Before I continue on this journal of our time in New Zealand, I want to express how well cared for we were by Helen and Debbie.

 

Helen spent long months deciding where we should go and what we should see during our available 12 days in New Zealand. Plus, for weeks before our arrival, she shopped for extra groceries to make and freeze meals in advance so food prep time could be kept to a bare minimum while we were there. The meals were absolutely delicious, and each was followed by a delicious dessert of some kind (something Lisa and I are not accustomed to). The meals were specialties of hers. Each was a real treat.

 

Mark would come home from work to the scintillating scents of magnificent meals cooking or cooling, thinking he was going to get her special delicacies for dinner. But each time, she said, “No, these are for Kris and Lisa and us when they get here.”   Poor guy!  I can just imagine the agony that must have produced!

 

I don’t remember what time we left Howick/Auckland for Roturua, the Maori cultural center of New Zealand, but it was pretty early, probably no later than eight o’clock.

 

Our driver, again, was Deborah.  An exceptionally safe driver, she is also a wealth of information about all things Maori and historical (again, she portrayed Maggie, an Irish immigrant, for years at Howick Historical Village, so she’s well versed in the European arrival eras, too).

 

It was during this three and a half hour trip that we noticed and mentioned how friendly and courteous even the road signs are in New Zealand.  I wish I could remember some of the phrasing, but we flew by them so fast that we didn’t catch any of them as images.

 

On the way to Rotorua we had two scheduled stops, the first at Waitomo for the OTOROHANGA KIWI HOUSE AND NATIVE BIRD PARK, the second at the GLOWWORM AND CAVE TOUR.

 

At the Kiwi House and Native Bird Park, we were enthusiastically greeted by staff when Helen presented the front office greeter with our collection of plastic bottle tops to feed their endangered giant wetas (wetapunga). The weta keeper was summoned from her duties and came out to greet and thank us again, all smiles. Helen had told the greeter that half of the bottletops had been collected in and brought from the US, so she assured us that this fact would make it into her next newsletter. (And  it did! A couple days later Helen read it to us from her laptop.)

 

Here, we saw lighted displays of kiwis and their eggs and nests, and then we entered a dark room (kiwis are nocturnal birds) to observe a living kiwi enjoying a meal in the dim light.

 

Outside the kiwi house on the foot path, Helen spotted a cicada and a tree weta (a wee relative of the giant weta), both of which we photographed.

 

tree weta

cicada

Then I took a folded piece of paper and scooted the tree weta onto it so I could move it off the path and out of harm’s way. Lisa got a short video on it on the paper. (The cicada moved itself.)

 

Here we also saw two tuataras, among the oldest reptile species in existence.

 

 

 

 

Photo courtesy of Lisa Twining

 

We spotted one that was pointed out to us, and then we were told there were sixteen more  in an enormous outdoor area and we were challenged to spot as many of them as we could. Lisa finally spotted one and pointed it out to us and took  a picture of it so the curator could tell us which one it was. (They all have names and are differentiated by a series of colored beads on their “manes”).  (LISA please provide CU IMAGE)

 

After the tour, we got a few more stuffed animals for my critter corral and Deborah bought us ice cream bars to tide us over the lunch time.

 

After we left there, we headed for Waitomo proper and the Glowworm Cave Tour.

 

 

On the way there, Lisa spotted a large produce/ice cream place called BIG AZZ Ice Cream and said she wanted to get a picture of the sign, so Debbie swung around for the photo and we had a second helping of ice cream — this time, waffle cones filled with real fruit yogurt!  YUMMY!

 

The glowworm and cave tour was just fabulous. It involved a walk through the caves and then a boat ride underneath the glowworms,which made the cave ceiling look like a galaxy of stars.

 

Then Debbie drove us to Roturua where we unloaded the vehicle and carried our luggage into Unit 19 of the Ripple Hotel — a true find in Roturua!  If you ever go there, ask for this room!

 

The small hotel was fabulous, with a swimming pool and a private spa, both of which we availed ourselves of while we were there. But the piece de resistance was the walkway that lay just a few steps away from the unit’s back door. It opened into a wonderland of natural surroundings, including a crystal clear, bubbling stream. It could not have been a better choice. Helen hit this one out of the ballpark, too!

 

View just outside our window…

A few images taken from the pathway beyond the back door of Unit 19