Round the World part 4 - New Zealand

New Zealand is actually pretty far from Australia. 3 time zones! Deanna and I were thrilled to arrive in Middle Earth! The Auckland Airport has lots of Lord of the Rings decorations, as well as Chinese New Years.

The bus tour was surprising. Everyone was going all different ways. Our first bus stopped at Waitomo Glowworm Caves. The larvae put out sticky threads and then glow. Insects come to the light, get stuck to the threads, and... dinner!

We posed in front of a green screen, and they added the backgrounds.

We arrived at Rotorua, the night's stop, to find something happening at the park!

We took a Duck Tour, on a WWII amphibious vehicle. We quacked a lot!

The NZ symbol is the silver fern. It has a silver underside. It is on the sports teams' uniforms. It is on some versions of the flag. It has a history of being used to lead Maoris through the dark night.

The Maoris are the indigenous people of New Zealand. They were smarter than the aborigines in Australia. They banded together and made a treaty with the white men. Of course, they are still arguing about the meaning of it, but it's way better than the aborigines rights. They could still be shot for walking on a white person's land as late as the 70's. That's the 1970's! Our evening event was a Maori Hangi and show. Hangi means lifting the food out of the ground where it is cooked.

Before the feast, we toured the site and learned about Maori culture. Check out our intro to the women's game, Poi. Link to Dee's YouTube video. Being such shrinking violets, Deanna and I were bouncing up and down, saying "Pick me! Pick me!" when it came time to learn some games. Here's a video of Deanna with the Poi game. Deanna videoed me trying to not miss the balancing walking stick as we moved left and right around the circle. Hey, I wasn't the first one to drop it! During the feast, everyone sat at long tables. Across from Deanna and me was a family that seemed to be Maori, celebrating Nana's birthday. The little boy ate practically nothing but bread. :) The evening ended with a singing session, where we sang Happy Birthday, and they sang old rock songs. We loved the whole night!

Rotorua is on thin crust, so there are geysers and hot springs. As Deanna and I left our room for breakfast, we saw white clouds billowing up. We wondered if it was a fire. But it was the geysers being active! We had a geyser tour first thing in the morning - great timing - so we got up close and personal with them. The morning sun was shining through the steam.

My video.

Here's the name of the geyser park- whoa! The language reminded me of Hawaiian. Except longer! 

New Zealand is famous for its sheep. We checked them out at the Agrodome. Farm fun! It is a fun show, no sarcasm, really. We bought sock yarn made with merino, angora, and possum wool.

Very relaxed sheep getting shorn.

Next tour, Rainbow Springs. That's where we got to see kiwis. But not touch them.

Do kiwis play Rugby? You betcha!