Lazy Day and Vineyards

Yesterday, we had a very lazy day in Pahi, where Bob and Carlee's parents live. They have a beautiful home overlooking the sound. This is the spectacular view they see every day. 

Today we enjoyed an adults only day at two vineyards in the area. We had some wonderful tastings and enjoyed spending time together. 

Hobbits and Glow Worms

We started the day at the Lord of the Rings and the Hobbit movie sets. This was a fun little hobbit town set amid a sheep farm in the Northern part of the North Island. 

It was a spectacular little village set amid rolling sheep grazing hills and a beautiful pond. 

We had fun seeing the little hobbit holes and learning more about the movies.

We loved seeing Billbo Baggins's home.

We then drove to Ruakuri Cave to check out the stalagmites and stalactites. 

We then traveled to Waitomo Caves to ride on a boat through the caves to see the glow worms. We weren't allowed to take photos in the cave so I pinched  this off the Internet to give you an idea of what it was like inside.

Who Farted? (Sorry! I had to do it!)

After a day of traveling from Geraldine by camper van to Christchurch to fly to Auckland, we arrived in Rotarua with our friends the Kowalecs.

For those who have never heard of Rotarua, it is known for something very special...the fact that it smells of sulfur! Volcanic activity under the ground creates thermal pools and releases steam all over the city, sometimes without warning. As we pulled into our hotel, part of the driveway was being repaired because steam had broken through the road. Very strange/cool! Later that night, the Schmidt family (another teaching family who knows Bob and Carlee from Shanghai) joined the fun to bring our total number to 16.

We started the day in Rotarua at Rainbow Springs - a nature preserve, educational center, and Kiwi Bird hatchery. The boys loved starting the tour looking at the huge wild rainbow trout. 

We also got to see the native birds.

This one is called the Kereru. It is famous for eating berries that ferment in their stomach making them totally drunk. We haven't seen one fly but they are notorious for never hitting their mark. 

This is a small parrot. He likes cheese!

This one is a Kia, which is famous for its love of rubber and be often seen eating the rubber off tourists cars. This one really likes Cayden.

We then walked to the Kiwi hatchery. Ripley loved the large Kiwi in an All Blacks a Rugby uniform. We weren't allowed to take any photos inside but we saw three little kiwi birds that will eventually be released into the wild. Kiwi's are endangered and only about 5% of those born in the wild will live to adulthood.





Up next, of course, was the water coaster. We all rode once and then Michael took all six of the boys on the ride again. 

We then went into town to see the public hot springs. Most towns have a green in the center of town, but Rotarua has sulfur pools, bubbling hot springs, and boiling hot mud. 

 We got a chance to dunk our feet in the hot pools in town. 

For dinner, we went to a Maori Cultural Village to learn about the native culture. One of the members of our group, Eric, was chosen as our tribal leader and he had to greet the elders in the village on our behalf. 

He was presented with a fern as a greeting. 



I absolutely loved all of the different tribe members and their facial tattoos, which tell the story of their family and their accomplishments, kind of like s resume is how they described it to us. 

We then walked through the forest to the village. 

We were then greeted by the women of the village who taught us about games and exercises they do. 

The men of the tribe taught our men how to do the Haka, a war dance. Ripley loved it!

Kaia got to hold the tribal stick. 

The boys wanted to show us their war faces!

We then got a little show and ate a delicious dinner!

One the way home, I saw a very cool Maori fence and I took a few photos. 

More to come from us tomorrow when we go to Middle Earth!