seats for the flight home. We’ll overflow into a second seat if we keep eating like this.

Taupo, New Zealand

The big insight for today came over breakfast with our Rotoura hosts Peter and Mike. I mentioned my conversation last night at the Te Puia geyser about Maori relationships with the Pakeha (non-Maori) culture and I wanted to get their reaction to what she said.

She mentioned the Treaty of Waitangi in 1840 between the Maori tribal chiefs and Queen Victoria’s government. The Maori were granted property rights and British citizenship; the British became the sovereign government of New Zealand. There were two versions, one in English and the other in Maori. They differed in both wording and interpretation by both sides. The definition of “ownership” is to this day disputed. Air New Zealand avoids flying over Lake Taupo, where we are this evening, because the Maori claim ownership and demand payment for use of its airspace. The British claimed absolute sovereignty; the Maori assumed they retained rights to manage their own affairs. Disputes have been constant to this day.

That, at least, was my understanding based on reading I did before arriving in New Zealand. I’m interested in finding out how Maori and Pakeha view things today.

The young woman who was our geyser guide (early 20s) is Maori and was educated in the local Maori school. I asked her how she viewed the Treaty. She, quite diplomatically, acknowledged that there have been differences in interpretation. She feels that the Queen Victoria’s government in England was sympathetic toward the Maori and wished to respect Maori rights. The queen’s Representatives in New Zealand weren’t sympathetic and in fact violated the spirit and letter of the treaty. But, she said, relationships between the two have improved greatly in the past 20 or 30 years. The Te Puia complex was built and funded by the New Zealand government and will revert to tribal ownership when it is complete. The Maori language and culture have been saved from extinction.

I mentioned this conversation to Mike and he said (paraphrasing), “Well, let me give you our (i.e. non-Maori) point of view. It’s the Maori who have forced interpretation of the Treaty in their favor. The government has leaned over backward to provide education, health care, employment and programs to further the Maori language and culture. Sure, the Maori are a great boost to tourism but the Maori are in it for the money and as soon as they see a chance to make money they claim tribal rights to a piece of the action.”

“Furthermore,” he went on to say, “Maori culture is quite different from Pakeha culture. Maoris live in a communal society in which all wealth is owned by all. If my TV breaks down and you have money, I can say to you, ‘I need a new TV. Buy it for me.’ The Maori live for today with little concern for the future.”

So, I would conclude, that while Maori/Pakeha relations have improved greatly, that the Maori language and culture are being saved from extinction and the situation in general is much better than in the U.S. and Canada there is still a cultural separation between the two.

I wouldn’t necessarily jump to the conclusion that there is racial/cultural prejudice at work in New Zealand, but the exchanges lead me to believe that points of friction do exist and the two cultures retain their distinctive characteristics.

OK, enough of the cultural stuff. What did we do today? We went on a road trip from Rotoura to Toupo. It’s a trip of maybe 70 km and takes about an hour. We went instead by way of Waitomo where we visited the Glow Worm and Ruakuri caves, driving almost five hours and visiting the caves for over three. And while the glow worms were interesting and the caves in which they live were beautiful the ride through North Island country side was the real highlight of the day. I’ll post pictures of each.

Glow worms are the larva stage of a bug that, when hatched from its pupa stage has no means of eating. It has a three-day life span during which it mates, lays eggs (if it’s a girl bug) and dies. But while it’s a larva it hangs from the ceiling of a cave (or even outside if the conditions are right), lets down a gossamer thread and lights up its body with a phosphorescent glow. The light attracts bugs that become ensnared by the thread. The larva pulls up the thread and its prey. The hungrier the bug, the brighter the light. Seeing them in the cave is like looking up at the Milky Way on a clear night. Beautiful. The caves themselves are very nice but even our guide admitted, in effect, that if you’ve seen one limestone cave with stalagtites and stalagmites, you’ve seen them all.

We continue to be impressed by the New Zealand landscape. almost constant rolling hills, some of them hundreds of feet in height, covered by grass and dotted by sheep, cattle and the occasional pig or goat. I’ve never seen so much grass in my life. We didn’t see any sign of a crop – corn, vegetables or whatever. I read somewhere that New Zealand’s main export product is grass. Sheep and cattle are merely delivery carriers for the grass. I believe it.

Tonight our hotel room is maybe 10 meters from the shore of Lake Taupo. The beach in front of our room is called a warm beach. We watched a couple go to the edge of the lake and scoop out a depression in the sand in which they sat. The sand gave off faint clouds of steam. We were warned not to dig too deep for fear of being scalded by the hot water.

In fact, the floor of our room is heated by hot water from thermal springs as is the soaking pool just outside our room. Speaking of which, it’s time to stop babbling and time to hit the pool to unwind after another great day.

Rotorua, New Zealand

Lat time I was on the dance floor was last spring in Cuba. Some of you may remember that our dancing on that trip involved rum shots, salsa dancing and some rather young and attractive young salsa instructors. Tonight was a little different. After admiring the All Black’s Haka war dance on the flight to Auckland, I found myself with a bunch of other old geezers from all over learning the basics of Haka. I can’t wait to get back to Florida this winter for some good old fashioned fox trotting.

The deal was an evening at Te Puia here in Rotorua for a comprehensive package of entertainment by the local Mauri Te Arawa tribe. They gave us the whole nine yards:

• Viewing of the Pohutu geyser, which went off within 15 minutes of our 4:30 PM arrival
• Viewing of the thermal mud pit
• Attempted viewing of a real live Kiwi bird that, unfortunately, was hiding in a corner of its habitat. Kiwis are nocturnal and the habitat is set up to be dark during tourist hours so she’s hard to see even when out in the open
• A gift shop opportunity
• A traditional Maori welcoming ceremony
• Performance of Maori song and dance. Some time back traditional Maori chants, which are a form of oral history. Some time back the chants were augmented with guitar, harmony and a modern sound. The quality of the singing and dancing was quite good. This is where the Haka dancing came into play.
• A pit-baked dinner, which for a tourist meal was actually not badYou’ve probably experienced something like this in a different part of the world. A western cowboy dinner production perhaps.The thing that made this one different was an observation made by our guide nicknamed Rob (his Maori name has more characters than I’d care to count say nothing of pronounce). Rob is a member of the Te Arawa tribe that owns the Te Pua complex. He told us that preservation of Maori culture highly depends on the degree to which a tribe is able to participate in the tourism industry. His tribe, and the other local tribe, own property and earn an income stream. The tribes plow the money back into the community in the form of educational scholarships and programs. In the case of the Te Araawa tribe they operate an arts and crafts educational program that teaches Maori wood carving and weaving skills in a formal classroom setting.Not too long ago Maori were punished in school for using the Maori language. That’s not true today. The government recognizes the value Maori culture and communities brings to New Zealand’s toourism industry. So one reason for the Maori’s acceptance in the broader New Zealand community is the economic advantage the Maoris bring.

  That was the evening. Let’s backtrack to the morning and afternoon program: a trip 30 Kms south of Rotorua to the Wai-O-Tapu “thermal wonderland.”

  New Zealand is at the southwest most extent of the famous Ring of Fire – an arc of tectonic plate collisions that encircles the Pacific Ocean, extending from Chile in South America, up the coast through California and Alaska and then looping southward to Japan and eventually New Zealand. I’ve swiped a picture from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ring_of_F ire#/media/File:Pacific_Ring_of_Fire.sv g to remind myself. Wikipedia says 90% of earthquakes occur along the Ring of Fire. New Zealand has its share of them. They say that Wai-O-Tapu is New Zealand’s most colourful and diverse volcanic area: a place where the Ring of Fire comes to the Earth’s surface for us to see.

  Wai-O-Tapu has two parts: a spew on demand geyser and a whole series of thermal pools with walkways leaing to the near each. The geyser normally goes off when ever it feels like it. But somehow local prisinors working in the area figured out that chemicals placed in the cone would break the surface tebsion and cause the geyser to errupt. Today the park rangers set it off at 10:30, about 20 minutes after we arrived.

  After we walked around three areas of thermal pools. The brochure said the walk should take 75 minutes. We took a bunch of pictures and needed 150 minutes. In fact, rather than blathering on any longer (it’s getting late) I’ll let you look at the pictures.

  Tomorrow we pull up stakes and head off for Tapau, which is only 100 Km or so south, but we’re taking a significantt swing out of our way to visity the glow worm caves at Waitomo.