Our general route through NZ

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Flashback to Rotorua - Maori Experience

We mentioned earlier that Rotorua has an incredible amount of geothermal activity and the year-round warmth attracted Maori tribes upon their discovery of New Zealand. There is still a strong Maori presence, which have encouraged numerous “Maori Experience” programs designed to help understand the culture, legends, and people. They also include a hangi – a traditional Maori meal, which is baked in an underground oven.

The Maori experience started in the evening and we both had the day off work, so we drove 2hrs north to the Bay of Plenty to the hot and sunny beaches of Tauranga and Mt. Maunganui (aka The Mount). Tauranga is on the verge of breaking into the top 4 or 5 cities for population, so while it only has about 115,000 people the traffic was chaotic and stressful compared to the leisurely pace in Taupo. I was pretty tense until we arrived at the beautiful beaches of Mt. Maunganui. Tauranga and The Mount are like a micro version of the DFW metroplex – they are about 4 miles apart and eventually merged into one metropolitan area.

The Mount gets its name from the extinct volcano, which abruptly shoots up from the beach and provides a wonderful vantage point for looking over the Bay and landscape beyond. Before hiking to the top, Rachel and I grabbed some lunch at a beachfront café. The sand was white and the break made for a perfect surfing day. (We hope to get a day of surfing in when traveling back to Auckland next February.)

After a 45 min hike to the top, we had some pretty outstanding views of the beaches below, islands in the bay, and the deep green forests inland.

After descending from the Mount, we hopped in the car and drove an hour south to Rotorua for our evening of fun and learning.
We were welcomed to the marae (a Maori tribe meeting ground) by the sound of distant beating drums hidden somewhere in the native bush. We walked into the main tent where our hosts seated us and we were told what to expect throughout the evening.

After introductions, they led us down to the stream where the iwi’s (tribe) warriors arrived in the ornately carved wooden canoe. Their faces were focused and brutal with their hard-earned and unique moko. (A moko is a facial tattoo which has several meaningful depictions overlaid and it shows your status within the tribe) Rachel and I have seen several people in public with moko; it is quite startling and it is no wonder the European settlers were afraid of the Maori men…and women. I’m not sure of the actual meaning, but the women’s moko resembles blood dripping from their mouth.

After the warriors landed their canoe and ran off, we headed to an outdoor theater, which was set up as a tiny marae with all the huts and buildings of a village. They showed us the traditional welcome, which was seen on the latest series of The Amazing Race when they visited NZ. The hongi, a touching of the noses creates a spiritual and physical bond.

The group performed several songs and traditional dances in between discussing the history of their people. They showed us arts and crafts and how the flax plant played an integral role in making things from ropes to clothing to fishing nets and hunting devices.

One of the most talked about and exciting parts of the night was the performance of the haka, or the Maori war dance. ('ha' means 'breath'; 'ka' means 'on fire') It is extremely passionate and therefore extremely frightening, especially if you were about to engage them in battle. The national rugby team, the All Blacks perform the haka before every competition as well, which undoubtedly leaves the opposing team more than a little unnerved. The most common haka translates to:

It is death! It is death!
It is life! It is life!
This is the hairy man who caused the sun to shine
Keep abreast!
The rank! Hold Fast!
Into the sun that shines!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3BoNmpvkavo

The All Blacks haka: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3o0pv6k37yE

The next part of the evening was the hangi. We walked by it earlier in the evening and caught the aroma of the chicken, pork, lamb, potatoes, and kumaras (NZ sweet potatoes) cooking in the natural underground oven. The meal included many more sides and treats, but the traditional hangi usually consists of the aforementioned items.

Once we’d finished eating, they took on a nighttime walk through the native bush. Our guide told more Maori legends and history from the area. One of the most fascinating parts of the walk was his lesson on NZ ferns. The national emblem for NZ is the silver fern, but there are over 150 different species of fern in NZ. He flashed his light up to the underside of the silver fern and it shone brightly back. He explained that his people actually used upside silver fern leaves to light their path on night excursion. (Rachel and I tried it a few weeks ago at night and were surprised at how well it works.)

Afterwards, we thanked our hosts and bid farewell to the sulphuric smells of Rotorua and headed home to Taupo.

Speight's Dog Derby

The Queenstown Winter Festival ends today and it has created a really fun and lively vibe around town. I’m sad that it’s over, but there are still tons of events on the calendar. I had a little more freedom than Rachel to volunteer at some of the events up on the mountain. My favorite activity of the festival was the Speight’s Dog Derby. Speight’s is a brand of beer made in the south of NZ and their ads are reminiscent of the old Marlboro cigarette ads. Southern NZ and its inhabitants have a reputation for being extremely hardy. Speight’s beer and the Dog Derby caters to these hardy southern farmers.
Over one hundred farmers and their hard-working dogs showed up to the base of the ski mountain in their torn and tattered work clothes, as if they cut their morning work short to make it up to the mountain in time for the event. I found out later that this event served as an annual reunion for all the southern farmers, and after the day’s event they’d spend the rest of the afternoon and evening catching up at the Speight’s Ale House.
While their owners registered for the Dog Derby, the hundred or so dogs ran around marking and re-marking everything in the area, including a box of contestant t-shirts, my backpack, and a couple human legs. Once all the dogs had their numbered vests on, the chaos was ready to begin.
The Dog Derby had all 100 contestants and their dogs ride the chairlift to the summit of the ski mountain. The race started with all 200 bodies running, sliding, flailing, rolling, and tumbling down the mountain at breakneck speeds (taking out several oblivious skiers). Upon reaching the base, the owner has to stay out and instruct his dog to run 50m up the hill to a checkpoint before turning around and running back to owner. I was a judge for the finish and was told it was going to be hard, but nothing could prepare me for it.
The first few dogs and owners absolutely flew down the mountain and it was easy to track the dogs’ progress as they started creeping up the hill. However, before the first dog made it to the top, all 100 dogs were zig zagging across the hill. Keep in mind that 95% of these dogs are all basically the same breed of sheep dog and it was impossible to tell if a dog made it to the top and was on its way back down, or if it was just wandering aimlessly confused by all the whistling, calling, and barking.)
The main judges hoped that we’d be able to get accurate results approximately 30 deep, but it was hopeless. After deliberation with the other four judges, we managed to pick just the three top finishers.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wR7RdJUD3vY

After the awards for the race down the mountain, they held the Dog Barking contest, which wasn’t nearly as exciting, but still worth mentioning. They had each dog get on a hay bale and try to bark the loudest or most unique. The funniest part was watching the normally large and proud sheep dogs nervously walk up to the bale and cower. The large audience laughing (and the sea of dogs barking their disapproval) didn’t help the stage fright. If the dog couldn’t bark under the pressure and eyes of its fellow colleagues, then the solemn farmer had to climb up on the bale and bark.

Anyway, it ended up being a really fun event and I’m glass I was thrown on that volunteer crew last minute. The festival concludes today with the annual rail jam and fireworks up on the mountain.

Hope everyone had a Happy 4th of July!

driving in NZ

Whakapapa Village, May 23

thanks to my mother, we now have the device to download videos to the computer. here is a quick video we took on may 23

Fun Facts about New Zealand

New Zealand is roughly two-thirds the size of California and they share a lot of similarities in terrain. However, the population of California is nearly 37 million and New Zealand has just over 4 million people (that’s about the population of Houston or Atlanta). New Zealand has about 7-8 locations that are large enough to call cities. The largest city by far is Auckland, which has approximately 1.3 million residents – that wouldn’t even rank among the top three cities in Texas. The next two biggest cities are the capital, Wellington, and Christchurch which both almost have about 400,000 folks.

So what do they do with all that extra land? There are plenty of National Parks, Forests, and other amazing scenery so tourism plays a large part of NZ’s economy, but agriculture is the largest contributor. As most of you know, NZ is quite famous for its sheep population, which outnumbers its human population by more than 10 to 1 (It used to be 20:1 in the early ‘80s). Throughout our travels, we’ve expected to see a few large fields crammed with thousands and thousands of sheep. However, there are mostly flocks of about 300 scattered all over the country. It’s hard not to see sheep roaming the surrounding hills while driving down the highways and back roads. They are literally everywhere.

Dairy, beef, and logging are other large industries in NZ. Someone told me that logging was very popular years ago and many farmers planted forests on their land. Lately, thanks to Fonterra (a dairy cooperative that controls about 30% of the world’s dairy exports) the dairy industry is highly profitable and many farmers are cutting down their forests to create more grazing land. Despite the recent economic struggles, Fonterra was able to distribute its biggest profit share to date.

Winter in New Zealand…

…is cold. Actually, the daytime temperatures hover around 25-35 degrees, which we see in the Southern US. However, those temperatures rarely stick around for more than 1-2 days before warming back up to the 50s. Rachel and I quickly learned how to layer much better than before. We’ve never needed heavy winter coats before, so we’ll usually put on 3-5 thin jackets to stay warm.

It’s funny when you realize how wonderful something is once you don’t have it. I’ve heard some public service announcements stating that over 60% of homes in New Zealand have substandard insulation and it likely plays a large part in children developing respiratory problems such as asthma. The government and banks have teamed up to help fix some of those 900,000 homes with poor insulation, as it helps keep people healthy and retain valuable heat throughout the winter.

A log fire is the most common way to heat a house in NZ. Jon and Amy were building up their fire wood reserves about the time we moved in. It was all very exciting because we both have fond memories from our childhood of sitting in front of a big fire on Christmas morning or after playing outside in one of the extremely rare snow storms. The fires were always for ambiance and never really played a role in heating the home – that was left for the central heating/air system.

Jon informed me that a typical winter’s supply of wood generally costs about $1000-1500. Jon is a builder, so he has an endless supply of kindling and he was lucky this year because a massive tree fell on a friend’s property so a large portion of the wood was free. Jon also installed a new fireplace while we were there. It was centrally located in the living room and the chimney was exposed, so it let off much more heat than a smokestack covered with stones or bricks. They also had a fan system which pulled air from the living room into the bed rooms at the back of the house.

Heat pumps (think a large wall-mounted space heater) are gaining popularity, but the up front investment is pretty sizable and the sharp increase in the electric bill doesn’t make it too tempting of an option either.

One of my favorite parts about all the log fires is the scents in the evenings. As you walk around town, you get all sorts of different smells coming from the various types of wood burning. Also, if you look out across town around dusk you can see a thin layer of smoke rising as everyone is starting to light their fires.

This is coming from someone who has never lived further north than Atlanta, so all of the previously mentioned things may be ordinary above the Mason-Dixon Line. Overall, we’ve had a couple of cold days and nights, but are managing much better than we thought.